Wed May 22 2013
Departments
National Issues

A summer of deadly heat
by Dick Meister
July 18, 2008

The summer heat is posing serious dangers for the farmworkers who’ve helped make California the nation’s leading supplier of fruits and vegetables.

The state has rules designed to protect workers from the devastating temperatures in the vineyards and fields that can hover near or above 100 degrees throughout much of the summer. The rules require mainly that workers have easy access to water and regular shade breaks.

But the rules are inadequate and, in any case, are routinely violated by growers and the labor contractors who hire crews for them, says the United Farm Workers union.

UFW President Arturo Rodriguez is certain “the state does not have the capacity to protect farmworkers … They are not being protected from the extreme heat they labor under to pick the food we have on our table.”

Overall statistics on deaths and illness caused by the heat are difficult – if not impossible – to come by. But the UFW and others cite individual cases that make the danger faced by farmworkers alarmingly clear.

Consider the death this year of a 17-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant, Maria Isabel Vasquez, which prompted UFW members and supporters to lead a four-day pilgrimage to the State Capitol in Sacramento to demand tougher and more tightly enforced heat regulations.

Maria, two months pregnant, collapsed in the arms of her 19-year-old husband-to-be, Florentino Bautista, following several hours of pruning grapes in 100-degree heat. They were working for a contractor who had been issued citations on three occasions for exposing workers to possible heat strokes and failing to train them to avoid heat stress – and who already owed the state more than $2,000 in fines. Authorities are investigating Bautista’s claim that Maria, whose body temperature reached 108, was denied shade and water.

Bautista said the pruning crew’s foreman recommended instead that she rest in a hot van and be revived with rubbing alcohol before he could take her to a nearby medical clinic, almost two hours later. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mexican officials said that, at any rate, Maria’s death was preventable. It could perhaps have been prevented by such a simple thing as placing jugs of water throughout the vineyard, as foremen did in response to the death.

Ramiro Carillo, a 48-year-old with two teenage children, was one of four workers to die of heat stroke in a recent two-week period. He died on the way to a hospital. Among the other victims was Abdon Felix Garcia, 42, a father of three children who died after several hours of loading and transporting boxes of table grapes. His core body temperature reached 108 degrees just before he died, matching the temperature in the vineyard.

Last year’s victims included 52-year-old Eladio Hernandez, who died of a heart attack while working in the sweltering heat of a Northern California orchard. His employer waited almost three hours before calling for medical assistance, and it didn’t arrive until Hernandez’ fellow workers called 911 on their own. The employer actually said he could not give employees suffering from the heat more or longer breaks than allowed the others because that “would be discrimination.”

Many workers have come forward with similar accounts of employer indifference, among them Jairo Luque, who works in the carrot fields: “The water runs out and they do not bring any more. Sometimes they bring tap water, which is not clean. Sometimes the water is hot. People are desperate because there’s no water. We are not camels than can be working without water.”

Vineyard worker Alfredo Alvarenga says if you’re fatigued and want to take a break then -- before or after your regular break -- forget it. “You just have to keep going. Workers are not allowed to take more breaks, because it’s work time and the supervisors cannot find you resting.”

Martin Zavalka, another vineyard worker, says “in the fields the temperature is 108-110 degrees. The company provides umbrellas for shade… very little umbrellas. Sometimes the umbrellas are broken and the company takes three or four days to replace them.”

Zeferina Castillo recalled a recent, typical Saturday: “It was really hot … four people fainted.”

Growers and labor contractors, says Arturo Rodriguez, have to realize that “the farmworker is not an agricultural implement. We’re not a tool, we’re human beings. People need to feel that the life of whoever it is who’s working in the fields is important.”

---
Copyright © 2008 Dick Meister. He's co-author of “A Long Time Coming: The Struggle to Unionize America’s Farm Workers” (Macmillan). Contact him through his website, www.dickmeister.com.




Recent National Issues Articles

Help at last for air traffic controllers
  December 30, 2008
  Dick Meister

Did Bush Sr. kill Kennedy and frame Nixon?
  December 28, 2008
  David Swanson

Class is a dirty word
  December 27, 2008
  Michael Parenti interviewed by Jason Miller

Dark prayer
  December 25, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

The pacifier tree
  December 18, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Three Party Time!
  December 8, 2008
  Christopher Bifani

With shot and shell or
  December 8, 2008
  Mike Ferner

Women bringing new strength to unions
  December 6, 2008
  Dick Meister

Redefining 'realism'
  December 5, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

