Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|

United Farm Workers, the California-based union co-created by Cesar Chavez, secured its first contract in New York Thursday after years of organizing and amid a major legal battle.
UFW secured a three-year deal for agricultural workers at Cahoon Farms in Wolcott after the union was certified in December 2022. Negotiations kicked off June 2023 following a failed appeal attempt by the company and back-and-forth with New York’s Public Employee Relations Board to define which employees the union could bargain for, UFW says.
“A lot of the things, sometimes, like it’s stated in the contract, they just used to go ahead and do what they wanted to do, but now the contract is legitimate and signed,” says Martin Griffiths, who has worked since 2022 at Cahoon from Jamaica on an H-2A visa, which allows for foreign agricultural workers to temporarily work in the U.S. “We’ve been fighting for like three, four years. So it’s basically a reality now.”
The contract guarantees covered workers pay above the federal minimums, safety equipment, a grievance process, seniority protections, Just Cause for discipline and firings, and maintenance of existing benefits, among other terms, according to the union’s summary.
It also includes a retirement plan, paid holidays, and guaranteed time off for vacations, sickness, and funerals. The contract covers both permanent workers and workers on H-2A visas.
“We just need fair treatment, fair living conditions,” Griffiths says. “It’s a bit better, there’s still a lot of incidents going on where guys are falling off a ladder and all of that, so it’s still not up to where we want, but it’s better now that we know we have our job to go back to next year.”
“It’s been a real improvement from what used to happen, to be honest,” he says of the contract terms, noting that securing working condition improvements is still a work in progress.
The agreement comes after enforcement of the state law allowing agricultural workers in New York to unionize—the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act passed in 2019. The law was put on pause from October 2023 to February 2024 after a still-pending legal challenge against amendments to the law was launched against the state by the New York Vegetable Growers Association and five farms, including Cahoon.
The pause left UFW’s certifications in limbo until it was largely lifted Feb. 21. Since then, PERB has shot down numerous challenges to UFW certifications across the state, the union says.
Negotiations at Cahoon halted for six months as the company refused to bargain during the freeze, the union says. On Nov. 6, 2023, during the enforcement pause, about 40 workers at Cahoon on temporary work visas received notice that they would not be recalled to the farm in 2024 due to productivity issues. Griffiths says they were notified while on the bus to return home to Jamaica.
In July, after negotiating with the company, UFW announced that all H-2A employees at Cahoon would be called back for 2024. Griffiths, who has two children, says the main hope for workers at the farm is to be able to feed their families and take care of themselves.

“They could have said we don’t want you to come back, even when you work so hard,” Griffiths says. “So it’s a joy and it’s a privilege to be one of the first farms to be unionized by the New York state.”
Cahoon Farms did not respond to a call for comment.
UFW has been certified at eight locations across New York, including Golden Harvest Apple Farm in Columbia County, where it was certified Jan. 17. Closer to Rochester, the union is trying to reach three contracts: at A & J Kirby Farms in Albion, Cherry Lawn Fruit Farms in Sodus, and Wafler Farms, which is also in Wolcott. More farms could join the mix.
Griffiths says other New York farmworkers considering unionizing should not be scared and “just go for it.”
“We didn’t really know we would reach the end so quickly, but we just gave it a shot,” he says.
Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
I marched with Cesar and the UFW back in the seventies. The people that plant, and pick our Plant life have toiled to keep it coming to our breakfast, lunch, dinner plates deserve our praise.
Si se puede from a 500 Mile Spiritual Marathoner,
Gracias amigos for your work!
Joel Davidson
Thank you for letting us know of this important single step toward justice for farm workers!!
It is important that these accomplishments are publicized so that consumers become more aware of why we have fresh produce in our stores.
Another obstacle for small business in NY. First it was that these workers be paid hourly (vs previous piece work) now its Unionized farm workers? Good thing there is a “right to farm” written into the State code or this could switch a lot of family farms to solar panels or housing developments. What’s next, rent control?