On May 16, it was three years since farm worker Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, 17 and pregnant, died from the heat in a vineyard near Lodi, Calif. because the farm labor contractor who employed her blatantly and repeatedly violated California’s heat regulations. Cal-OSHA, the state work safety agency, earlier fined the same contractor for serious violations of the heat regulation that helped cause her death, including failing to provide shade and accessible drinking water. Cal-OSHA never collected the fine and admits at least a quarter of employers violate the heat standards. The state is incapable of protecting farm workers. On Monday, May 16, we will join hundreds of farm workers from across California at the state Capitol in Sacramento to win the right of farm workers to protect themselves. On that day, the state Assembly is expected to pass SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, which would make it easier for farm workers to choose a union without the coercion and threats growers systematically employ when workers organize. The bill will end up on the Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America