migrant farmworkers

belated disambiguation 2nd on ICE raids 7 25

see heat death

sugar workers heat danger

also meatpacking essential workers covid

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AN 7 25

President Donald Trump has come under fire for remarks he made about undocumented immigrants performing farm labor, after claiming they do the challenging work “naturally.”

Trump has repeatedly flip-flopped on his position on undocumented immigrants working on farms, moving from demanding “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” to declaring accommodations must be made for them—in large part because the farmers cannot operate without them. Trump has called some undocumented farm workers “almost impossible to replace.”

Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday (video below), the President claimed that currently there is a program where these undocumented immigrants can get a “pass” to return to the U.S. legally after they receive “schooling.”

“We’re doing things that are that are very difficult to do and very complex, but it works really well,” Trump claimed. “We’re sending them back, and then they’re schooling, they’re learning, they’re coming in, they’re coming in legally. We have a lot of that going on, but we’re taking care of our farmers.”

IFrame Content

“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody, you know, these are these people, they’re—you can’t replace them very easily.”

He then went on to claim that “people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work, and they’ve tried, we’ve tried, everybody tried , they don’t do it.”

“These people do it naturally, naturally,” he said of the undocumented.

He went on to describe a recent conversation he said he had with a farmer, where he asked, “What happens if they get a bad back?”

“He said, ‘They don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die.'”

“I said, ‘That’s interesting, isn’t it?'”

Critics blasted the president, with some describing his remarks as racist.

“This was literally one of the arguments that slave owners in the U.S. used to justify slavery,” noted attorney Joseph M. Azam.

Economist Sky Marchini said that Trump is “inventing entirely new forms of racism every day.”

...

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trump got some cals from agribiz cronies but 180 in days

an 7 25

One day after appearing in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tell reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented farm workers while insisting adults on Medicaid could replace them, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins faced sharp criticism for having no “concrete” plan to meet what she declared is the Trump administration’s goal of an entirely “legal” U.S. farm worker workforce.

“It sounds like you don’t yet have a concrete proposal to deal with farmers who rely on undocumented workers, am I right?” a Fox News Business host asked (video below).

“Well, no, we are working on it. We’re working on a concrete proposal,” Secretary Rollins insisted.

“You’re working on it but that’s not a concrete proposal,” the host sharply charged.

IFrame Content

“Well, no, the president has been very, very clear. We need to make sure that the food supply is safe,” Rollins said, before insisting that “ultimately, we have to move toward a 100% legal workforce, and that’s what this president stands for, and that’s what we’re doing.”

“The mass deportations will continue, but the president has been very clear that we have to make sure we’re not compromising our food supply at the same time,” Rollins said before declaring that “Congress has to fix it,” and U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer “is on it.”

“The border has to be secure and there will be no amnesty,” Rollins added, before the host again pointed out the administration has no plan yet.

“It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’s fair to say there is a concrete proposal when you’re still working out details to try to deal with the needs of farmers who need a lot of these undocumented workers and at the same time not providing an amnesty.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Project Censored

08.02.24 - 1:00pm

Scorched States, Where Heat Kills Workers / Media and Immigration Narratives

first half of the show, cohost Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Juley Fulcher — attorney and worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress watch division — about her recent report, Scorched States, an expose of the inadequate or wholly lacking protections for workers facing extreme heat in the age of climate chaos. Juley describes the legislative morass standing in the way of workers’ rights and how states like Florida and Texas have actually made it illegal to protect workers.

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Scorched States - Public Citizen

Key Findings

As many as 2,000 workers die and 170,000 workers are injured from laboring in extreme heat every year in the United States.
Worker heat-stress tragedies disproportionately strike workers who are poor, Black and Brown.
Every workplace illness, injury and fatality caused by heat stress is avoidable, and relatively simple preventative measures – water, shade and breaks — have proven extremely effective at protecting workers.
The federal government has failed to issue rules to protect workers from excessive heat, although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working on a heat standard. That new rule is not expected to be finalized until 2026 or beyond.
A handful of states have taken action where the federal government has failed. California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota have issued heat stress standards.
Maryland OSHA has made substantial progress in developing an indoor/outdoor heat standard and, despite recent hiccups, California has also made good progress in developing an indoor heat standard. Both states could issue standards within a few months.
Most states have failed to act to protect workers, even as the climate crisis worsens and summer heat records are repeatedly shattered around the country.
The Texas and Florida state legislatures have blocked efforts by local governments to protect workers from heat stress.
Climate change is dramatically increasing workplace heat stress dangers — supercharging longer summers, more record-breaking extreme heat days, and intransigent heat domes that create longer and hotter heat waves reaching every corner of the country.