As Congress lay dying
  December 2, 2008
  David Swanson

Barry Bonds' grand adventure
  November 29, 2008
  Dick Meister

You cannot pardon a crime you authorized
  November 28, 2008
  David Swanson

The ghosts of Desert Storm
  November 28, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Stacks of dead presidents or flesh and blood companions?
  November 23, 2008
  Jason Miller interviewed by Robert Turnbull

History IS SCREAMING
  November 22, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Scooter politics
  November 16, 2008
  Christopher Bifani

What if labor opposed war?
  November 16, 2008
  David Swanson

Hope and vision
  November 13, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Open Veterans' Day letter to the president-elect
  November 13, 2008
  James A. Lucas

Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller interview Derrick Jensen
  November 10, 2008
  Melissa Gragg, Jason Miller and Derrick Jensen

Obama cabinet good and bad news
  November 9, 2008
  David Swanson

How to treat a President-Elect
  November 9, 2008
  David Swanson

Labor's high hopes
  November 7, 2008
  Dick Meister

Let us shed tears of gratitude for this moment of grace. It will be brief.
  November 6, 2008
  Mike Ferner

A paradigm shift in America's intellectual community
  November 6, 2008
  Pablo Ouziel

Vigilante pals of Palin’s not so distant past
  October 28, 2008
  Russ Bellant

Monitoring the new president
  October 19, 2008
  Jim Lucas

ACORN's Response to Senator McCain's Smear Ad
  October 12, 2008
  ACORN President Maude Hurd

Time to create the economy we want; multiple crises in the U.S. presents an opportunity for real change
  October 11, 2008
  Kevin Zeese

It's the war crimes, Mickey
  October 11, 2008
  David Swanson

ACORN is not the nut here
  October 11, 2008
  David Swanson

Repeal Taft-Hartley!
  October 11, 2008
  Dick Meister

One nation under capitalism: It’s time for a crucifixion
  October 7, 2008
  Jason Miller

The Fed: The fox in America’s henhouse
  October 6, 2008
  James Heddle

One nation under capitalism: it’s time for a Crucifixion
  October 4, 2008
  Jason Miller

Power to the Cheaple!
  October 1, 2008
  Christopher Bifani

Why the bailout vote may fail
  September 29, 2008
  David Swanson

VFP lights the way
  September 7, 2008
  Mike Ferner

Raiding democracy in St. Paul
  September 2, 2008
  Kris Hermes, Coldsnap Legal Collective

It's Labor Day for great expectations
  August 27, 2008
  Dick Meister

Civilian diplomacy
  August 14, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

My heroes of history
  August 12, 2008
  Chuck Baldwin

Pelosi claims Republicans want impeachment
  August 6, 2008
  David Swanson

President's job is to pardon
  August 5, 2008
  David Swanson

Prosecuting Bush and Cheney
  August 4, 2008
  David Swanson

America's second-class workers
  August 2, 2008
  Dick Meister

Bush White House hides true scope of federal deficit
  August 1, 2008
  Richard A. Viguerie

The religious right is AWOL from the real war
  July 23, 2008
  Chuck Baldwin

American Samaritans
  July 22, 2008
  David Swanson

How they'll try to bury impeachment and fail
  July 20, 2008
  David Swanson

A summer of deadly heat
  July 18, 2008
  Dick Meister

Bong photo means trouble bubbling for Olympic swimmer
  July 18, 2008
  Tom Luffman

Murdering God: of shotguns, American capitalism, and moral expediency
  July 14, 2008
  Jason Miller

Steel rain
  July 10, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Rep. Virgil Goode swears he doesn't hate immigrants
  July 10, 2008
  David Swanson

George W. Bush to speak at Monticello on July 4
  July 1, 2008
  David Swanson

Veterans For Peace deliver 23,000 impeachment petitions to House Judiciary Chair Conyers
  June 16, 2008
  Mike Ferner

Obama debe aprender de la denuncia de mala conducta y de robo de elecciónes de Dennis Kucinich
  June 16, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Antioch college alumni: university leaders should step down
  June 8, 2008
  Laura Fathauer

Now what?
  June 7, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Will McCain name torture ships for big donors?
  June 4, 2008
  David Swanson

The watch list through the prism of global war on terrorism
  June 1, 2008
  Ahmad Al-Akhras, Ph.D.

Gee that's a funny GI Bill
  June 1, 2008
  David Swanson

The flip side of glory
  May 29, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Indictment and trial of Bush and Cheney
  May 27, 2008
  David Swanson

Gravediggers of the world unite! Capitalism must die...
  May 17, 2008
  Jason Miller

The penta-pundits
  May 16, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Conyers tells Bush Iran attack = Impeachment
  May 14, 2008
  John Conyers, Jr.

