Maine Senate Considering Compromise Amendment on Farmworker Rights

The Maine AFL-CIO and a coalition of immigrant, farming and faith groups applauds the passage through the Maine House of a measure to improve wages and working conditions for thousands of farmworkers in Maine. LD 398, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, will ensure that workers in the agricultural industry are finally eligible for the state minimum wage and will be finally considered employees under the law. The bill will have an initial vote in the Senate in the coming days.

A separate bill, LD 525, would grant farmworkers collective bargaining rights, but was carried over until next session.

“Farmworkers are some of the most essential workers in our society and perform back-breaking labor to put food on our tables. Yet for far too long, they have struggled with low wages and lack of rights and protections that other workers enjoy. As a result, agricultural workers are some of the lowest paid workers in Maine and are more vulnerable to wage theft, sexual abuse, substandard housing and other abuses,” said Cynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO. “We still strongly believe that farmworkers, like all workers, deserve the right to collectively bargain and the removal of this right from the bill will continue the tradition of marginalizing the workers who labor on Maine’s farms (over 15,000 of them according to census data). Nevertheless, the provisions that remain in LD 398 are a step in the right direction and will improve the lives of these hardworking people and their families in Maine.”

Farmworkers in Maine are not currently eligible for overtime or the state minimum wage because they are not considered employees under state law. Farmworkers in Maine also don’t have the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining under state and federal law.

The amended version of LD 398 is a compromise that will officially — and finally — make farmworkers employeesunder Maine labor law. It will make them eligible for the state minimum wage and other modest basic protections that employees get under the law.

“The passage of this bill to support farmworkers represents a step in the right direction to recognize farm workers' humanity and dignity," said Juana Rodriguez, Executive Director of Mano en Mano. "This is a small step towards justice, towards redistributing power and resources that have been denied to farmworkers, and towards making Maine a healthier place.”