The rally was the culmination of a four-day march that began April 30 at the office of the Independent Farm Worker’s Center (CITA) in Albion, New York. CITA sponsored the march and rally.

The Fair Labor Practices Act would include farm workers in labor legislation that provides for the right to a day of rest each week, overtime pay, disability insurance, collective bargaining protections, and unemployment insurance.

“I need to have a day per week for rest,” Fernándo Santiago, a farm worker from Mexico, told the Militant. Santiago has worked five years in the United States picking apples, peaches, and other crops.

“I am here to support farm workers and protest the exclusion of our rights,” said Librada Paz, a farm worker for 15 years who now lives in Brockport, New York. “I know how hot it gets in the summer. It’s hard work and you need good physical hand skills to make a living wage.” Laws requiring drinking water and toilets in the fields have been passed by the New York State Legislature in recent years, although there must be a least 11 workers at a worksite for the water requirement and five for the toilets. The New York state minimum wage of $6 per hour now applies to farm workers.

The first day of the march, workers walked from Albion to Brockport; the second day from Brockport to Rochester; and the third day from Rochester to Sodus, Newark, and Geneva. All these cities are in western New York. At the end of the brief rally, Rosa Rivera, director of CITA, led a small delegation to meet with State Senator John Flanagan to thank him for introducing the bill. After they returned, all the demonstrators went into the legislative building to the office of Senate majority Leader Joseph Bruno to demand he release the bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

It is estimated that there are more than 3 million migrant and seasonal farm workers in the United States.  
 
 
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