Introduction

Fifty million workers in the U.S. will face excruciating heat in the coming months. For some, that heat will be fatal.[[1]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn1)

The right to a safe workplace is a basic human right.[[2]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn2) Exposure to excessive heat is one of the most dangerous problems facing workers today. Tens of thousands of workers suffer heat illnesses, injuries and fatalities every year in the U.S.

The toll of unaddressed workplace heat stress on workers’ lives and well-being is immeasurable. This is a toll disproportionately borne by Black and Brown workers, and low-income workers with limited options for safer employment.[[3]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn3) Latino workers are three times more likely to die of heat stress.[[4]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn4) Latinos make up a third of construction workers and 75% of farmworkers in the U.S.,[[5]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn5) the two jobs with the highest rate of heat fatalities.[[6]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn6)

The failure of employers to protect employees from workplace heat stress is costing the U.S. economy nearly $100 billion every year.[[7]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn7) Employers are losing money in reduced productivity, absenteeism, overtime costs, repair or replacement of equipment vehicles and property due to accidents, increased workers’ compensation premiums, lawsuits for negligence, and loss of reputation and goodwill.[[8]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn8)

Every workplace injury and fatality caused by heat stress is avoidable, and relatively simple preventative measures have proven extremely effective at protecting workers. It is both the social and legal responsibility of employers to create a work environment safe from heat hazards.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for protecting the safety and health of workers. The agency is tasked with promulgating rules to reduce hazards in the workplace, educating employers and holding employers accountable when they fail to put appropriate safety measures in place.

Fifty years ago, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) studied the effects of heat stress on workers and recommended that OSHA adopt an occupational heat standard. Though efforts are underway to do so, we are still years away from seeing a federal heat standard.

A handful of state and local governments have stepped in to create protections from heat stress for their workers. As policymakers look to the guidance provided by NIOSH and experts in occupational hygiene, the state standards bear many similarities but differ in key ways. The standards vary in the industries regulated and the details of protocols employers are required to put in place to protect workers.

Background

Despite the horrifying images of ever more brutal hurricanes, tornadoes and floods we frequently see in the news, extreme heat is the leading weather-related killer.[[9]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn9) Globally, nearly half a million people die each year because of extreme heat.[[10]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn10) The problem is rapidly intensifying. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record, with 2023 surpassing them all.[[11]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn11) The northern hemisphere experienced its hottest summer in 2,000 years.[[12]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn12)

Recent decades have been the warmest in the last 150 centuries in the U.S.[[13]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn13) Record-setting termperatures and heat waves are becoming the new norm.[[14]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn14) Extreme temperatures in the contiguous U.S. are expected to increase faster than temperature averages.[[15]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn15)

The summer of 2023 saw the thermometer top out at eye-popping temperatures throughout much of the U.S. Hundreds of millions of people across the nation saw triple digit temperatures.[[16]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn16) Intransigent heat domes sat over large swaths of the country all summer, causing brutal heat waves that lasted for weeks. The extraordinary heat that blanketed the U.S. set nearly 10,600 daytime high temperature records between May 1, 2023 and September 30, 2023, as well as more than 13,400 records for highest overnight minimum temperatures,[[17]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn17) the meteorological defining factor for heat waves.[[18]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn18)

After experiencing the warmest winter on record,[[19]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn19) the summer of 2024 is again expected to see far hotter temperatures than average[[20]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn20) and significant heat waves throughout the U.S.[[21]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn21) While the sizzling heat was felt the worst in the southern Plains, the Southeast and the West Coast last summer,[[22]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn22) the relentless heat is predicted to impose a particularly high toll on the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest and Northeast in the summer of 2024.[[23]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn23) The extreme outdoor heat will be accompanied by challenges in keeping indoor temperatures safe. The hot sun roasts buildings made with materials that absorb heat and lack proper cooling systems, causing indoor temperatures to swell beyond the outdoor temperature.

