On Sept. 28, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill strengthening the right of California farmworkers to organize into unions. Meanwhile, here in Maine, Gov. Mills vetoed a bill giving farmworkers the right to organize, thus sacrificing a basic, fundamental human right at the altar of Big Ag interests.
Given that farmworkers work extraordinarily hard, they very often live in grossly substandard conditions and they experience a poverty rate almost twice that of the general population – all to put food on our tables – one might almost think Gov. Mills could extend to our hardworking friends in the fields the same basic human rights and human dignity that California does. Almost.
Lawrence Reichard
Belfast
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