Espada doesn't duck: State Senate troublemaker does right by farmworkers

The cause of full and equal labor rights for New York's tens of thousand of farmworkers, decades overdue, took a giant step forward on a muddy duck farm in the Sullivan County town of Liberty on Friday.

It was there that the Daily News witnessed Pedro Espada, the Senate powerbroker, in a stunning confrontation. We, along with The New York Times and El Diario, watched Espada go head to head with the boss of one of the most notorious agrifactories in New York, a place where workers are legally exploited - and have no power to change their circumstances.

Covering 200 acres, Hudson Valley Foie Gras calls itself the "first vertically integrated foie gras operation in the world." There, ducks are hatched, raised, force-fed and slaughtered.

And if you think the birds have it bad, consider the 110 humans who live and work there. Each handler tends to as many as 350 ducks, force-feeding them three times a day for 21 days straight. The workers toil endless hours under horrendous conditions with no overtime pay, no days off and no way to better themselves - because the state constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively doesn't apply to farmworkers.

This is the unconscionable state of affairs that The News has been fighting to change - a fight that Espada has now joined fully.

And so Espada, with the press in tow, paid his Friday visit. Having talked off the grounds with a former worker about the harsh conditions, he entered the property to see for himself. He stopped at the house of a caretaker, who said he needed to speak with Izzy Yanay, the owner.

With his cell phone, Espada reached Yanay, said he was on the farm and that as Senate majority leader, "There's legislation that I want to put on the Sept. 10 calendar." That legislation being the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, which would at long last equalize the laws.

Then a four-wheel drive came flying up the road, and even before it stopped, out jumped Marcus Henley, the manager. He was screaming: "Who the hell are you? You are trespassing! I've called the cops!"

Espada said he had talked with the owner and wanted to see the farm, adding, "I'd love to have the cops come here. The state police, the FBI, let's invite all of them of here to see how you are treating your workers."

He handed over his business card.

Henley screamed, in saltier language than we can print in a family newspaper, that Espada was the "traitor" who "messed up the Senate. You messed up the whole state."

Espada shot back: "What kind of place are you running here, exploiting people? We're going to pass a law" to end the abuses.

Henley is right. Espada is the traitor who flipped the Senate twice this summer. He demeaned himself, the Senate and the state.

But on this issue, on farmworkers' rights, Espada is on the side of the angels. These poor, powerless people need all the help they can get.

We hope that Majority Leader Espada lives up to his commitment and gets that bill, the full undiluted bill, to the Senate floor, where it can pass and be signed into law.