Justice organizations push for overtime pay for Oregon farmworkers

A panel from Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste urged legislators to pass legislation that would require Oregon farmers to pay overtime. 

Panelists included Ramon Ramirez, a founding member and former president of PCUN; Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Portland; and Eric Richardson, executive director of the Lane County NAACP. Sharon Gary-Smith, president of Portland's NAACP, moderated last week's discussion.

If House Bill 2358 passes, agricultural workers would only be able to work more than 40 hours in one workweek if their employer guaranteed overtime pay at one and one-half times the worker’s regular rate of pay per hour or one and one-half times the regular price for all work done on a piece-rate basis. 

Panelists hoped the discussion would educate state legislators and the public about the racial history behind farmworkers' exclusion from overtime laws and similar labor laws. 

“Once slavery ended, we saw the continuation of the exploitation of farmworkers, who were almost all Black, continue through the continuation of laws and policies that were based on white supremacy and white privilege such as the sharecropping system and the formation of Jim Crow laws that maintained farmworkers at the bottom of the economic ladder,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez outlined how racist policies continued with the exclusion of agricultural and domestic employees in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, denying protections to an overwhelmingly Black workforce. The same legacy of slavery and Jim Crow was felt with the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which once again excluded domestic and farm workers from minimum wage laws, overtime and child labor protections. 

“In Oregon, not only were farmworkers excluded from the National Labor Relations Act but also were excluded from the collective bargaining laws established in 1973. It was also illegal for farmworkers to go out on strike with their supporters up until 1991,” added Ramirez. “The bottom line of why farmworkers in 2021 are excluded from rights and protections stems from the creation of the labor laws in the 1930s.” 

Today, these policies affect a mostly Latino population.

In Oregon, it is estimated that as much of 90% of the state's farmworkers are Latino. According to a Pew Research study in 2014, 37% of Oregon's farmworkers also were undocumented. On average, these Latino workers earn between $18,000 to $20,000 a year. Granting them overtime, advocates say, would be the bare minimum in removing barriers affecting life expectancy, health and poverty levels.  

HB 2358 has faced strong opposition from growers and trade organizations in the state who say the bill would mean devastating financial costs to farmers who would have to pay impossible wages. They also say the bill would harm farmworkers, as owners would be forced to cut hours for current employees to compensate. 

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In testimony against the bill, Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, said the bill “ignores the reality of agriculture,” an industry that faces short windows of time where farmers must harvest crops, almost always requiring overtime.  

"The association and PCUN have worked on a number of issues – the driver's license bill, in-state tuition for immigrants; opposing sanctuary state repeal and this year with allowing the immigrant workforce to have access to the earned income tax credit," added Stone in an email to the Statesman Journal.

Stone also said in the email that the organization will continue to discuss the "complex issue and possible ramifications for both the employer and employee." 

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The Oregon Farm Bureau, the largest general agricultural trade association in the state, similarly testified in opposition to HB 2358. 

“We are concerned about the practical effects of this proposal on the ability of our members to continue farming in this state as well as the potential loss of jobs and reduction of wages for agricultural employees,” wrote the bureau in March. 

That argument, echoed by most critics of the bill, “falls flat,” Harmon Johnson said.

“I understand when farmers are saying, 'This is hard for us, this will cost us,' and at the same time, that’s what it means to be in business,” she said. “When the further argument is ‘We’ll have to cut hours so workers will wind up earning less money anyways,’ that’s what employers always say. When the Urban League and PCUN and other organizations fought to raise the minimum wage in the state, you know what employers said? ‘I can’t possibly pay more. We’ll have to cut back hours,’ but it just hasn’t happened.” 

For Eric Richardson, the passing of HB 2358 would acknowledge ongoing racism in the state and throughout the country. But he said it's not a complete solution. 

Richardson likened the passage of the bill to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction in the murder of George Floyd. 

“That was not something we should celebrate. That’s just like, OK, the sun rose today. That should be natural. There was no decision to be made,” Richardson said. “This is a story about the need for growth. It’s a story about the need for self-reflection of a nation who claims many things but has yet to live up to half of them.” 

Currently, the measure remains in the House Committee on Rules.

Dianne Lugo is a reporter at the Statesman Journal covering equity and social justice. Contact her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com, 503-936,4811 or on Twitter @lugo_dianne.