Power in a union

That a dozen field hands working at a vineyard out on Long Island’s North Fork won formal recognition of their union shouldn’t really be any big deal. Since 1938, the New York Constitution has said: “Employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.”

But it took 83 years for that high-minded promise to be made real for farm workers, who until now have been barred by law from exercising that fundamental right. So the Sept. 27 certification by the state Public Employment Relations Board that the Pindar Vineyards workers have chosen as their negotiating representative Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/United Food & Commercial Workers is historic. Bravo to RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum and Local 338 President John Durso.

Regular readers know well of our decades of advocacy for farm workers. Back in the last century, Denis Hughes, then president of the state AFLCIO, made it his mission. It became ours as well, as we joined the efforts of advocates like Richard Witt and lawmakers like Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan.

Over the years, we were glad to have pushed labor to fully get involved and to have inspired the New York Civil Liberties Union to challenge the law. Human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, following the path of her father Bobby Kennedy’s alliance with Cesar Chavez, jumped in fully. But like the seasons of the harvest, every year there was disappointment, as the powerful Farm Bureau growers’ lobby blocked any reform.

Upstate dairy worker Crispin Hernandez tried to speak up and was fired on Aug. 31, 2015. His case, brought by the NYCLU, found the exclusion unconstitutional on May 23, 2019. The next month, the Legislature, led by Nolan and Sen. Jessica Ramos, passed the reform bill. And Andrew Cuomo signed it in our newsroom four weeks later.

We raise our glass to all, and hope every farm worker who wishes to organize collectively to advocate for better wages, benefits and working conditions can do so, unimpeded.