Photo by lightmatter

A recent Yahoo! News article brought to light the hardships of California’s farm workers.  You can read the original article here.  A lawsuit is underway due to the deaths by heatstroke of five farm workers.  The core body temperature of one guy was 108 degrees!  So why did this happen?  Looks like good old-fashioned corporate greed.

The first things that came to mind were: Don’t they have laws to protect these workers?  Or, did their employers ever hear of a water break?  This would seem to be the sensible route, given that it’s FREAKIN’ HOT working out in the fields.  I didn’t know if I should start boycotting the California Raisins.

Well, apparently there was a law passed in 2005.  In fact, California was the first state to implement the nation’s first heat-illness standard.  So why did these five people die in the blistering heat?  You guessed it.  The enforcement agency is woefully understaffed.  Another kick in the ass: the number of farm worker heat-related deaths has actually increased since the law went into effect:

Catherine Lhamon, assistant legal director for the ACLU of Southern California, said, “The state’s system is so full of loopholes that compliance is effectively optional, and employers flout the law with impunity.” According to the lawsuit, the current regulation fails to adopt the safeguards that have “long been put into practice by employers ranging from firefighters to the United States’ military services.”

Yet another law with no teeth.  I just started a diet yesterday, and fruits were one of the things that I could eat.  Looks like I’ll be hitting the local farm stands for my fruit.  I’m not going to get lean at the expense of these exploited workers.  I’m sure they’re not making much.  Couldn’t they get a cool drink and a bit of shade?  It appears the big growers, who own most of the land, don’t have a conscience:

Lawyers for the farm workers say that the big growers, who own the land and who most profit by the workers’ labors, have little incentive to ensure adequate water and shade because farm-labor contractors employ the farm workers. In addition, says the lawsuit, employers see little reason to comply with the regulation because “those few violators who are occasionally identified generally escape with little or no punishment.” Attorney Bradley Phillips of Munger, Tolles & Olson says the way to improve worker safety is to “create the maximum economic incentive” for the large growers. Under the current system, labor contractors are potentially liable, but they are “not well capitalized and often have no fixed assets.” What is necessary, says Phillips, is to impose a fine or some sort of penalty on the grower.

I don’t want to sound like a socialist, but even though the middleman is liable, basic human decency should make the big growers accountable for the people who put money in their coffers.  They should read Cody Lundin’s book to see what a high core temperature does to a human body:

Even if the farm workers read Cody’s book, they would still be out of luck.  They have no right to a rest break until they are experiencing symptoms, and by then it’s often too late.  I used to do landscaping when I was younger.  My boss would make us take breaks, lest we pass out from the heat and dehydration.  I worked at that job for five years, and never had a heat-related illness.  I was a lowly grunt doing manual labor, but my employer made sure that I stayed safe.  It would be nice if the farm workers were treated in kind.

What do you think?  Did this piss you off?  Let’s hear it in the comments.

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