Gov. Mills again vetoes bill protecting farmworkers’ right to discuss work conditions

Farmworkers in Maine may have gained the right to state minimum wage this legislative session, but they still won’t be protected from retaliation for talking about work conditions.

Late last week, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed LD 588, which would have offered agricultural workers in the state that right. In her veto letter, Mills noted that the bill is similar to a measure she rejected last year and her thinking has not changed on the issue. 

“Because the bill is unchanged, so too is my veto letter,” she said. 

Her letter goes on to say that the legislation would create a complicated legal framework that would add to the burden farmers are already facing with increased severe weather, toxic chemical contamination on their lands, price pressures and more. 

The Maine Legislature will have the opportunity to overturn Mills’ veto; however, it will require support from at least two-thirds of lawmakers. The House of Representatives initially rejected the bill, but narrowly decided to change course and join the upper chamber in passing the measure.

Given those existing challenges, Mills said she could not “subject our farmers to a complicated new set of labor laws that will require a lawyer just to understand.” She also added that Maine’s agricultural sector is largely made up of small farms that treat workers well in order to retain them.

Proponents of the bill, including the left-leaning Maine Center for Economic Policy, saw LD 588 as a chance to right a historic wrong. Though most other workers are protected from retaliation when speaking about working conditions, farmworkers have long been excluded because those roles were historically filled by Black workers, wrote Arthur Phillips, an economic policy analyst, in a blog post after the veto.

“While we celebrate the farmworker minimum wage and lament the governor’s veto of the concerted activity bill, we also recognize these are pieces of a long, ongoing fight for economic and racial justice in Maine,” Phillips added.