(Ohio) Labor group demands minimum wage apply to farm workers (home-health care workers, & others)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070129/NEWS01/70129005/1002


Labor group demands minimum wage apply to farm workers
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS — The decision by lawmakers to exclude farm workers from Ohio’s new higher minimum wage dismisses the intent of voters who overwhelmingly approved it, a spokesman for Gov. Ted Strickland says.

A farm labor group said it might challenge the legality of legislation passed in December to implement the increase to $6.85 an hour from $5.15. Strickland urged his predecessor, Republican Bob Taft, not to sign the bill authorizing the language passed by the GOP-dominated Legislature.

Strickland, a Democrat, believes the exclusion of farm workers, home-health care workers, amusement park workers and others was unfair and he wants to review the issue, spokesman Keith Dailey said.

“He felt they undermined the will of people who passed the minimum-wage amendment,” Dailey said.

The constitutional amendment to raise the wage passed with 57 percent of the vote and took effect Jan. 1, but the enabling legislation kicks in at the end of March. Farm workers rallied at the Statehouse on Friday to protest their exclusion.

“We are not beggars, nor social parasites, and we are not asking for a hand out, but rather a fair day’s pay for a fair day of work,” said Baldemar Velasquez, head of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

The legislation continues a “tragic heritage” of discrimination against farm workers, particularly Hispanics, Velasquez said. The union, along with church leaders and other organizations, will try to overturn the legislation.

The exclusion affects up to 5,000 farm workers, most of them in Northwest Ohio, he said. They earn $4,000 to $8,000 apiece, depending on the length of the growing season.

GOP lawmakers said the exclusions mirrored those in federal labor law. Some other states do cover farm workers under minimum-wage laws.

Lupe Williams, who teaches sociology and Spanish at Ohio State University, said
she has visited Ohio migrant-worker camps, including those on chicken megafarms.

“The chickens live cleaner and better than the workers,” she said.

She said Strickland will support the cause of the farm workers because “he knows how it is to be poor.”

Strickland was one of nine children brought up in poverty in southern Ohio. After their home caught fire, the Stricklands were forced to live for a time in a chicken shack.