Farm workers in solidly Blue states are apparently being denied
various labor rights, including in the state of Maine.
So let's talk about what farm workers have just experienced under
the leadership of their democratic governor,
who just vetoed a bill that would actually give them more labor protections.
Luke Savage wrote about this in Jacobin and gives us the context necessary to
understand just how horrific the governor's decision was here.
He starts off by noting that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and
the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 both played a significant role
in establishing basic labor protections and empowering ordinary workers.
The former notably enshrining the right to join and participate in a union.
But guess what?
Unfortunately, not all workers were included in those labor protections.
Carve outs for both domestic and
farmworkers aided the continued exploitation of two sectors that
have remained particularly vulnerable to this day.
So in Maine specifically,
you have you have a lot of agricultural activity happening.
For instance, they produce eggs, potatoes, blueberries.
In fact, I believe Maine is the only state that produces wild blueberries and
also maple syrup.
So they're incredibly important.
Those farmworkers are incredibly important to the agricultural industry.
And so it turns out that there was a pretty aggressive fight to ensure
that these labor protections, which apply to most workers,
were extended in the state to also apply to the farmworkers.
In fact, one state representative, his name is Tom Harnett said this.
Agricultural workers have been specifically excluded from basic labor
laws that protect most workers.
Currently, in 2021,
Maine farm workers are still not considered employees under state law.
By way of example, they are not covered by Maine's laws regarding minimum wage and
overtime.
What is even more remarkable is that farm workers are considered essential
employees by both the state and federal government yet
are not even considered as employees under Maine's labor laws.
And so Harnett really put some action behind his concerns.
And he introduced this bill and guess what?
It passed in the state legislature.
The state lawmakers, and it is a solidly Blue state, decided,
yeah, there should absolutely be labor protections for our farm workers.
And then the bill made its way to the governor's office where
Governor Janet mills, a Democrat, decided to veto it.
A Democrat in Maine decided to veto a bill that would have
extended labor rights, workers rights, to farm workers.
What was her reasoning?
She says this, quote, I cannot, in good conscience,
allow a bill to become law that would subject our farmers to a complicated new
set of laws that would require them to hire lawyers just to understand.
So it was, just to add insult to injury, just to add insult to injury,
cuze let me help you guys decode that statement.
>> Yeah. >> Look,
I don't wanna expand workers rights to farm workers because
I think they're too stupid to understand what labor rights are.
That's essentially what her rationale is.
I mean, what was that?
What was that?
>> Yeah, and then she ends the statement by essentially saying it's bad for
business.
For all of the hammers she's just like, it's bad for business, well,
yeah, it's insulting that these people,
they wouldn't understand the consequences of a law that gave them rights.
[LAUGH ]Like it's, it's absurd.
And people at home need to understand that these are some
of the most exploited people in the entire labor force, right?
And again, this isn't some farmhand working on your pappy's ranch.
These companies are huge, multibillion dollar corporations.
So yes, they need protections from those companies because one
individual worker cannot bump up against the demands in
the will of these big old farmer companies, right?
And so, yeah, it's it's a shame what this Democratic governor would say when again,
the people who need the protecting are these workers, period.
And, oftentimes it can be like, this is gonna hurt small business and
the Mom and Pop, they can't afford some of these new laws and
all of this and these regulations.
No, these are the, some of the richest companies in that entire industry,
they can afford to do the right thing by these workers, period.
>> What you guys will notice increasingly, and
I think many of you have already noticed, is that as corporate interests and
business lobbying groups continue to capture both political parties equally,
when it comes to bread and butter issues, when it comes to substantive
policy decisions, there's virtually no difference between both parties.
And what we're experiencing in the country right now is this
reliance on manufactured culture wars.
So the two parties can at least optically set themselves apart
from one another because they still need something to campaign on.
And what are you gonna campaign on when your voting record or
your veto record makes it abundantly clear that you might be a Democrat?
There might have been a time in this country's history where Democrats looked
out for workers or the little guy, but that's not the case anymore.
So now, rely on the culture wars and I think Democrats and
Republicans rely on two different types of culture wars, right?
The Democrats will always try to pay lip service to various
disenfranchised groups in this country.
But we just saw what happened with the voting rights bill.
We just saw all of those activists and all of those organizers who did all
that hard work on the ground in Georgia to get Biden elected,
get the middle finger from the Democratic Party in regard to voting rights.
The one thing that they were rallying for, the one thing they were organizing for,
the one thing they were promised by Biden when he was a candidate.
But what could Biden do?
I mean, what else are they going to run on?
Are they gonna run on their sparkling record of looking out for
the little guy economically speaking?
No, that's why the country, by the way, is also being ripped apart.
Because if you just lean into culture war garbage, well then all you
do is fight with the other side based on these manufactured scare tactics.
That's why you have all these Republican voters across the country
losing their minds over the perceived threat of critical
race theory in elementary schools.
This is this is why we're so divided.
I guarantee you if you sit people down and
you ask them questions about actual like substantive policy issues,
I would venture to say that there's a lot of agreement on both sides.
I know you're not supposed to say that, but it's true.
And when Democrats lose, they need to understand why.
You can't veto bills like this and
assume that you're gonna continue being a popular politician.
And by the way, her approval rating, the governor of Maine, not doing so great.
I wonder why.
What are you doing for your constituents?
What are you doing for the workers in Maine?
Are you improving their lives or are you looking out for the business interests?