Cows over care? Hispanic workers document abuse on dairy farms in new survey

June 2, 2017
By David Sommerstein

A new survey of mostly undocumented Hispanic workers paints a picture of discrimination and workplace abuse on New York’s large dairy farms. Farm worker advocates say farmers and government are turning a blind eye to basic health and labor rights.

The authors of the report, Milked: Immigrant Dairy Farmworkers in New York State, characterized it as the first major analysis of Hispanic dairy farm workers' attitudes in New York.

The Workers' Center of Central New York, based in Syracuse, and the Worker Justice Center of New York, based in Rochester, worked with researchers at Syracuse University and Cornell University to survey 88 Hispanic workers on 53 different dairy farms from western New York to the North Country. Almost all of the laborers were working without legal documents.

Two-thirds of them reported suffering injuries while on the job. Many reported being denied proper treatment, says co-author Gretchen Purser, a sociologist at Syracuse University. "Not being given a ride to a hospital, or being told to just go back to work, being forced to work through sickness and injury," she said. The survey estimates more than 80% of the farmworkers live and work on farms with too few workers to be subject to regular federal workplace safety inspections.

Farmworkers reported an average wage of $9 an hour, just above minimum, and worked 12 hours a day without overtime and few breaks. 30% of them reported at least one instance of wage theft by their employers.

Almost all of the surveyed workers reported living in on-farm housing, with more than half reporting bug infestations, and about a third reporting holes in the walls or floor or insufficient ventilation. Because most of them are not in the country illegally, they reported fearing immigration enforcement, not leaving the farm infrequently, and feeling a sense of being "locked up". Almost 90% of the workers said they believe farmers care more about their cows than them.
Purser describes herself as an activist on the rights of farmworkers. She chairs the board of the Worker Center of Western New York. She says the dairy industry’s growth into a linchpin of New York’s economy has come at the expense of these vulnerable workers. "The workers feel that they’re treated worse than livestock, than farm animals, that they have fewer rights. This is an account of the kind of exploitation that’s taking place all around us."

Largely undocumented Hispanic labor has become indispensable in New York’s dairy industry. Farmers say they can’t find local workers for the wages they can afford to pay.

The report calls on the state to grant farmworkers basic rights, like the right to organize and get overtime pay. And it calls on companies like Greek yogurt giant Chobani to demand better conditions on farms that sell them milk.

Source: North County Public Radio