Knights Landing – Although it was not yet at noon, the temperature was already approaching three figures, and it felt even warmer for the scores of agricultural workers full in the rows of watermelon plants in this field nestled by a turn in the Sacramento river north of the capital of California. They were dressed in long -sleeved shirts, pants and face coverings to protect their skin from the sun and tiny points on the watermelon vines, and they leaned and stood again and again, snatching the flowers of each plant carefully.
Their boss, Jose Chavez, said that he is trying to be vigilant about the danger of heat disease, ensuring that there was a lot of drinking water in the fields and that workers can take breaks in the shade and eliminate early days. It was a lesson he said that he had learned of the hard time, after having had to invoke ambulances in the fields of past summer because the workers were hampered by a heat stroke.
“We learned that,” he said. “When you start taking people to the hospital, it’s not fun.”
This lesson, however, has not remained with many employers, and 20 years after California promulgated a historic thermal safety law, state agricultural workers are still sick and sometimes die from preventable heat disease. Defenders and some legislators say that an angry law application system is often to blame.
The sun shines above workers collecting tomatoes on Friday in wood.
The law “fails due to a lack of application.” It does not do what it was intended to do, “said state senator, Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), a former agricultural worker who had brought legislation last year, which would have enabled agricultural workers to receive the compensation of workers more easily if they were struck by the thermacious by the therosphere at work. The measure was veto by Governor Gavin Newsom. “This is the kind of thing that should keep legislators at night. People die. “
Last month, the state auditor California went bankrupt California Department of Occupational Health and SafetyNoting, among other problems, that agency inspectors have not taken the appropriate measures when workers suffered from thermal disease at work. The audit also noted that the agency was in the sub-effective, and many of its procedures up to date.
In addition, an examination of the time of several recent heat deaths in Californian farms found cases where Cal / Osha has issued some penalties or no penalties, even at the death of the workers. In May 2023, for example, a maize harvesting worker near Brawley fell behind his colleagues and then complained of stomach pain and began to convulse. He was transported urgently to the hospital, where he died of a heat stroke, insufficient organ and “underlying medical problems”. Cal / Osha closed his investigation without penalties, according to the files.
An agricultural worker releases a brushing of an agricultural irrigation channel in the woods.
An agricultural worker makes repairs of a tractor in recently collected land in Woodland on Friday.
In a press release, the deputy director of communications of Cal / Osha, Daniel Lopez, said that the managers “recognize the conclusions and recommendations of the state auditor” and worked to make improvements. The press release also said that Cal / OSHA recently created a working group on the application of the agricultural law to improve working conditions for agricultural workers.
The application keys intervene at a time when agricultural workers – many of which lack legal status and fear expulsion – already hesitate to express complaints concerning working conditions, fearing that employers can retaliate by signaling them to the immigration authorities. It is estimated that more than half of the 350,000 agricultural workers in California are undocumented.
This week, when the hottest temperatures of summer descend just when the harvest season reaches its peak – and at a time when the Trump administration has intensified immigration raids across California – some say that agricultural workers are faced with more risks that have ever been confronted.
“On the other hand, we have seen agricultural workers do without the thermal security protections to which they are legally entitled,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers Union. The system for applying the prevention of “does not work” state heat diseases.
The view of a drone of agricultural workers collecting tomatoes on Friday in wood.
Historical heat laws of California have been set up In August 2005, with then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing new measures while standing with the family of an agricultural worker, observanto Cruz, who died of a heat stroke.
Cruz was the fourth agricultural worker to die in this brutal summer 20 years ago, in which heat deaths also said that a man picked peppers in Arvin, a melon picker in the county of Fresno and a grape selector in the county of Kern. All had worked in the fields when temperatures were more than 100 degrees.
The rules, which were the first of its kind in the country, oblige the bosses to provide open -air workers with fresh water, in the shade in the shade when temperatures climb and break to refresh themselves whenever workers ask them. Employers must also have a heat disease prevention plan and train supervisors to recognize signs of a stroke and request a doctor.
But the law was far from a panacea. In 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Farm Workers Union continued Cal / Osha, saying that the law was too weak and that the agency’s application was “terribly inadequate”.
The prosecution said that 11 agricultural workers had died since the entry into force of the law.
Three years later, the firm of non -profit lawyers Counsel brought another action, alleging that the failure of the state to enforce the problems had persisted and that agricultural workers continued to die.
Agricultural workers keep squash plants that grow on a farm on Friday in the woods.
In 2015, the state paid the two proceedings, agreeing to focus on applying thermal security violations, as well as making complaints more accessible.
Since the promulgation of the law, climate change has pounded the state with more frequent and intense heat waves, with little relief even at night. And in recent years, application problems have continued.
A 2022 study By the community and the UC Merced work center have found that many agricultural workers were still working without the protections. Out of more than 1,200 workers interviewed, 43% said their employers had not provided a heat disease prevention plan and 15% said they had not received training on heat disease prevention.
Last year, A time survey found that Cal / OSHA inspections had dropped from 30% from 2017 to 2023, and the number of violations fell by more than 40%.
The Liz Ortega Assembly (D-San Leandro) said last year that there were “dangerous and illegal” working conditions in many Californian farms. “To say that I am furious is an understatement,” she said. “I don’t want to hear an apology anymore. It is an excuse after excuse, year after year. ”
This year, the woman of the Dawn Addis Assembly (D-Morro Bay) presented another proposed law, similar to that of Newson opposed its veto last year, which allows agricultural workers to more easily receive compensation for workers. The bill, which faced the opposition of agricultural interests, was approved by the Assembly, but retained at the end of the legislative session.
Agricultural workers make machine adjustments while collecting tomatoes on Friday in woods.
While the heat wave moved to California this week, workers in the watermelon field near Knights Landing said they were coming to work earlier – at 6 am – and therefore earlier, to stay ahead of the heat.
While the sun was fighting, the water jugs were parked every few meters and the tarpaulins providing shadow blankets were parked around the perimeter of the rows of cultures.
Chavez, the boss, said that he had not seen any of his workers suffering from thermal stress recently. “Not this year, thank God,” he said.
This article is part of the time ‘ Actions report initiative,, funded by the James Irvine Foundationexploring the challenges faced by California’s economic divide.