The human body has a complex regulatory system designed to keep our core temperature about 98.6 degrees. Heat stress refers to strain on that system as it tries to keep the body cool. Heat stress is a function of internally generated heat (metabolic heat), external environmental heat and other factors that reduce the effectiveness of our natural bodily cooling systems. The ambient temperature and radiant heat sources like direct sunlight and heat-generating machinery add to heat stress.[[24]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn24)

Metabolic heat production increases as workload increases. Sweat is produced so that the process of evaporation can release body heat and blood is pumped to the surface of the skin to be cooled by the surrounding air. However, high humidity reduces the evaporation of sweat and high environmental temperatures introduce more heat into the blood at the surface of the skin.

As the body’s natural thermoregulatory systems strain to keep the body cool, heat-related illness can occur. Heat illnesses range in severity from mild heat rash to more severe illnesses such as rhabdomyolysis, acute kidney injury, heat stroke and heat-stress induced cardiac arrest. Workers who survive these more critical heat-related illnesses are often burdened with long term health effects, including muscle damage, organ damage and chronic kidney disease. Excessive heat in the workplace can also exacerbate existing chronic conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, COPD and cardiac disease, complicating the health care of these workers and potentially shaving years off their lives.

The symptoms of heat-related illnesses include heavy sweating, fatigue, nausea, headache, loss of balance and cognitive function, fainting, muscle cramps, and more. These symptoms can easily lead to accidents with a range of consequences to one or more people, including injuries, long-term disabilities or even fatalities.

Federal Efforts to Issue a Protective Heat Standard

In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act),[[25]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn25) a clear declaration that our national workforce deserves a safe and healthy workplace. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon, the OSH Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with a directive to issue and enforce workplace safety standards. However, both OSHA and the Act that created it were seen as highly contentious by industry from the start.[[26]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn26)

Under corporate pressure, the goals of the OSH Act have been undermined in both Republican and Democratic administrations.[[27]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn27) Each effort by OSHA to create a new standard has been met by cries that regulating the hazard would cripple entire industries. Despite the fact that no industry has crumbled in the face of new safety requirements, the process of developing standards has become more arduous over the years.

OSHA issued nearly 50 standards in its first three decades addressing a wide range of dangers in the workplace — toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, asbestos, blood-borne pathogens, falls from roofs and scaffolding, industrial accidents, and noise.[[28]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn28) An increasing number of procedural requirements have been imposed by statutes and executive orders since 1980. Combined with institutional apprehension in setting standards following adverse court decisions, the number of standards finalized has dropped dramatically since 2000 and the average time needed to develop a standard currently stands at seven to eight years.[[29]](https://www.citizen.org/article/scorched-states/#_ftn29)

In 2021, the Biden administration initiated the rulemaking process on a standard to prevent heat-related illnesses, injuries and fatalities in both indoor and outdoor workers. OSHA has worked diligently to complete each step in the process and will hopefully be able to issue a proposed rule in the coming months. A change in the political winds could derail further progress on development of the standard. But even if the process remains on track, a finalized federal occupational heat standard is likely still a couple of years away.

Comparison of State Heat Standards...

===

history

kpfa 7 am 4/1/24

https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-april-1-2024/

Two repeats on this Cesar Chavez day:

00:08 Bruce Neuburger,longtime radical activist who spent most of the 1970s working in California’s vegetable fields during the heyday of the United Farm Workers. His book is called _Lettuce Wars: Ten Years of Work and Struggle in the Fields of California_ [interview originally aired in 2014]

00:33 Kathryn S. Olmsted,history professor at UC Davis, discussing her book Right out of California: the 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism

interview originally aired in 2015]

insurance corp, oil corps and ---- bought farmland

hoover beat, brooded, boosted dick nixon

agribiz biggest sector; hired W&B

2017 talk 1 hr

aclu talk imp valley cops gas, goons grbbed him from restaurant beaten, fire threat to brand; wrecked car, took shoes and wallet in desert; aclu sent 5 layers, all beaten, fled 1934.

ca farms bigger than rest of us; sf la corps hired local mgr hire labor contractor, hire workers, CW called factories in the fields;

In a major reassessment of modern conservatism, noted historian Kathryn S. Olmsted reexamines the explosive labor disputes in the agricultural fields of Depression-era California, the cauldron that inspired a generation of artists and writers and that triggered the intervention of FDR's New Deal. Right Out of California tells how this brief moment of upheaval terrified business leaders into rethinking their relationship to American politics - a narrative that pits a ruthless generation of growers against a passionate cast of reformers, writers, and revolutionaries.

