As the holiday shopping season is underway, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), issued the following statement urging workers be treated with dignity and respect from in-store shopping to e-commerce warehousing, from farm to table and everything in between: “The holiday season has always been a time of great pressure on retail workers. This year, that pressure is compounded by new challenges. Soaring economic uncertainty, aggressive use of AI in scheduling and inventory, continued issues of theft and violence, and shrinking seasonal hiring despite rising demand have created a perfect storm for workers. While retailers and shoppers brace for tariffs and supply chain issues, it’s frontline workers who absorb the stress and danger. Retail workers are not to blame, and they must not be left unprotected…

“The decision to lower the overtime threshold for agricultural workers to 40 hours a week is going to transform the lives of New York’s workers and their families…

New York’s farmworkers work as hard – or harder – than most New Yorkers, yet they are not entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours worked. This injustice needs to end now – farmworkers deserve the same dignity and respect on the job as other workers in the state, most of whom are already entitled to a 40-hour workweek…

A business’s viability must not depend on the legally allowed exploitation of people which had originally been based on the color of their skin. That is morally indefensible. This is why New York needs to correct the glaring injustice in New York’s agriculture industry where farmworkers are denied overtime pay after 40 hours…