New York farmworkers have the right to unionize, appeals court rules

ALBANY – Labor advocates were handed a victory this week when a New York appeals court ruled farmworkers in the state have the right to collectively bargain. 

The ruling from the state Appellate Division, Third Department, comes as state lawmakers are set to begin deliberations on a bill that would bolster the rights of farmworkers — including the right to unionize and overtime pay.

But farmers, who have long fought the bill, claim the court's decision will only exacerbate the decline of the state's agriculture industry under a "mountain of mandates," said David Fisher, president of the state's Farm Bureau.

The case dates back to 2016, when a farmworker, Crispin Hernandez, alongside the Workers’ Center of Central New York and the Worker Justice Center of New York, challenged a provision in the state's constitution that excluded farm laborers from the collective bargaining process.

Hernandez was fired from his job as a dairy farmer in 2015 after he met with labor groups seeking better working conditions, said the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Hernandez and the other plaintiffs in the case. 

Arguments in the case centered around the state's constitution, which gives employees "the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing."

But a provision in the state's Employment Relations Act passed in the 1930's barred farm laborers from participating in the collective bargaining process.

The exclusion, NYCLU argued, was unconstitutional, violating the constitution's equal protection clause.

The court agreed, saying in a 4-to-1 decision that the "exclusion of 'individuals employed as farm laborers' is unconstitutional as a matter of law." 

“The court’s ruling today was unequivocal that denying farmworkers basic labor rights is flat-out unconstitutional, and farmworkers, like other workers, have the right to organize,” Donna Liberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said in a statement. 

But the state's Farm Bureau — which fought to preserve the provision after the state refused to do so — said the ruling ignores decades of precedent and could have farreaching effects. The organization plans to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals, the state's top court. 

"The majority of the court decided to make a far-reaching determination by declaring the right to collectively bargain as a 'fundamental right,' on par with the freedoms of speech and religion," Fisher said.

A closer look 

Workers in the state were granted the right to collective bargaining during the Constitutional Convention of 1938.

But farmworkers were excluded from the process under the state's Employment Relations Act — a piece of legislation drafted during the Jim Crow era that the NYCLU said was designed to exclude black farmers from seeking better labor conditions. 

The case was originally dismissed by the state's Supreme Court in 2018, but was appealed to the Appellate Division earlier this year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a proponent of the labor movement, alongside the state Attorney General's Office, declined to defend the case in court in 2016.

"From the beginning, we chose not to defend against this lawsuit because farmworkers never should have been denied the same basic rights as other workers and we believed this to not only be morally wrong, but also unconstitutional,” Cuomo said in a statement following the court's decision.

The Farm Bureau defended the law in the state's place, arguing collective bargaining was not a fundamental right under the law.

The organization has long resisted efforts by advocacy groups and lawmakers to unionize the industry, arguing the move would negatively impact farms throughout the state, which have long been struggling. 

"Speaking more broadly, if the legislature, and now the courts do not recognize the value of preserving a viable and economically sustainable food production system in the state, New York agriculture will continue to shrink under a mountain of mandates," Fisher said.

New York has one of the largest agricultural sectors in the country. The state is the third-largest producer of milk, and leads the way in production of yogurt, cottage cheese and sour cream. 

But declining prices, a labor shortage and recent trade disputes have brought uncertainty to the industry in recent years.

And the number of farms throughout the state has been shrinking since the 1980s, according to the Farm Bureau.

But labor advocates say the industry still brings in billions of dollars and workers should have the right to demand better working conditions.

“For many decades, each time farmworkers and their allies have advocated for much-needed changes to laws governing their labor rights, the Farm Bureau has used its power and influence to lobby New York lawmakers to preserve the status quo and leave farmworkers in a position of vulnerability," Andrea Callan, managing director of the Worker Justice Center of New York, said in a statement.  

Other concerns

This week's ruling comes as lawmakers get set to begin deliberations on a bill that would bolster the rights of farmworkers throughout the state. 

The bill — known as the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act — would grant farmworkers the right to unionize and establish a 40-hour work week and guarantee overtime pay for exceeded hours.

Workers would also be granted 24 consecutive hours of rest and be given access to unemployment benefits.  

The bill, which is being pushed by a group of New York City Democrats, has been around for years, but has failed to grain traction in the Republican-controlled Senate.

But Democrats now control both houses of the state Legislature, making the bill's passage far more likely than in years past.  

"Legislators from New York City want affordable milk, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products for their constituents, yet they don’t understand the crippling cost burdens they’re continuing to force on farm families," Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, Steuben County, said in a statement.  

The Farm Bureau has taken a similar stance in its opposition, arguing the bill would negatively impact the state's farm industry. 

“New Yorkers will find it harder to access New York-grown food, instead relying on food brought in from out of state, or worse yet, out of the country to feed their families,” Fisher said.

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