Olmsted reveals how California's businessmen learned the language of populism with the help of allies in the media and entertainment industries, and in the process created a new style of politics: corporate funding of grassroots groups, military-style intelligence gathering against political enemies, professional campaign consultants, and alliances between religious and economic conservatives.

The business leaders who battled for the hearts and minds of Depression-era California, moreover, would go on to create the organizations that launched the careers of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. A riveting history in its own right, Right Out of California is also a vital chapter in our nation's political transformation whose echoes are still felt today.

avg wage 10c/hr kids at 7 10 hr/day 6-7 days/wk. march 1933 start new deal; 1933 NIRA sect 7a rt to organize and bargain collectively , govt will protect Const rt; nothing in law mention farm, but So Dems cotton goes to seed; fdr neeeded so dems to pass bills, so clarification only factory; they are union mad and led to believe the govt upholds them in their stand” bureaucrat; FDR told all to join unions, but ppl did not know about carve-outs;

1933 50k farmworkers CA go out on strike and wait for gov’t help; commie org scramble to help; cotton harvest in san joaquin vly asked for nat’l min wage NIRA; 2oK central vly; caravan to where pickers worked, blew bugles; herbert hoover 4 farms ctl valley,insur co, bank, RR utilities... growers controlled ciops, vigilantes; disarmrichfrmer DL; evicted so set up camp on small farmer land; 5k bakersfield; after 10 days rally vigilantes, fired into crowd 2 kia, many wounded oct 1933;

George Creel W coast NRA head; strikes ~ recovery; visalia pat chambers jailed after shootings; growrs get lot of gov’t money (canals) corps had been pro new deal, dams, irrigation canal, roads, airports; agroc adjust act subsidy to not grow cotton; govt invest millions in this crop; gotta talk to famers not the commies; arbitration asked for 1 dollar per 100 lbs 60 compromise at 75 cents; still growers po. by all that is fair and just, have the am farmersd no rights over Communists and aliens? [mex] visalia times delta;

see govt as enemy, organize; creel ets death threats; wwi hero general imp vly fail; did not threat to take subsidies as creel had; govt in league w/ commies and aliens; crim syndicalism post WWI bolshevik panic used ~ IWW cannot advocate for new sys of property owning; commie fameworkers in scato hq, DA refused, but got AG? to appt spec prosecutor; 18 leaders = sedition paid for by growers, paid for witness, evidence, 8 convicted to state prison (long but got after a few years, union collapsed; PR campaign ~ ND radical, Ca in danger of takeover, worked w/ newspapers consev then is there a red menace 1930’ in LA LAT; james cagney gave money to caroline decker sacto bee, had to refute; pol camp W&B 1933 sacto, gov ~ Uppie 1st statewide campaign; 1934 --> dem, won primary; common prop ownership; pioneered techniques dark $ corps and olig 10 to 1 $; cannot beat him on econ ideas, so cultural threat lib dem = soc= commie, so threat to home, fam, church; mobilized MC and conserv women; backs against waLL NOW must fight, one woman in each town; gun pix DAR 1935 ~ commie invasion Am Women Inc dinner dance and target practice; comies from Mex invade; [penetrator pulp fiction?]

corocoran steinbeck dubious battle apple, but actually cotton; guy actually survived by ostracized by big guys;

