Colorado must stop treating farmworkers as second-class workers
- Alex Sánchez
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
For many of us on Colorado’s Western Slope, the struggle for farmworker dignity is deeply personal. My father was a farmworker when he first moved to this country, working as an undocumented laborer in the orchards around Hotchkiss and Delta in the 1970s.
He worked in the fields of California as well, where I was born, not very far from the birthplace of America’s farmworkers movement.
So when I see Colorado’s state legislature advancing a bill that undermines the dignity of farmworkers by allowing employers to deny them the overtime pay they deserve, I take personal offense. What is being contemplated with Senate Bill 26-121 (Overtime Threshold for Agricultural Employees) is not progress. It is a shameful slap in the face of the people who feed our state and our nation.
The arguments we hear in support of this bill are not new. They are the same demands immigrant farmworkers have heard for generations: Work longer, accept less and be grateful for it. The message was wrong then, and it remains wrong today.
We are talking about some of the hardest labor performed in America. Farmworkers toil under the scorching sun, their bodies bent over, repeating the same motion hour after hour, lifting and carrying the weight of our food supply. Their efforts ensure our plates are full, yet when it comes to basic labor protections, they are repeatedly, reliably treated like second-class workers.
How is it that lawmakers can justify forcing farmworkers to labor for 56 hours — a full two extra days of work –—before they qualify for overtime pay? We don’t ask that standard of any other industry. Not from construction workers, from those in hospitality, teachers, healthcare workers, or anyone else. What makes that demand — codified through this bill — acceptable when it comes to farmworkers?
The answer is obvious, deeply entrenched, and painful: the agriculture workforce is overwhelmingly Latino, immigrant and consistently treated as disposable labor. Exploitation of immigrant farmworkers is a foundation of the agricultural business model.
We can all recognize that Colorado’s ag industry faces daunting challenges. Farmers are dealing with rising operational costs, inflationary pressures compounded by global supply chain issues and economic headwinds like increased grocery store tariffs. It’s heartbreaking to see farms going out of business, and our elected leaders must remain committed to finding real solutions that ensure the future profitability and sustainability of Colorado agriculture.
But we are not going to fix the systemic issues plaguing the industry by diminishing the rights of its most vulnerable workers. Lowering protections for the least paid and most exploited employees won’t fix tariffs, or reduce the price of fuel, or create a viable long-term economic model. It will only reinforce the cycle of degradation and poverty for essential workers in the fields.
Legislators may recall the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, just a few years ago, when the nation desperately needed people in the fields. We depended on them, we praised them and we rightfully hailed them as “essential workers.” Do not turn your back on them now by stripping away the limited protections they have fought for.
In 2021, Colorado took a step toward justice with the Agricultural Workers Rights Act, which offered dignity through things like necessary bathroom access and claimed to address the overtime issue — even if imperfectly. Now we are seeing efforts to roll back even those minor gains, repeating the same discriminatory logic that farmworker leaders like Dolores Huerta had to fight in the 1960s and 1970s. The lingering exploitation remains, as fundamentally wrong as ever.
Ironically, it was only a few weeks ago that the Colorado State Legislature passed a resolution honoring farmworkers. This bill, SB26-121, is not how you honor them.
If Colorado truly wants to honor our essential farmworkers, then honor them with dignity, fairness and real protections that match every other industry in the state by paying overtime after an arduous 40-hour work week. Facing the choice between retreating to the exploitation of the past or building a just future, the decision should be clear. Stepping backwards is unacceptable.
If the goal is to save Colorado agriculture, then let’s work together to find real economic solutions, not moral compromises built on the backs of our neighbors. The farmworkers who feed us have been exploited for far too long, and we urge Gov. Polis and our state legislators to confront the moral failure this bill represents by rejecting SB26-121.
Alex Sánchez is the founder and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas and Voces Unidas Action Fund, immigrant-created advocacy organizations based in Colorado’s Western Slope.