FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2022

Contact: Chelsea Connor | cconnor@rwdsu.org | 347-866-6259

RWDSU STATEMENT ON NYS LOWERING THE FARMWORKER OVERTIME THRESHOLD

After New York State Commissioner of Labor Roberta Reardon moved to adopt the 2022 Farm Laborers Wage Board’s recommendations, Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, released the following statement:

“The decision to lower the overtime threshold for agricultural workers to 40 hours a week is going to transform the lives of New York’s workers and their families. Farmworkers will be able to rest their hard-used bodies and avoid injury, spend more time with family, and have a better opportunity to earn more in wages and be able to sustain their families. 

“Farmworkers have for too long been denied the overtime protections so many other workers have had for decades. This is momentous and heads New York on the right path towards economic justice for workers who have sustained and fed us through good times and bad.”

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 The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.