Around 80 acres of potato fields were underwater in Hatfield on Wednesday. (Courtesy Lindsay Sabadosa, distributed by State House News Service)
For Immediate Release
August 2, 2023
Contact:
Claudia Quintero (413) 686-9054
Maya McCann (413) 686-9025
Agricultural workers in Massachusetts face dire economic consequences
The Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition stands in solidarity with Massachusetts farmers who have faced devastating losses from the recent historic floods, which have destroyed more than 2,000 acres of crops worth at least $15 million. Many farms have lost their entire season’s harvest.
Those same floods have displaced seasonal farmworkers who have planted and planned to harvest the crops on those now-flooded fields. In Hampshire and Franklin counties, more than 2,500 farmworkers now have little if any employment; many of them are seasonal workers and rely on the summer season for the bulk of their yearly wages and employment. “[translated]: Farmworkers have been left without work because of the floods and loss of crops, many are seasonal immigrant workers who are not eligible for unemployment benefits and receive little financial support otherwise; we stand by the farmers who have lost their crops, but we want the community to remember the essential work that farmworkers do, because without them the fruits and vegetables don’t get to the homes and stores for consumers. Right now, many farmworkers who have lost jobs are not earning any money and must pay rent and bills. They are desperate in their financial state due to the loss of work and income,” says Claudia Rosales, co-director of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center in Northampton, MA.
These new hardships come on top of the plight the state’s agricultural employees already face. “Massachusetts farmworkers are employed only seasonally, can earn a subminimum wage, are except from overtime, and as a result their families live in severe poverty -- at rates two times higher than the statewide average for other workers in Massachusetts,” say Claudia Quintero and Maya McCann, Staff Attorneys for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Project at Central West Justice Center in Springfield, MA; a result due in large part to the legal exclusions in state law where the minimum wage for farmworkers is 47 percent lower than the state minimum wage.
The Coalition commends the federal, state, and local governments and agencies for committing the resources necessary to mitigate the adverse economic and social costs of this devastating weather event and to include farmworkers in that assistance. “We applaud the rapid response of the Healey-Driscoll administration which partnered with the United Way of Central Massachusetts to establish the Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund, and the appropriation of $20 million by the State for assistance to flood-ravaged farms,” said Professor of Law Harris Freeman, a member of the Coalition. “It is critically important that agricultural workers be included in these mitigation efforts.”
Longer term, an equitable and sustainable agricultural industry requires passage of the Fairness for Farmworkers Act (House 2812, Senate 1837), which would include farmworkers under the protections of state minimum wage and overtime laws, provide farmworkers with critical opportunities to rest and recover from their difficult, skilled manual labor, and create a tax credit to help farmers pay their employees more equitably for their work.
The Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals advocating for legislation to improve the lives of farmworkers in the Commonwealth. For more information, please visit https://www.fairnessforfarmworkersma.org/
Comments