The Rhode Island Farm Bureau has criticized the re-introduction of legislation by Representative Paul E. Moura (D-Dist. 2) of Providence, that would allow farm workers to unionize on the farmer’s private property in the state. Currently, several categories of workers, including farm laborers, are exempt from the Labor Relations Act.
This is the third year in a row Moura has introduced the bill.
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“The General Assembly recognized years ago that farmers should be exempt from this law because of the unique type of employment farmers provide to workers,” said William Stamp, Jr., president of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau. “Farm laborers must be diverse workers and do numerous jobs. One day they are planting crops, the next day they are working on farm machinery or driving a truck or tractor. Imagine if I told a farm laborer to deliver some sweet corn and he said ‘That’s not my job.'”
The bill would force farmers to allow laborers to organize on the farmer’s property. It has passed the House two years in a row, but the margin of victory has dwindled from 70 votes to 15. Last year, numerous farmers testified before the House Labor Committee that if this bill passed, they may be forced out of business.
The bill did not come to the Senate floor in the previous two years.
