BAKERSFIELD, CA – The United Farm Workers is compelled to denounce the derogatory and racist comments made by Lloyd Carter on February 4th to a TV audience during a public debate at CSU, Fresno. Mr. Carter’s remarks of bigotry against the hard-working families who labor in the fields are inexcusable. Mr. Carter was listed by TV network as a board member of California Water Impact Network.
Mr. Carter’s comments, on behalf of C-WIN, were outrageous and insupportable. They are at odds with the lifetime commitment of the United Farm Workers to achieve social and economic justice for the men and women who harvest the fruits and vegetables for our Nation. His repugnant comments were an insult to the families of the six farm workers who died last year because of heat exhaustion while harvesting our crops due to the disregard of legal, and moral, responsibilities by growers and supervisors.
But while Mr. Carter’s words hurt, they don’t kill.
Words alone haven’t killed the men and women who work in the fields under triple-digit temperatures every summer. It is the action, or lack of action, from Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration that have caused the greatest damage to the livelihood of farm workers.
In the dark summer of 2008, we witnessed with sadness and disappointment how each death occurred as the headlines blared the horrid news, the government claimed it was enforcing the state’s labor laws, and growers went unpunished. Their deaths were clearly the result of an administration that has proven, over and over again, to be incompetent to protect farm workers from searing heat. We demand that our Governor tells us, what is he planning to do to prevent farm workers from dying in the summer of 2009? Those are the words the UFW demands to hear.
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