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Advocates and farm workers prepare for hot summer ahead
Groups work to prevent fatalities
By
Record Staff Writer
The heat-related deaths of at least six workers last year - including a
teenage farm worker who had been living in Lodi - prompted heightened
scrutiny of conditions in the Central Valley's fields as well as
stepped-up efforts to ensure employers follow the California labor
regulations meant to safeguard those who work in the sun.
The dangerous summer temperatures that contributed to the death in May
of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez are months away. Already,
labor authorities, growers, workers and their advocates are considering
how to prevent fatalities in the coming harvest seasons.
The task is a difficult one, entwined with issues of immigration and
poverty that complicate efforts to uphold the state's tough heat-safety
standards and protect a vulnerable population.
"If we have one death from heat stress, that's one too many," said Bryan
Little, of the Farm Employers Labor Service, which assists agricultural
businesses with labor laws and relations.
Last year, he said, "It became clear to us that there was something
getting lost in translation. ... That shade and water weren't being
provided, ... and we said, 'This isn't right. This shouldn't be
happening.' "
Of the workers whose job-related deaths last year were attributed to
heat, three were working in agriculture and one in construction. Two
worked in other industries.
Another 37 people - 16 of them farm workers - were seriously sickened on
the job because of heat, according to records from the California
Department of Industrial Relations.
Jimenez collapsed after working nine hours pruning grapevines in a
Farmington vineyard. She died two days later. The contractor she worked
for, Merced Farm Labor, has been accused of failing to provide adequate
shade and drinking water. The company was later stripped of its license
and fined an unprecedented $262,000.
Following the girl's death, Cal-OSHA increased enforcement sweeps of
fields throughout the region and introduced new outreach efforts,
including a partnership with the state's migrant education offices,
which agreed to provide heat-safety information to farm-worker parents.
Little said his organization developed new training sessions targeting
the labor contractors who employ an estimated two-thirds of the state's
farm workers.
The training has helped, he said.
"The difference between June and August was pretty readily apparent in a
lot of the Valley," Little said. "You saw a lot more shade, a lot more
water."
But Luis Magaņa, who advocates for farm workers in San Joaquin County,
said he is worried. Already, he said. "The same problems are coming up
again."
In 2008, Cal-OHSA inspectors issued 1,122 citations for violations of
the state's heat-illness regulation - almost double the number issued in
2007 - and more than $1.8 million in related penalties have been
assessed.
The agency has been criticized for later reducing the fines it levies.
"Those have been, to some extent, legitimate criticisms," said Cal-OSHA
Chief Len Welsh. But he said, when fines are appealed, it is sometimes
difficult to avoid reducing them as workers - many of them immigrants -
often are reluctant to testify in support of an inspector's findings.
This year, enforcement sweeps will continue, he said, with a focus on
return visits to fields that have been issued citations in the past.
Labor authorities also will distribute more information via radio,
churches, schools and other means, he said.
"Education has been essential," Welsh said. "We're probably going to be
spending quite a bit more this summer. Spending more on the educational
effort, the outreach effort, than we did in the past."
Epifanio Ferrera has worked in San Joaquin County fields for 10 years.
The piece-rate pay system many employers use makes heat illness a
problem among farm workers, he said; slowing down and taking breaks
means less money.
Also he said, as construction jobs have dwindled, there is more
competition for jobs in the field, and workers afraid of losing their
income are afraid to complain about poor conditions.
Ferrera said he has enough experience to find contractors who are fair.
"I only work with people who treat us well," he said.
In Lodi, grower Roland Hatterle for the past several years has
collaborated with contractor Ruben Garcia to offer an annual
safety-training program that includes information on working in the
heat. Each year, dozens of farm workers and their contractors attend.
"I just want to be involved in the community," Hatterle said. "And in
some ways, I feel bad for these immigrant workers. I feel we need to do
all we can for their safety and welfare."
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