President Phinney, APRI Maine Members Blast Governor’s "Embarrassing & Shameful" Veto of Farmworker Rights

On Wednesday, Governor Janet Mills vetoed a measure that would have provided farmworkers with some of the rights other workers have had for over eighty years. LD 398, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, would simply have extended minimum wage protections to farmworkers; require a limit of 80 hours of forced overtime in a two-week period; and give them the right to a 30-minute unpaid rest break after six hours. The Legislature will vote on whether to override the veto next week, but the original vote was on party lines so it's unlike they will garner the votes needed to do so.

“The Governor’s veto sends a clear message to farmworkers that they are second class citizens, not worthy of the same rights and protections other workers enjoy,” saidCynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO. “This veto carries on the historical stain and stench of exploitation and racial exclusion. It’s embarrassing and shameful. Farmworkers are some of the hardest working people in our nation and they deserve fair and equal treatment.”

Farmworkers were intentionally exempted from wage and overtime protections in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. They are not eligible for the state minimum wage of $13.80 and are not entitled to overtime when working over 40 hours a week. Workers in agriculture were also intentionally excluded from benefits and protections in the National Labor Relations Act, which protects the rights of workers to unionize and collectively bargain.  At the time, Southern Democrats in Congress used racist language to oppose the inclusion of farmworkers and domestic workers from these critical labor protections because the vast majority of those laborers in the South were African Americans.

Members of A. Philip Randolph Maine Chapter, an AFL-CIO constituency group for workers of color, lambasted the Governor for rejecting modest reforms to these discriminatory policies rooted in racism.

“It’s shameful that the governor has vetoed this bill,” said APRI-Maine President Garrett Stewart. "She has no idea what it’s like to be a minority. She should be embarrassed. I’ve done farm work. It’s hard work.”

APRI member Kevin Russell added, “The governor doesn’t understand the significance these workers have in the economy of Maine. These people are not only there for us, they are there for their families. I speak to my fellow Jamaicans who are picking apples here in Maine and not only do they support their families but they go to the stores and support the communities where they live. I don’t think the governor understands how important this is.”

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross introducedLD 398 andLD 525 to fix these historic inequities and grant farmworkers the right to unionize and be overtime eligible. A stakeholder group met repeatedly on these bills and the final bill that reached the governor’s desk was watered down considerably from the sponsors’ and supporters' original version.