By Andy O’Brien 

The Maine Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Labor and Housing voted 6-4 along party lines to advance LD 588, “An Act to Enact the Agricultural Employees Concerted Activity Protection Act,” a bill to expand rights to farmworkers in Maine.  

Rep. Matt Beck (D-122, South Portland), made the motion to support the bill. “I just want to remind folks that farmworkers lack basic protections that most workers enjoy,” he said. “This includes protections like the right of two or more employees to address their employer about improving their pay, protections for two or more employees discussing work-related issues beyond pay, such as safety, and protections for an employee speaking to an employer on behalf of one or more coworkers about improving workplace conditions.” 

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Passage of the bill would not give agricultural workers the right to unionize, however it would allow them to discuss conditions among themselves and publicize complaints about wages and workplace issues without fear of retaliation from their employer. In addition, farmworkers would be able to take legal action and participate in investigations of workplace complaints without fear of intimidation or retaliation. 

In voting for the bill, Labor Committee House Chair Amy Roeder (D-Dist. 23, Bangor) acknowledged that the bill still stops short of providing farmworkers with the same rights as other workers and affirmed that “all workers [should] have the same rights to the same protections.” 

Farmworkers and domestic workers were excluded from collective bargaining rights and wage and overtime protections in the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act that were passed into law in the 1930s.  

Throughout U.S. history, including after the end of slavery, southern landowners profited by keeping Black laborers, such as farmworkers, in an economically subservient position. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt started putting forward labor reforms in the 1930s as part of the New Deal, Southern Democrats quickly moved to consolidate their power over Black workers by excluding them from key labor protections. Today, people of color continue to make up the vast majority of agricultural workforce in the U.S. and comprise a significant part of that workforce in Maine.    

Sen. Dick Bradstreet (R-Kennebec) said he opposed the bill out of concern that it would harm profits for farmers, noting that Gov. Janet Mills has vetoed similar bills for the same reason in previous years.  

“It’s a no-go for me,” he said. “I think we need to be real careful. Our agricultural industry is right on the edge right now and it has been for some time.”