The almost 80,000 agricultural workers in New York State are not protected under the same labor laws, despite being the heart of a $5 billion a year industry. 

"Can someone explain to me why agricultural workers, who pick the food that we all eat, cannot have the same rights?" asked Michelle Phillips yesterday.  Phillips is an Episcopal reverend who participated in the protest that asked state senators to vote for and pass the Farmers Fair Labor Practices Act. The law would give workers in that sector the right to be compensated for overtime hours, a day off every week, disability insurance, and the right to unionize. It would also abolish the $3.20 minimum wage for minors under 17. 

"These rights are protected for everyone except the workers who pick onions, apples, celery, etc.," said Richard Witt, executive director of Rural and Migrant Ministry, which heads the justice campaign for agricultural workers that gathered activists yesterday in Union Square.    

New York is one of the five states with the most agricultural production in the country, earning more than $5 billion a year. But since 1930, when the federal labor laws were established, agricultural workers were excluded; only in 1999 was a minimum wage established for these workers. Now, a decade later, it is hoped that the NY State Senate passes the Farmers Fair Labor Practices Act, approved on Monday by the State Assembly. The law is supported by 28 Republican and Democratic state senators, and both Senator Hiram Monserrate and the new President of the Senate, Pedro Espada, support the legislation; however, the opposition is powerful: the New York Farm Bureau. 

"If this legislation passes, farmers will go broke because we will not be able to pay them overtime," said Peter Gregg, spokesman for the organization.  He added that if the workers are granted the right to unionize and strike, harvests would be wasted and everyone will end up losing their jobs.