There’s a bill up for discussion in Albany that
would bring dramatic changes to New York agriculture. S2837/A2750 is a
multi-faceted proposal that would change how farm labor is managed, from
allowing collective bargaining to mandating a day of rest.
The most troubling aspect of the bill is the
introduction of overtime pay to the state’s ag economy.
When the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act was
passed in 1938 it mandated overtime for work over 40 hours. Farm workers were
excluded from this benefit because lawmakers wanted to ensure higher labor
costs did not drive up the cost of produce, meats, and dairy so consumers could
afford those life-sustaining necessities.
No states have made exceptions to that rule except
for California where Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill in 2016 that entitles
farm workers to the same overtime standards afforded other workers. The impact
of that legislation has not yet been felt as it is being phased-in over a
4-year period beginning this year. It will be in full effect for the majority
of California farms by 2022, and 2025 for enterprises with 25 or fewer
employees.
If New York State were to join California as the
only states to set such rules it would be a long time before they would be
joined by others, if ever: Other agriculturally-focused states aren’t
entertaining the idea at all. The only thing that could bring about wholesale
change would be an amendment to the aforementioned FLSA in the federal
government and that’s not happening anytime soon.
So, until something does change the realm in which
those increased labor costs exist – costs mandated by the state and not market
factors – New York farms will be at a disadvantage against farms from other
states and other countries with lower input costs. That imbalance would
especially manifest itself in labor-intensive goods that can’t be prepared and harvested
by a machine such as apples, peaches, cherries, and milk.
In order to properly compete across state borders
New York farms would find it difficult if not impossible to pass the newfound
costs onto food processors and consumers. New York growers and ranchers would
have to eat those costs.
In consort with New York’s dramatically-rising
minimum wage rates – which, as a domino effect, still impact farmers even
though they pay well above the minimum – the loss of profits will have a
detrimental effect on their bottom line. Estimates revealed by Farm Credit East
and the New York Farm Bureau show that in frightening ways: Looking at a
five-year average of financial results it has been determined that the bill
would increase ag labor costs across the state by $300 million, a 17 percent
leap.
What does that mean to individual farming sectors,
specifically those mentioned earlier? Greenhouse and nursery operations will
see their profits drop by 58 percent. Fruit growers will see theirs decline by
74 percent. Dairy farms will see all of their profits wiped out.
This could not come at a worse time. This columnist
has written before of the dire straits faced by New York dairy farmers as a
result of changing global demands and evolving import/export laws – over the
past 5 years the Empire State has lost a fifth of its dairy farms and
debt-buried farm owners have been taking their lives, or have contemplated
doing so, at a rate that’s achieved crisis level. And, then, there are the
vegetable and grain growers who have taken an absolute beating and are worried
about the future due to international trade impasses created by the Trump
Administration.
As a non-farmer you’ll feel the pain, too.
For the most part, the upstate agriculture economy
doesn’t exist in a bubble as farmers are competing with others from around the
world but smaller bubbles do exist at the local level where you, as the
consumer, are into buying local from markets, co-ops, community supported
agriculture (CSAs), and roadside stands. There, unlike with interstate and
international trade, the costs have to get passed on to you. Will you enjoy shelling
out a half to two-thirds more for the summer and autumnal bounties you so much enjoy?
And what of your neighbors? We often hear that the
poor and those on fixed incomes cannot afford farm fresh foods -- this will
only serve to drive them further from the marketplace.
Of course, this is a bill introduced by legislators
from metropolitan New York City (Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Catherine
Nolan) who are totally disconnected from where their food comes from and how it
is grown and raised. If they chose to actually understand and experience the
farm economy they would know farm workers get paid a decent dollar, are granted
extra cash for the quantity picked, and are provided housing and
transportation. Those are great, and costly, investments in the workforce –
let’s not drive them up higher.
This bill will be disastrous if it passes. It will
only make worse an already-ravaged upstate economy by harming farmers, your
community, and your pocketbook.
From the 11
March 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News
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