Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (at podium) announced the Assembly's intention to pass the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act at a news conference with Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, Labor Committee Chair Carl Heastie and farmworker advocates from across the state. Silver said the Assembly bill would close the inexcusable gap in our state labor law and ensure that New York State will always have a strong agricultural workforce.

To mark the occasion and to demonstrate our continuing and firm commitment to this "equal rights" issue, the Assembly Majority intends to pass, as soon as possible, the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, Assembly Bill 1792-A.

I should point out that we have been passing versions of this bill for roughly a decade.

What the farmworkers, their advocates, and we in the Assembly Majority are asking is for the State of New York - we who pride ourselves on standing up for worker rights - to grant the hardest working men, women and young people in our workforce the right to collectively bargain;

The right to one day of rest each week;

The right to be paid time-and-a-half for work performed beyond the traditional eight-hour day;

The right to unemployment, workers' compensation and disability insurance;

Rights that most of us take for granted.

In addition, we are recommending that the state's sanitary code be expanded to cover all farms and food processing labor camps where migrant farmworkers are housed;

That young farmworkers no longer be excluded from the Minimum Wage Act;

That forepersons who receive notice that workers have been injured in the performance of their duties, take the simple step of reporting these injuries to their employers;

And that it be made unlawful to fire a farmworker because he or she requests a claim form for injuries incurred in the course of employment.

It is outrageous and utterly disgraceful that farmworkers must still fight this fight in the year 2013.

To think that it took legislative action to ensure that farmworkers have clean drinking water and access to sanitation facilities while laboring in the fields makes this situation all the more shocking.

Everyone here understands how important farming is to our state economy and we are delighted that New York is now the "yogurt capital of the nation."

We also appreciate that jobs are scarce in many upstate communities, but farmworkers are not farm animals.

Their physically taxing, sometimes dangerous work, fuels our agricultural sector and puts food on our tables. Their health, their safety, their ability to provide for their families, their rights … MATTER!

No teacher, no law enforcement officer, no nurse, no construction worker, no reporter would put up with this kind of treatment. When it comes to work, there must be no second-class citizens in the State of New York.

The Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act will close the inexcusable gap in our state labor law and ensure that New York State will always have a strong agricultural workforce.

Here to express their support are a number of our Assembly colleagues, all of whom are co-sponsors of this legislation.

In a few moments, we will hear from Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the prime sponsor of our bill, who has been a longtime champion of farmworker fair labor practices.

We are honored to also have the strong support of our distinguished guests, champions of farmworker justice in their own right. We will be hearing from:

• Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights;


• Mario Cilento, President of the New York State AFL-CIO;


• Jack Banning, the proprietor of the Black Sheep Hill Farm, a farmer who supports our legislation;


• Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America;


• And Librada Paz, a former farmworker who followed seasonal work between Florida and New York.

Together, we urge the Governor and our colleagues in the Senate to pass this legislation and put an end to farmworker injustice once and for all.