EVENT
DATE/ TIME: Thursday, March 30, 2017 / 11:00 AM
LOCATION: New York City Council, Front Steps
SPEAKERS:
- Representative from Senator Marisol Alcantara
- New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
- Ray Figueroa, President of the NYC Community Garden Coalition
- New York City Councilman Daneek Miller
- New York City Councilman Ben Kallos
- Jose Calderon, President of the Hispanic Federation
- Vincent Alvarez, President of the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council
- Max Bruny, President of UFCW Local 888
- Rabbi Rolando Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun NYC
- Jonathan Soto, New York City Mayor’s Office
[New York, NY] – City, labor, and religious leaders will be honoring the memory of Cesar Chavez as well as honoring the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign in New York. They will ask for the NYS Legislator’s support of the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act, a Bill that will provide basic labor protections to NYS farmworkers and add to the protection of some of New York’s most vulnerable populations and communities. Farmworkers, most of whom are foreign born, are feeling increasingly threatened in an already unprotected environment.
Last year, farm workers, activists, religious leaders, and students led a 200-mile march from Smithtown in Long Island to Albany, New York in order to bring attention to this issue. The March culminated in a rally in Albany, which drew hundreds of people who came out in support of farmworkers in New York State.
Farmworkers across New York State endure long hours of hard physical labor and are exposed to dangerous conditions every day, yet they are excluded from workplace rights afforded by the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) and the National Labor Relations Act (1935). Their work is crucial to food production and is the foundation of the state’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry. In the Capital District, there are almost 3,500 farms and 587,000 acres of farmland.
This event, in solidarity with New York’s farmworkers, is sponsored by Rural & Migrant Ministry, Inc. in collaboration with: United Food & Commercial Workers, the Hispanic Federation, the NYS AFL-CIO, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Latino Justice PRLDEF, Bronx Climate Justice North, B’nai Jeshurun NYC, the New York Immigration Coalition, the Food Chain Workers Alliance and New York State United Teachers along with numerous other organizations and congregations representing thousands of concerned New Yorkers.
About Rural & Migrant Ministry, Inc.
Rural & Migrant Ministry, Inc., (RMM), founded in 1981 is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization, that works for the creation of a just, rural New York State. RMM serves as the official Rural Ministry of several religious bodies, representing over one million members:
Capital Area & Mid-Hudson Baptist Associations; The Presbyteries of Albany, Hudson River and Long Island; New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church; The Regional Synod of New York, Reformed Church in America; The Episcopal Diocese of New York; The Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany and Rochester; New York Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers); and New York Conference of the United Church of Christ.