Long night sitting-in
  May 14, 2008
  Bruce K. Gagnon, http://www.space4peace.org

Apology denied
  May 9, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

The possible future
  May 3, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Desiree Fairooz was convicted today for calling out Condi
  May 2, 2008
  DC Indymedia

Truth wreckage
  April 25, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Jesus knows a camel when he sees one: We are NOT passing through the eye of that needle, America...
  April 7, 2008
  Jason Miller

Granny D says Bush guilty of treason, urges people to scare Congress into ending occupation
  April 6, 2008
  Doris "Granny D" Haddock

A tale of three men: Pete, Norman, and Bill - More from the take back America conference
  April 4, 2008
  Joan Brunwasser

We're sitting in at the House Judiciary Committee Office right now
  April 3, 2008
  David Swanson

Antioch College Alumni Outraged at University's Rejection of Bid; Vow to Continue to Fight and to Support "Nonstop Antioch"
  March 29, 2008
  Antiochians.org

White House official tells judge searching for missing emails too much work
  March 24, 2008
  Jason Leopold

An honor long due: Cesar Chavez
  March 24, 2008
  Dick Meister

How an unwanted guardianship cost a firefighter his freedom and his fortune
  March 22, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Will the Fourth Amendment be replaced by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act?
  March 18, 2008
  Pete Johnson

Nonviolent blockade of IRS headquarters
  March 17, 2008
  Frida Berrigan

National Lawyers Guild calls on Congress to override Bush veto of Intelligence Authorization bill
  March 12, 2008
  Marjorie Cohn

Free Press reporter at Cleveland's Obama-Clinton debate
  March 1, 2008
  David S. Lewis, National Affairs Editor

"Torture Memo" author used health care statute to form legal basis for waterboarding
  February 22, 2008
  Jason Leopold

How sick of it are you?
  February 20, 2008
  Mike Ferner

Non-electoral activism in a presidential election year
  February 18, 2008
  Ted Glick

Rep. Leonard Boswell signs onto Cheney impeachment
  February 18, 2008
  David Swanson

Taibbi gets it halfway right
  February 10, 2008
  David Swanson

Can your town ban the military from recruiting anyone under 18?
  February 8, 2008
  David Swanson

How Obama could create a long-term Democratic majority
  February 3, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

One of key SOTU lies was a rerun
  January 31, 2008
  David Swanson

Rep. Nadler holds hearing on state secrets
  January 30, 2008
  Shin Inouye

State of Union came with a signing statement
  January 30, 2008
  David Swanson

One Bush left behind
  January 29, 2008
  Greg Palast

The Iowa Caucus is decadent and depraved
  January 28, 2008
  David S. Lewis

No war, no warming, round two
  January 28, 2008
  Ted Glick

Road to impeachment and peace runs through Cleveland
  January 28, 2008
  David Swanson

No more investigations please
  January 26, 2008
  David Swanson

Does Hillary Clinton cross ethical lines?
  January 26, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Martin Luther King, Jr.: his day and today
  January 21, 2008
  Joan Brunwasser

What MLK said about change
  January 16, 2008
  David Swanson

Washington state Senator introduces resolution exhorting Congress to Impeach Cheney and Bush
  January 13, 2008
  David Swanson

The speech McCain should give
  January 13, 2008
  David Swanson

To Nancy, with all due respect
  January 12, 2008
  David Swanson

Bangor (Maine) Daily News first major newspaper to editorialize in favor of impeaching Cheney
  January 10, 2008
  Bangor Daily News

Protesting torture in front of the CIA
  January 10, 2008
  Washington Peace Center

ACLU of Florida calls for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney
  January 7, 2008
  David Swanson

Remembering the separation of powers
  January 6, 2008
  David Swanson

Rep. Mike Michaud writes strong letter to Conyers calling for Cheney impeachment hearings
  January 4, 2008
  Michael H. Michaud

Peace activists occupy Huckabee's Iowa campaign: "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"
  January 1, 2008
  Mike Ferner

Could Obama & Edwards team up in the caucuses?
  January 1, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Ron Paul in 2008? Just say no to Dr. No
  January 1, 2008
  Jason Miller




Read National Issues Articles by Year:
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000



FREE PRESS EMAIL UPDATE


Donate to the Free Press Election Protection Fund to help us investigate and monitor election fraud in this year's election.


Donate to The Free Press The Free Press Store

FOLLOW US ON
twitter
facebook


SEARCH THE FREEPRESS




1021 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43205 | 614.253.2571 | truth@freepress.org
All content © 1970-2012 The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer