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UFW CALLS FOR AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY TO STOP VIOLATING FARM WORKERS’ RIGHTS

Media Advisory ● Media Advisory ● Media Advisory ● Media Advisory

For Immediate Release:  

August 2, 2007                                     

ENGLISH TRANSLATION WILL BE AVAILABLE:
Friday, August 3, 2007 at 1 p.m. in Delano:

UFW CALLS FOR AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY TO STOP VIOLATING FARM WORKERS

What:  As part of its public awareness campaign, the UFW will be introducing a month-long list of heat and labor violations that farm workers have been forced to face due to lack of law enforcement in the fields.

Over the last month, farm workers statewide have been exposed to extreme heat, major pesticide poisoning, poor housing conditions and minimum wage violations.   The UFW calls upon the agricultural industry to stop violating the people who work to put food on America’s tables.

When:            Friday, Aug. 3, 2007 , 1 p.m.                     

Where:          UFW’s 40 Acres, 30168 Garces Hwy, Delano, California 93216     

Who:              Armando Elenes, UFW External Organizing Director, 
                       Tulare County Pesticide Farm Worker Victims and other workers

Visuals:         "30 days of farm worker life" includes:

·        "Adequate" shade and water examples from the Central Valley

·        "Adequate" housing examples from Coachella Valley

·        Farm workers sharing pesticide-poisoning experiences

·        Farm workers discussing heat laws not being enforced

·        Farm workers telling of minimum wage violations in the fields

·        Copies of CAL-OSHA violations filed by farm workers

Contacts:     Alisha Rosas, UFW Press Office, (909) 969-7284

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Armando Elenes
Violations Press Conference
Friday, Aug. 3, 2007

• Good afternoon.  Thank you all for attending today.

• I have heard many people comment on how fast the summer is going by as the month of August approached. It’s true, days and weeks go by, and before we know it, seasons have changed and another year has passed.

• July flew by for many of us.

• But … not for the … farm workers.

• July brought on 31 days of struggle, heat, poison, cheat wages and nowhere to sleep.

• In July, farm workers have been:

o Exposed to TWO major pesticide incidents that have resulted in workers being hospitalized

o Experienced heat law violations daily

o Been cheated by growers and foreman of their ALREADY meager wages

o Been forced to live as if they were animals

• The farm workers here today are sick and tired – not of the pesticides that growers spray on them, not of the heat that makes them dizzy in the fields, not of being forced to work for no pay and not for being forced to sleep on cardboard boxes …

• The farm workers here today are sick and tired of leaving their lives in the hands of state organizations that are not able to establish solid programs for agriculture employers to follow.

• Farm workers are here today because they know if they want help – they will have to help themselves.

• And revealing the realities in the field is the first step.

PESTICIDE

• On July 10 and 21 in Tulare County, more than 43 workers were exposed to chlorpyrifos. Some were hospitalized.

• Yet coverage described the chemical as a mere “skin irritant” and most audiences moved onto the next article to read or television show to watch.

• BUT, to the farm workers who were exposed to the lethal poison, such as Gloria or Angelica, who are here today – it was much more than a skin irritant to them.

• In fact, according to a report by Beyond Pesticides on chlorpyrifos, poisoning by the lethal insecticide may affect the central nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system.

• The UFW also knew the potentially-lethal damage chlorpyrifos can do.  For that reason, we have been fighting the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the poison and keep it away from workers and the food we eat. In fact, the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday.

• The UFW calls upon the agricultural industry to STOP POISONING FARM WORKERS.

HEAT

• In just one month, the UFW collected more than 300 CAL
OSHA complaint forms from over 20 companies.  These companies represent over 30,000 farm workers whose rights are being violated daily. 

• California heat regulations are supposed to protect
farm workers from heat exposure, but after talking with farm workers from across that state, we know that the laws on the books are not the laws in the fields.

• And it’s no wonder when organizations such as the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, whose main purpose for existence is to protect workers by enforcing California’s safety laws admits to moving slowly in regard to enforcement.

• In fact, at a recent legislative hearing focused on the state’s heat laws not being enforced in farm-working fields, DOSH’s Acting Chief of the Division Len Welsh said inspectors are still adjusting to last summer’s regulations …

• “We’re still ramping up to be honest, to get the word out, to do the enforcement, to hone our approach,” he said.

• Farm workers know what happens when it gets to hot and you have no water.  Farm workers remember the THREE farm workers who died last summer due to heat.

• The UFW and farm workers know there isn’t time to “hone approaches” when lives are at stake.

• At the same legislation hearing, a representative for the Western Growers Association said farmers are working to learn and follow the state’s heat rules.

• Farm workers here today say — “Let the education begin.”

• They know if the state’s agricultural industry can handle balancing volatile market prices, equipment costs, animal and plant diseases as well as droughts and water restrictions while maintaining an annual budget of more than $26 billion, they believe they can learn to enforce simple heat and labor laws.

WAGE VIOLATIONS

• Already among the lowest paid workers in the state, farm workers are regularly cheated of their wages.

• Too often, farm workers are asked to come in early to work to attend “schools” and get paid nothing for their time.

• And, after working 10-12 hours a day, many farm workers are given homework.  The bins you see here today…farm workers are forced to take them home and wash them.  They aren’t paid for that time either.

HOUSING

• Across the state, farm workers have housing problems.  They are paid little and the cost-of-living makes it difficult for them to find affordable housing.

• Our brothers and sisters in Coachella suffered during the grape harvest, and for that reason, we are discussing them today.

• The housing situation is so critical that scores of workers are forced to sleep in cars and vans, on pieces of cardboard in dirt lots, or anywhere they can lay their heads.

• The pieces of cardboard you see today – that’s a farm worker bed.

• We all know the life of a farm worker is not easy.      

• For more than 40 years, the UFW has been fighting for
farm workers and in that time, we have worked with legislators and governors of both parties to write laws that protect farm workers.

• And the laws that exist are good ones – wage laws, safety laws, pesticide laws, heat laws, rest break laws, sexual harassment laws – but as you can see and as farm workers will tell you today – the laws are just not being enforced.

• That’s why the UFW is working to pass SB 180, which would make it easier for farm workers to choose whether or not they want to be represented by a union.

• Unionized workforces are able to better partner with their employers.  They also aren’t afraid to stand up for their rights.

• When farm workers are organized, they have the power to ensure the laws on the books ARE the laws in the fields.

• It’s time for the agricultural industry to give farm workers the respect they deserve and treat them like human beings.

• And when each of us sit down for dinner tonight – let us remember the farm workers.

• Thank you.