Nixon, HH one of richest in CA; HH liked redbait in 1934, looked for cands, discover and encourage dick, got biz backing in 1946, letters for decades; nixon hired W&B; thier guys trained RR camp workers; QA lapore lie factory; uppie; ww2 killed farm unions --> Braceros; end 1964 --> UFW

congress invest labor CA relate bc D lange pix white --> ww2; okies did not want to eat w/ filipino and blks; problem for IWW; when crop done, the groups split to new crops; fear of illegals voting, challenged in LA; failed but if uppie won wd have been used ~; chehapachie prison out early b/c taught piano, 4 kids in marin married a atty; pat chambers when out also stopped being labor organizer [instruction to jury wrong, out early vs 20 yrs] 1939 hitler pact; years lawyer delano old guy wants to meet; why wait, redbait; 51 min; sf strike led to ladies target practice; nixon and HH quakers; HH did not think govty shd help social justice, prot nat’lism; 1960’s scotus tossed ca sedition act? crim syn ACT ~ FREE SP BC REQ NO ACTION vs incite to riot, vs advocate collective ownership; imp vly most concentrated, more over time not quite as bad ctrl vly; cotton plantation 100k acres; lots were southerners worker and owner; 1886 did not know; commie HQ SJ --> sacto, to get attn of lawmakers;

fed govt orig limited acreage for cheap water, overturned in late 50’s?;

many langs, unions did not want to live in shacks, so commies 1%, biggest out side of NY; pat chambers oil worker, wobbly; caroline decker 21 yo in 1934, harlan cty kty coal petite blonde so seemed American parents russ immigr;

RR // cannery [counts as factory new deal?]

hearst owns 5 pprs, 1:3 C chandler LAT ~ ND

army forming in WA wil invade, blow up bridges, take over fields ...all commie HQ attacked after SF gen’l strike;

Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California - Carey McWilliams - Google Books preview

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an 2 23

United States Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) on Wednesday refuted Republican vilification of immigrants and expressed gratitude for the life-and-death sacrifices that countless thousands of them made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Many Republicans in Congress seem intent on demonizing migrant families and asylum seekers, portraying them as fentanyl traffickers and violent criminals. In the real world, asylum seekers are vulnerable individuals and families fleeing political persecution and torture," Schiff said. "And these terrible stereotypes that my Republican colleagues are peddling have real-world consequences and bring real-world harm as they increase the level of hate and violence directed at immigrants here at home."

In April 2022, studies conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that "the risk of infection with COVID-19 among migrant workers was twice as high as among native-born workers in several countries. But many migrant workers have had to balance the risk of getting sick at work with the risk of losing employment or income."

Schiff touched upon those socioeconomic inequities in his address.

"Let me just take this opportunity to recognize the many immigrants who risked their lives during the pandemic to take care of us when we were sick in the hospital with COVID, who brought food to our grocery stores and delivered goods to our doors, who worked in our fields so we would not go hungry and who died disproportionately because they could not work from home," he said, adding that "I want to say thank you for your courage. Our country is better off for having you here."

Watch below or at this link.

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raga pacific legal? takings? david bacon kpfa

https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/06/supreme-court-california-farmworker-unions-property-rights/

no lnx

Supreme Court limits California union recruiting in favor of property rights

BY KATE CIMINI JUNE 23, 2021UPDATED JUNE 24, 2021

Crew workers carry picking ladders over unsold citrus in a field near Rocky Hill Drive and Spruce Road in Exeter on Monday, June 14, 2021. Ron Holman / Visalia Times-Delta

IN SUMMARY

Commercial growers celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid, but farmworker unions say this will make it harder for them to access workers and advocate for their rights.

In a blow to labor, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a decades-old California rule inspired by César Chávez that allowed union organizers to meet with farmworkers at their place of work. Commercial growers applauded the conservative court’s ruling to uphold property rights while union representatives vowed not to be deterred.

Two agricultural producers filed suit after organizers with the United Farm Workers sought to access their property to speak with farmworkers. The plaintiffs in Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid, Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company, argued the California regulation requiring them to provide access up to three hours a day, 120 days a year was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Dorris-based Cedar Point Nursery grows strawberry plants for commercial growers near the Oregon border; Fowler Packing Company in Fresno ships grapes and citrus.

Today’s 6-3 ruling fell along ideological lines, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreeing with the growers. They held that the access regulations allowed “physical invasion” of the land without compensation.

While growers celebrated the decision, labor activists say it will now be harder to access workers and advocate for their rights. As the decision was announced they vowed it won’t stop them from growing their ranks.

