Seasonal migrant farm workers at an upstate New York apple orchard are entering the new year with new labor protections under a hard-won union contract, the second such farm union contract in upstate New York history.
Workers organizing with the United Farm Workers (UFW) won the contract after a yearslong legal battle with Wafler Farms, an apple producer in Wayne County. Workers had initially certified their union in 2023, but Wafler Farms sued to block the workers from organizing. A Wayne County judge ordered Wafler Farms to implement the contract on Dec. 2, and the company has now agreed to the judge’s terms.
The contract will cover between 120 and 130 farm workers, many of whom are Jamaican migrants on H-2A seasonal worker visas. The UFW said it is also pursuing back pay for all members of the Wafler Farms bargaining unit who worked there in 2025 and should have received the union pay rate beginning this past April, when the contract was initially due to take effect.
“This hard-fought victory belongs to the farm workers at Wafler Farms, who never stopped fighting for their rights and the union contract they deserve,” Armando Elenes, Secretary Treasurer of UFW, said in a statement to Documented.
Jacob Wafler, nursery manager at Wafler Farm, said, “We had our right to have the case judiciously reviewed. Now with UFW, we will work together to get the contract implemented as soon as possible.”
Among the many worker gains in the UFW contract is a new wage rate of $19.39 an hour, with a raise next year to $19.97 an hour. The contractually guaranteed pay raises come as the Trump administration implements cuts to the H-2A visa program for seasonal agricultural workers, drastically lowering minimum wages. The previous H-2A workers’ minimum wage was $18.83 an hour. Under the Trump administration’s new guidelines, announced in October, the minimum wage will be lowered to about $16 an hour.
More than 380,000 migrant workers collectively are expected to lose between $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion in wages annually under the new guidelines, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Under the prior rules, it was illegal for workplaces to charge H-2A workers rent for housing; the Trump administration’s new rules open the door for employers to charge H-2A workers rent for housing.
Union contracts are not subject to this unilateral federal wage cut, so the workers at Wafler farm will now make thousands of dollars more each year than they would have without a UFW contract. The UFW is also leading a federal lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s cuts to the H-2A visa program.
“While other farm workers’ wages are being cut by this administration, their wages will go up, enshrined in a legally binding union contract,” Elenes said.
In addition to higher wages, workers at Wafler Farm will receive nine paid holidays every year, a retirement plan, bereavement leave, sick time, and vacation pay under the new contract. Workers are also entitled to a grievance process to resolve any work issues or violations, a right to request leave of absence with no loss of seniority, and just cause for termination.
Due to management’s delay in recognizing their union, the UFW is also pursuing back pay for individuals who worked at Wafler in 2025 and should have received the union pay rate since last April.
Christopher Walters, a 31-year-old worker from Jamaica who has worked at Wafler for six years, said victory in securing the contract should be an inspiration for others.
“When we’re doing this, we’re not doing it only for ourselves, but we are also doing the younger generation who’ll travel on this program and even come to that farm,” he told Documented. “We want to know that when they come here, they get better treatment than what they were getting before.”
A hard-won contract
Wafler Farms is one of eight farms the UFW has been vigorously organizing since the passage of New York’s landmark 2019 agricultural labor law, which guaranteed farm workers’ right to collectively bargain. In addition to Wafler Farms, the UFW won its first union contract for workers at Cahoon Farms, also in Wayne County, last year.
Some farm owners have attempted to block workers from unionizing. In 2023, the New York State Vegetable Growers Association, a trade group representing several farms, including Cahoon Farms and Wafler Farms, filed a lawsuit attempting to block workers from organizing and aiming to overturn the 2019 law.
Although workers at Wafler Farms were awarded their contract by a state-appointed arbitrator in February 2025, and their contract was to take effect on April 24th, 2025, management continued to pursue legal attempts to block the implementation of the contract. Those attempts came to an end when Wayne County judge Richard Healy ordered Wafler Farms to implement the contract last month.
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For Walters, the Wafler Farms worker, the key to their success was solidarity.
“The union helped us to look into ourselves and see that, hey, if we don’t work together, we will not see any result,” he said. “We needed to come together, you know, for what is right, for us.”
