In his 19 years harvesting grapes for Long Island’s largest vineyard, Martir Diaz’s wage has barely budged, and he’s come to appreciate the smallest of workplace victories, like a day of rest or a slight bump in the county’s minimum wage. Despite working upwards of 50 hours per week, Diaz, 50, has long struggled to support his family back home in Honduras, while paying rent and keeping food on the table in one of the most expensive places to live in the country.

But now, as one of 12 founding members of the state’s first-ever farmworker union, Diaz and his fellow workers at Pindar Vineyards in Peconic, N.Y., are demanding better wages and a chance at paid sick leave, vacation time and overtime compensation from their employer. This effort comes after nearly two years working through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the belated rollout of a new state law guaranteeing overtime protections and collective bargaining rights for farmworkers for the first time.

“It’s like we’re finally overcoming what’s been happening for all of these years,” said Diaz. “We’ve never had an opportunity like this before.”

It’s a shift that’s decades in the making in one of the nation’s lowest-paid industries. In 2019, New York state established the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act with the aim of closing a loophole through which farmworkers have been exempt from federal labor rights, including the right to overtime pay and collective bargaining. But, by the next harvest season, the COVID-19...

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