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‘Grant Domestic and Farm Workers Same Rights as Other Workers’
Hundreds of workers, faith and union leaders, community activists and elected officials rallied yesterday in Albany, N.Y., to demand respect and workplace justice for domestic and farm workers in the state.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, himself the son of a domestic worker, told the crowd:
Then as now, domestic workers were mostly women, isolated in the homes where they worked, not covered by most major worker protections, vulnerable to minimum wage and overtime violations. Then as now, domestic workers were legally excluded from the right to collectively bargain. Then as now, domestic work was at best a form of genteel slavery, in many cases not so genteel at all.
It is time we reversed the shameful legacy of exclusion and neglect and instead grant domestic and farm workers the same rights and protections as all other workers.
The workers are supporting two bills in the state legislature—the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and the Farm Workers Fair Labor Practices Act (FLPA). The first bill calls for establishment of basic labor rights and protections for more than 200,000 domestic workers—nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for the elderly—in the New York City metropolitan area.
The FLPA would give farm workers the same rights as other New York workers. Under current law, farm workers are denied overtime pay and a day of rest per week, among other important protections.
The State Assembly passed the FLPA, but the bill was never brought to the State Senate floor for a vote, despite its bipartisan majority support. Salvador Solis, a farm worker, says lack of action by the Senate sends the message that farm workers deserve less than other New Yorkers.
We are made of flesh and blood, just like everyone else. We work hard. We have families. We have dreams of a better future. We deserve to have a day of rest, to be paid overtime and to join a union if we choose just like everyone else.
New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes says:
(We) will not rest until farm workers in this state receive the respect and dignity they so justly deserve.
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1 Comment
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This is synonomous with an effort by fruit and vegetable growers association in California to import LEGAL immigrants under a contract with the United Farm Workers of America to work crops on southern California. It’s an idea whose time has come.