"How many more workers have to die?"
Courage Campaign and United Farm Workers call on gubernatorial candidates to pledge support for pro-worker bill; new video shows the human cost of Schwarzenegger’s veto
LOS ANGELES – The 700,000-member Courage Campaign and United Farm Workers are calling on the five declared or likely candidates for Governor of California — Jerry Brown, Tom Campbell, Gavin Newsom, Steve Poizner, and Meg Whitman — to support a bill that would give farmworkers the power to improve deadly working conditions in the fields of the Central Valley.
After Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the California Farmworkers Free Choice Act just days before Labor Day, the Courage Campaign released a video and message to supporters telling the heartwrenching story of one of the fifteen farmworkers who lost their lives to the heat in recent years. (Watch "Heat": http://www.couragecampaign.org/BeatTheHeat)
"The workers who harvest the food that feeds Americans shouldn’t have to suffer in triple-digit heat with no water, no shelter, and no voice to make their jobs safer," said Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the Courage Campaign. "Any governor should be ashamed to stand by knowing that these deadly conditions continue every day."
California farmworkers routinely work in triple-digit temperatures, wearing heavy protective clothing to protect them from toxic pesticides. They are often denied water breaks, and they risk being fired if they speak out about dangerous conditions. The California Farmworkers Free Choice Act would have given them the right to speak up together and stand up for their rights.
"When Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 789 this week, he condemned U.S. farm workers to a life of fear, sexual abuse and heat exposure at the work place. Now, we need to make sure that our next governor truly understands the plight of the men and women who harvest the fruits and vegetables that feed America," said UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez. "Our decades of experience fighting for better working conditions for farm workers have demonstrated that the state will never have enough inspectors — whether it is a Republican or Democratic administration — to ensure that the laws in the books are the laws in the fields for the 400,000 farm workers that move in between 80,000 ranches."
More than 7,000 people have signed a petition to Brown, Campbell, Newsom, Poizner and Whitman urging them to support the bill if they are elected Governor of California in 2010.
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