Farmworkers rights rally at the Capitol
Activists rallied outside the Capitol Monday afternoon to rally for the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act (A.1792-A), which would grant farm workers collective bargaining rights, workers compensation, disability and unemployment benefits and allow a day of rest once a week.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, held a press conference after the rally alongside Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, D- Ridgewood, former chair of the Committee on Labor, Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, and civil rights activists Dolores Huerta and Librada Paz.
"It is reprehensible that in a state that has long been a leader in instituting civil rights and equality for all that we continue to deny farmworkers basic labor protections," Silver said.
The bill also requires employers to allow for 24 consecutive hours of rest a week; provide an eight-hour workday; overtime pay of one-and-a-half times the normal pay; provide unemployment insurance; provide sanitary codes to all farm and food processing labor camps for farm workers, regardless of the number of occupants; and compensation benefits;
http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-Top-Stories-c-2013-05-13-83763.113122-Farmworkers-rights-rally-at-the-Capitol.html