Win for property rights, loss for farmworker unions

Monterey County Farm Bureau Executive Director Norm Groot, who runs the private nonprofit association of farmers and ranchers on California’s Central Coast, characterized the court’s decision as a big win for ag, landowners and farm operations.

Groot said the decision championed property rights while prioritizing private farm operation security and food safety.

“It’s good for food safety that you don’t have visitors making incursions into fields to talk to employees while they’re on break, at lunch or working,” he said.

The Western Growers’ Association, a private organizationthat advocates for produce farmers in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, also applauded the decision, calling it a “simple property rights case” and union organizers “trespassers.”

Not all California farmers are impacted by the decision.

John D’Arrigo, CEO of D’Arrigo Brothers in Salinas, said the Supreme Court decision wouldn’t change the way he works with the United Farm Workers (UFW). The company sells produce under the brand name Andy Boy.

His workers have been unionized through the organization for about 40 years. The contracts explicitly allow union reps access to the property and the farmworkers.

“We haven’t really had a problem at all because we’re used to it,” D’Arrigo said. “We’ve got a system, everybody understands the rules, and, quite frankly, we’ve been getting along famously with the UFW for many years, now.

“If you don’t have a contract and aren’t used to (organizers accessing your property), I could see it upsetting people. But for us, it’s a way of life,” he said.

Labor organizers absorbed the blow and said that the decision wouldn’t stop them from working with farmworkers.

UFW Vice President Lauro Barajas was disappointed to hear the Supreme Court had ruled against labor, but not frustrated.

“There’s always something that inspires or pushes us to continue our work,” he said. “The frustration is like giving up, and we can’t give up.”

Barajas said the Supreme Court decision favored growers, who he said historically have had all the power in the employer-worker relationship. The recent ruling, he said, gives growers even more power.

“It’s not good news, but normally we don’t live with good news,” Barajas said.

Union rule stems back to farm labor movement

Agricultural employees working on farms have been excluded from federal labor law since 1935.

Following efforts by Chávez and other farm labor leaders, California created the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Among other things, the regulation allowed organizers to access farmer property a maximum of three hours a day, 120 days a year, in order to speak with their employees and drum up support for unionization.

Businesses are supposed to be notified before organizers arrive, and organizers are then allowed to come during nonwork times such as lunch and before and after work. It is rare that organizers use the regulation –– California said organizers took advantage of it just five times in the 2019-2020 budget year and 24 times the prior year.

Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company challenged the regulation as unconstitutional and outdated, given that unions can now reach workers in many ways, including smartphones and radio.

The UFW told the justices that the regulation is more necessary now than ever. The union said farmworkers are increasingly indigenous workers from Mexico and the only effective way to communicate with them is in-person, at their job sites, as many don’t have cell phones and speak only indigenous languages.

“A lot of these workers are living in labor camps owned by the employer, are transported to and from their worksites and these folks are isolated,” UFW Director of Strategic Campaigns Elizabeth Strater said. “They never leave their employers’ property. In some instances, they are isolated by design.”

Implications of Supreme Court ruling for property rights

The access regulation is unique to California. But unions and others had argued that ruling for the businesses could threaten regulations that allow the government to access private property to conduct workplace health and safety inspections, among other things.

Calling the farm labor system racist and unequal, Strater said she found it ironic “that Supreme Court justices who pride themselves on supporting local and state rules over federal rules have decided that farmworkers should lose under both.

“The Supreme Court has failed to balance a farmer’s property rights with a farmworker’s human rights,” she said.

During March court arguments heard by telephone, the Associated Press reported Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the court had decades ago considered how to balance the rights of unions and property owners. The court concluded that there could be “no access unless you can show that there are no alternative means of communication that exists,” he said.

The ruling is the latest hit to unions by the court under Roberts.

In 2018, the court’s conservative majority overturned a 41-year-old pro-union decision that allowed states to require that public employees pay some fees to unions that represent them, even if the workers choose not to join.

Still, it’s unclear how much will change as a result of the court’s ruling.

Michael Droke, a senior partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney in its Food and Agriculture group, advises California agriculture corporations and co-ops. He suggested agricultural employers review policies and practices regarding on-farm access, and clearly mark their property, in order to ensure they can establish property lines for purposes of union access.

