Cardinal Timothy Dolan joined hundreds in a march through the city to demand collective bargaining rights for farm workers Saturday.
Demonstrators rallied at City Hall and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge as part of the “March for Farmworker Justice.”
They're calling on state lawmakers to pass the Farmworker's Fair Labor Practices Act.
The bill asks for equal labor rights for the largely immigrant workforce that harvests crops.
Participants say farm laborers should get the same protections guaranteed to other workers in the state.
"This is about a sense of welcome and inclusion and embracing and this is American," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan. "This is about as apple pie as you can get. By the way, we couldn't get the apple pie if these guys weren't picking the apples, alright? This is American. This is for me very Catholic. This is for me very Biblical"
"There are over 100,000 farmworkers that don't get the rights and privileges that any other worker gets in the State of New York," said state Senator Adriano Espaillat, who represents Manhattan. "I sponsor a bill that will grant them overtime pay, a day's rest and the right to collectively bargain as well as to improve the condition of the farm they work in."
The march started in Long Island last Sunday. It ends in Albany on June 1.