A Federal Judge has rejected a request from growers against New York State's Farmworker Unionization Law, upholding Workers' ability to organize under a landmark 2019 law.

The lawsuit - brought by the New York State Vegetable Growers Association along with A&J Kirby Farms, Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms and Porpiglia Farms, continues to challenge the constitutionality of Workers’ rights to unionize, which was granted to Farmworkers for the first time in New York in 2019.

All three individual farms have Workers represented by the United Farm Workers (UFW) - but have yet to implement first Union contracts, according to the UFW.

Workers who grow, process, transport and serve food face some of the highest rates of workplace abuse, wage theft, forced labor and injury and death in the Global Food System, according to a new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems.

The ruling offers a concrete example of the dynamic Errol Schweizer, an IPES-Food Panel Expert and Co-Author and Editor of the report, described to The Chief in an interview: Food Workers are essential to the economy but face significant barriers when they attempt to exercise collective power.

“The first and most important thing is Worker self-organization,” Schweizer said.

Workers, he argued, must be able to organize and Unionize without facing employer retaliation or aggressive Union-Busting.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: New York Farmworkers win court ruling reaffirming union rights amid growers' challenge - The Chief