“Unions are still allowed to contact employers off the grower’s premises,” he said. “It is often easy to see where the grower’s employees are located, because employee cars are parked at the side of the field. However, bussing workers to the job site may create wage and hour risk under generally-applicable California law.”

For the record, this story has been updated to correct Norm Groot’s title with the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

This article is part of the California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.

---

an 320

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/the-farm-workforce-modernization-act-does-not-solve-the-farm-labor-dilemma/

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's not just the threat of heat stress that is escalating. Our new research shows thatrising temperatures due to climate change are making some pesticides up to 100 times as toxic.Current laws leave farmworkers at grave risk of injury and death—but we can help change that.

Urge your US representative to cosponsor the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act

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https://www.ecowatch.com/berry-farmers-break-free-from-big-agriculture-2600437192.html

Berry Farmers Break Free From Big Agriculture

By Lynsi Burton

For the first time, Ramon Torres maintains control over his livelihood. He chooses what to farm and how to farm it, free from pesticides that harm workers, under working conditions he helps set.

The 22 acres of juicy strawberries and blueberries he farms belong to him and three others under Cooperativa Tierra y Libertad ("Land and Liberty Cooperative"), a farm co-op founded in 2013to meet consumer demand for berries farmed under nonexploitative conditions and worker demand for a fair paycheck and safe working conditions. The co-op prides itself on organic farming and livable wages for its workers.

When Torres worked at Sakuma Brothers berry farms in Skagit County, Washington, several years ago, he and his fellow farmworkers endured low wages, unpaid breaks, and exposure to pesticides.

A co-worker, Federico Lopez, was firedimmediately after requesting a raise, and, along the way, the workers learned they weren't paid for rest breaks.

A strike organized by Familias Unidas por la Justicia—and a federal class-action lawsuit resolved in 2015—afforded them more benefits, including the paid rest breaks, and propelled Sakuma Brothers workers to secure a union contract in 2016that improved their working conditions and led to farmworkers getting paid a minimum of $12 per hour.

In April, a Washington state Supreme Court decisiondetermined that piece workers—workers paid by how much produce they harvest—must be paid at an equal rate for any work that doesn't involve direct piece work, such as downtime and travel between fields.

"All the bad things about housing, treatment of workers—everything changed," Torres said through an interpreter.

But in the lead-up to the court-ordered changes, Torres and several other workers were starting to think about other solutions. They asked themselves: What if we set the standard for our own working conditions and own the land we work?

Torres and three others—with the support of food sovereignty and worker solidarity nonprofit Community to Community—formed a cooperative in which members own and live on the land they farm and will, if all goes according to plan, making enough income selling their crops at markets. They worked amid the long hours and demands from family, work, and life.

This summer is the first harvest season for Cooperativa Tierra y Libertad. The co-op now owns and farms berry fields in the rural towns of Sedro-Woolley and Lynden. They're now producing 150 to 200 boxes each week to sell in markets throughout the region and have laid the groundwork to establish a community-supported agriculture subscription service next year.

And it's all organic, which is a primary tenet of the co-op's mission.

Inspiration

Torres and the three other workers—Pedro Torres, Modesto Hernandez Leal, and Tomas Ramon—began organizing the co-op as part of Ramon Torres's efforts with Familias Unidas por la Justicia, where he was organizing workers to make demands of Sakuma Brothers.

They did so with the support of C2C, which trained the workers using a culturally relevant curriculum in how to form a cooperative. While the four worker-owners farm the land and make all decisions, C2C pitches in with administrative work, marketing, and other tasks the owners need support with as the cooperative gets going.

The co-op members all worked at corporate farms before and are doing their own farming for the first time, said Rosalinda Guillén, executive director at C2C. She is also a farmworker organizer who grew up on a Skagit County berry farm. They're training as they're doing the work, she said.

Torres was forced to change course after the Sakuma Brothers strike; while he helped get his coworker reinstated, he was fired.

So, using the lessons he learned from his union activism, he sought to gain greater control of his livelihood.

He and the Cooperativa Tierra y Libertad members agreed on their founding principles.

