Farmworkers Declare, We Put the Food on Your Table - Isn t It Time We Got to Share in the Bounty? featuring . Pablo Cruz and Heriberto Gonzalez NYS farm workers . Rev. Richard Witt, Executive Director Rural & Migrant Ministry . State Senator Adriano Espaillat . NYS Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan . Cardinal Timothy Dolan . Kerry Kennedy, Pres., Robert Kennedy Center for Human Rights . Jose Calderon, President, Hispanic Federation
Hey, what about the fact that those who grow the food that feeds us, farmworkers don t get even one day a week off to rest after from their toil? And, they don t have the right to organize and bargain collectively; nor are there basic standards under the Sanitary Code for farmworkers living quarters; nor do farmworkers get unemployment pay when they re laid off or terminated; and they re not entitled to workers compensation if they re injured on the job; nor can they receive disability benefits when they are unable to work due to illness or injury. And, they sure do not receive overtime pay when they are forced to work more than an eight hour day. Why is this? Well, in the 1930s, farmworkers and domestic workers were left out of the New Deal due to pressure from the descendants of slaveholders. Eighty years later, farmworkers remain excluded from fundamental labor protections and benefits in New York and now they re marching throughout NYS with the Rural and Migrant Ministry to end this injustice and demand that the state senate and Gov. Cuomo bring the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act to the floor for a vote to be included in basic labor rights afforded other workers.
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
please notify us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org