The Greenville Pioneer - 2021-12-17

6 The Greenville Pioneer • Friday, December 17, 2021
OP-ED
By Assemblyman Chris Tague
For Capital Region Independent Media
For many farmers in New York state, the
winter months are a time to unwind from
the stresses of a challenging and demanding
growing season. This year, however, our
farmers remain with a great deal of apprehension
as we await a decision that could threaten
their future viability.
In the coming days, the Farm Laborers
Wage Board will reconvene to consider reducing
the overtime threshold for farmworkers
in New York state to below 60 hours. Such
a change would have drastic impacts on farm
labor costs. A recent report estimates, when
combined with scheduled minimum wage increases,
a 42% increase in workforce expenses
for these small businesses.
While there are attempts to portray the issue
of overtime pay for farmworkers as a simple
matter of wage equality, a lower overtime
threshold, without considering the realities of
farming, will translate into smaller paychecks
for laborers, or even jobs lost. In the end, hurting
the very workers the policy is intended to
help.
The operation of a farm is unpredictable
and relies upon crop-, animal- and weather-dependent
work schedules that are oftentimes
incompatible with an 8-hour workday.
A do-or-die moment for our small farms
Farmworkers are used to
laboring long hours, well
over 40 hours per week,
and have grown accustomed
to the resulting pay.
However, in the two years
since the implementation
of a 60-hour workweek,
many of these workers
have had their hours drastically
reduced by their
employers who cannot
afford to pay overtime
rates. This has resulted
in farmworkers earning
less, with some ultimately
deciding to leave the industry.
Migrant workers,
relied upon by farms that
struggle to find local help,
have declined to return to
New York state, opting instead to work where
they can earn more. This exodus of labor will
no doubt be more profound with further overtime
reductions.
In New York, the agricultural industry is
overwhelmingly composed of small, family-owned
operations that are lucky to turn a
profit and cannot absorb higher labor costs,
nor maintain production with reduced staff.
These modest farms compete in a global
Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-102
economy and have little to
no control over the value
of their goods, regardless
of the actual cost to make.
New York farms, already
dealing with comparatively
high production costs
that are not accounted for
in worldwide markets, find
themselves at a competitive
disadvantage.
For example, despite
the strong presence of local
agriculture here, many
of our schools import milk,
and some procure apples
from as far away as Washington
state, even though
New York is recognized
as the second-largest apple
producing state in the
country.
While the consequences of further reductions
to the overtime threshold will be disastrous
for farmers, the impacts will ultimately
be felt in the wallets of all New Yorkers. We
continue to endure a prolonged food supply
chain crisis that has left store shelves empty
and led to dramatic increases in grocery bills.
As farmers are forced to produce less labor-intensive
crops or, worse yet, cease their
operations, we not only lose out on fresh, locally
grown foods, but we become heavily
reliant on imported goods, making us more
vulnerable to market volatility.
Farming is an industry unlike any other
in our modern economy and by implementing
a policy that fails to recognize the unique
challenges faced by those who feed us, we
jeopardize the future of agriculture in New
York state. Our farmworkers do an essential
job, and I appreciate those who are advocating
for their rights. However, the imposition
of a burdensome overtime threshold will end
this way of life as we know it and diminish
all opportunity for farmworkers in New York.
I am calling on Gov. Hochul, Labor Commissioner
Roberta Reardon and members
of the Farm Laborers Wage Board to do the
right thing and oppose any measures to further
reduce the overtime threshold below its
current 60 hours per week. I would also encourage
others to reach out to them and make
their voices heard. If we have no farms, we
have no food. So let’s stop biting the hand that
feeds us.
Assemblyman Chris Tague represents
the 102nd Assembly District, which includes
Greene and Schoharie counties, and parts of
Albany, Columbia, Otsego, Delaware and Ulster
counties.
Holiday season brings out elder fraud scammers
WASHINGTON, DC — ‘Tis
the season to be jolly — and for seniors
to beware of fraudsters who
target the elderly this time of the
year.
What makes older folk more
susceptible to becoming targets for
scammers during the holiday season?
The consensus is that the older
we get, the more charitable we become,
according to the Association
of Mature American Citizens.
The National Institutes of
Health calls it “positivity bias.”
It’s a condition that makes “older
adults draw more positive affect
from both the planning and outcome
of monetary donations and
hence benefit more from engaging
in monetary charity than their
younger counterparts.”
According to the FBI, scammers
target seniors “because they
tend to be trusting and polite. They
also usually have financial savings,
own a home and have good credit
— all of which make them attractive
to scammers … Additionally,
seniors may be less inclined to report
fraud because they don’t know
how, or they may be too ashamed at
having been scammed.”
Here’s one scenario: The phone
rings and the caller identifies himself
or herself as representing a
charitable organization that helps
needy kids or disadvantaged families.
He or she asks for an over the
phone credit card donation. There
are variations of this particular
scam. For example, the caller may
say that a relative is in trouble and
needs money and gets an elderly
“mark” to wire funds.
And then there are the con artists
who prefer the person-to-person
approach. They’ll hang around
the mall looking for gray hair and
when they spot a likely victim, they
will simply approach him or her,
recite a well-rehearsed tale of need
and ask for a handout.
A variant of this approach is a
bit more theatrical. For example,
they will dress for the occasion
and represent themselves as an authorized
solicitor working for the
Salvation Army or a relief organization
collecting funds for families
displaced by a recent disaster such
as a fire, flood or storm, for example.
The internet has facilitated these
types of scams. With more seniors
becoming tech-savvy and learning
how to use a computer, swindlers
have yet another way to separate a
kind senior from their money.
Email solicitations are growing
in popularity among these seasonal
thieves. The holidays allow them
to stalk the internet with seemingly
personal messages from organizations
and companies that seem
honest. They can make email messages
look very real by mimicking
the actual logos of legitimate charities
and retailers. This technique
allows them to get your money via
a phony charitable contribution or
get you to make a fake holiday purchase
online.
Gerry Hafer, executive director
of the AMAC Foundation, says
AMAC has long been focused on
the issue of elder fraud. The foundation,
AMAC, Inc., itself, and its
advocacy subsidiary, AMAC Action,
have joined forces to create
an Elder Fraud Initiative to aid in
development of an instructional
approach to help seniors protect
themselves.
The initiative aims to provide a
guide for online protection, a sort
of how-to protocol for defending
against fraud.
“Our website blog page already
presents a variety of News & Info
posts associated with elder fraud
and will soon provide a comprehensive
guide for online protection
that our tech folks are in the process
of preparing,” Hafer said.
HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY
AND A WARM HEART
Fuel Oil with a 30 Mile Delivery Service & Competitive Pricing
OR Switch from Oil to LP/Natural Gas - same day in some cases!
OUR FORMULA FOR SUCCESS IS VERY SIMPLE:
Low Prices + Quality Products + Great Service = Happy Customers
13640 US RT 9W
HANNACROIX, NY
WWW.CA-ALBRIGHT.COM
518-756-3127