Joined by his ex-wife Kerry Kennedy and two of their daughters, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed what's been dubbed the Farmworker Bill of Rights. It was a cause once championed by Kennedy's father, the late New York Sen. Robert Kennedy.

"It was a long, hard, complicated crusade to bring justice to the downtrodden and the powerless," Cuomo said. "It is a lesson that the fight for justice is not easy or popular or fast, but that makes it even more important and vital."

The bill has failed to gain traction in Albany for 20 years. It had strong support from the Daily News editorial board, which is why Cuomo chose its newsroom for the signing.

Some critics quickly took to social media to say it would have made more sense to sign the bill near an upstate farm that will be directly affected.

Queens state Senator Jessica Ramos is the bill's sponsor. She says it will affect 100,000 farm workers in New York State.

"These workers will now be able to access unemployment benefits, and I'm talking about the state benefits, all of the worker compensation benefits that are given to every other worker in New York State," Ramos said. "They will be able to have a day off, which is something many of us take for granted."

The bill is also intended to grant farm workers collective baragaining rights, with the goal of unionizing them on a statewide basis.

Many of the products we see in city stores, such as apples and other produce, are picked by these workers. And milk for Chobani yogurt also comes from upstate dairy farms.

Ramos say that for too long these workers have been mistreated.

"We heard stories about workers who were kept and housed by rottweilers. We heard stories about women who were not paid the same amount of money for the same work. We heard about women who were suffering sexual harassment on the farms," she said.

Republicans fought this bill for years, saying it will only hurt the already lagging upstate economy. And small farmers continue to get squeezed. They say this bill will only make that worse, and put farm owners out of business once and for all.