"When we came together, we decided what we wanted: working with organics, no pesticides, good wages, and the most important thing was not to have a boss ordering [me] around or telling me what to do," Torres said.

Farmworkers often encounter abusive situations, ranging from wage theft to eviction to injury and illness, Guillén said. They're typically left powerless because employers can retaliate against complaints by firing workers, she added.

State agencies exercise control over working conditions and pesticide use—and C2C participates in rulemaking processes—but within the parameters of these overarching laws, the co-op sets additional rules about how it raises its crops and treats its workers.

The workers of the co-op have had to overcome barriers.

"The time and intellectual power to change from capitalism to cooperativism requires a lot of energy and time," Guillén said.

All four co-op founders are currently working other jobs—in corporate agriculture—to support themselves as they get Cooperativa Tierra y Libertad off the ground.

Guillén said their aim isn't riches, but a preservation of their heritage as they secure their rights.

"They don't want their kids to leave agriculture. They want their children to grow food the right way," she said. "It's more about leaving a legacy and changing the system than making tons of money."

Organic

Among the most effective efforts of the Trump administration is the dismantling of environmental regulations. Last year, former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reversed a ban on chlorpyrifos, an insecticide known to harm children's brains and the nervous system. Just more than a month later, 50 farmworkers in Bakersfield, California, were poisoned by chlorpyrifos. Only a month later, 17 workers planting celery starts in the Salinas area fell ill after nine different pesticideswere applied to area fields.

A federal court ordered the EPA ban chlorpyrifosin August, two years after EPA scientists found that the chemical affected the air quality in the largely agricultural California towns of Salinas, Ripon and Shafter.

Guillén said if the worker-owners want to see a post-pesticide world, they must put it into action.

"It's more valuable for us to form a model and example of how farmworkers can grow food without pesticides," Guillén said. "If we don't grow organic ourselves, we can't argue our point."

Farmworkers are the first to be affected by pesticides, and the physical protection they might wear, like gloves, doesn't always help. They still can't remove every trace of pesticides from their bodies, Guillén said.

"Why do we have to go out in the fields looking like robots?" she said, referring to the protective equipment workers wear in the fields. "We just don't want this stuff in the field. It is better that robots do it because it's killing us."

And then there's the damage to the soil, air, water supply, and the pesticides that remain on food.

Torres sees symptoms of pesticide irritation among farmworkers: swollen eyes and faces and, once, white spots on a worker's hands.

"As farmworkers, pesticides are harming us," Torres said. "We don't have the option of saying, 'Do or don't apply pesticides.' We just go to work. We have to work at the mercy of whatever company is there."

And to Torres, farming organic isn't a way of growing that belongs to White, wealthy people—it's traditional, and a practice passed down through generations.

"We're all used to growing our food without the need of pesticides or chemicals," he said of their ancestral heritage. "We want to follow that tradition to not use pesticides."

Vision

Torres has fielded compliments on the Cooperativa's produce and sees the product posted on social media, where the union and its workers are tagged. They're set to buy 60 more acres in Lynden in the coming weeks.

The co-op's 10-year vision includes 100 acres, 10 houses, meeting areas, and spaces where the farmworkers can practice their native art, Torres said. Most of the workers are indigenous, often Mixteco or Trique.

They'd also like to foster additional co-ops that will grow other crops, including testing different varieties of corn. If all goes as planned, the corn co-op would sell to a co-op tortilleria—building a "local, solidarity economy," Guillén said.

Meanwhile, the co-op employs eight workers separate from the worker-owners and pays them $15 an hour. Guillén said the four worker-owners will start making money on their enterprise in about three years.

Torres continues to work other jobs to support his two kids until the union can provide full-time income. His wife also works as a union member.

"Right now I try to take advantage of harvest so I can make a little money," he said. "It's a lot of work, it's not easy, but we're moving slowly and advancing."

Reposted with permission from our media associate YES! Magazine.

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becerra ag

May. 30, 2018

Pesticide safety

California sued to prevent the EPA from suspending the Worker Protection Standard, which requires safety training for agricultural workers handling dangerous pesticides.Read more

Result: The EPA backed down two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, announcing it would implement the standard after all.

WINNER: CALIFORNIA