When we think of migrant workers in the United States, most of us think of California — but actually there are more than 47,000 migrant workers in New York state. The well-publicized problems of California farm workers — poor housing, low wages and health concerns — are also true here in New York.

Seventy percent of agriculture workers in New York come from Mexico, the rest from Jamaica (as is the work crew at Indian Ladder Farms), Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. They pick apples, grapes and other fruit in western New York and vegetables in central New York, tend vineyards in the Finger Lakes region, and plant, grow and harvest apples, onions and corn here in the Hudson Valley.

Farm workers put in 12-to-16-hour days, often seven days a week. Their average salary is $7,500, and the conditions and poverty they live in result in an average lifespan of 47 years. Workers are exposed to many poisonous pesticides in the fields. Most workers do not even know what they are being exposed too, much less how to prevent exposure.

Many are excluded from labor law protections by a state constitutional clause stating that those who do "service on a farm" are not employees. They are not covered by Worker’s Compensation; and, as agriculture is the third most hazardous vocation in thecountry, many suffer monetary loss when sick or injured. There is no unemployment pay, so migrant farm workers’ families must move south when New York’s harvest season ends.

Farm workers’ poverty often makes it imperative that all family members work. In 1988, a six-state study of migrant parents found that about one-third of their children worked alongside them in the fields. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the age limit for children working in agriculture at 12 years; but many operations using the "sharecropper" payment system or the "piece system" are not subject to minimum wage or child labor laws. There are children as young as age 10 doing jobs like picking cucumbers for our pickles.

Young people suffer many more on-the-job injuries then adults. A study done in 1990 in western New York found that one-third of the children were injured at work that year. Moving from harvest to harvest interrupts the education of migrant farm worker children. Those that move are often are "2½ times more likely to need to repeat a grade," and are "more likely to drop out of school if they move four or more times" (Catholic Migrant Farm Worker Network).

For decades many farm workers remained silent about abuses for fear of deportation. Now, many activists and students are empowering a movement to ensure that those people who provide us with our most important commodity — healthy food — are able to live a good life. This October, about 900 immigrant workers participated in an 18-bus "Freedom Ride" caravan across America. More than 75,000 immigrant workers and activists joined them at a rally in New York City at the end of their trip. They are lobbying for the passage, in full, of the "Fair Labor Practices Act" (sponsored by Senator Olga Mendez–R), which would provide migrant farm workers in New York with:

New York state does fund a health care program for migrant farm workers. And, there are programs that help migrant children, such as the Migrant Head Start Program. New York also has summer school sessions for children in agricultural districts. Migrant farm workers’ children now have an approximate 55% high school graduation rate, up 10% from several years ago. Yet there is much room for improvement: 7th grade is the average level of a migrant farm worker’s education.

AmeriCorps’ Project SAFE (Serving Farmworkers Everywhere) trains farm workers about pesticide safety. SAFE is looking for bilingual (Spanish/English speaking) people to join as trainers. They offer a stipend and up to $4,725 toward college tuition. For more information, visit www.AmeriCorps.com.

Pineros y Compesinos Unidos del Noreste is an advocacy group trying to obtain wage benefits for workers subject to sharecropper and "piece work" payment schedules. Along with the American Friends Service Committee and the AFL-CIO, they are calling on consumers to boycott North Carolina’s Mt. Olive Pickles in solidarity to raise workers’ pay scales. The company has embarked on an aggressive Northeast marketing campaign that included coupons in last month’s local papers. Alternate, unionized pickle choices include Vlasic, Mr. Pickle, Paradise, and Van Holten brands.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO has introduced legislation, known as the Freedom Act, which supports proposals for immigration reform. You can read about this bill at FLOC’s website (www.floc.com). And if you support the legislation, you can download a petition and letters to send to your legislators.