8/2/05
UFW hails
‘historic breakthrough for farm workers’
United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez read the following statement at a state Capitol news conference with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supporting an emergency regulation protecting farm workers from death and illness due to extreme heat during this summer’s harvest season.
Farm labor and working in extreme heat often go together. But farm workers shouldn’t have to die or become ill because of it.
Between 1990 and July 28, 2004, eight California farm workers died from the heat, according to state figures. Since July 28, 2004, five more farm worker deaths have been related to the heat, four of them during a three-week period last month.
On July 28, 2004, Asuncion Valdivia, 53, died from exposure to extreme heat after 10 hours picking table grapes at Giumarra vineyards in Kern County while temperatures soared above 100 degrees.
Salud Zamudio Rodriguez, 42, was stricken while laboring on July 13, 2005 during a speed-up in a bell pepper field near Arvin. Ramon Hernandez’s body was found in a melon field near Huron on July 14, 2005. The body of Augustine Gudino was discovered on July 21, 2005 in a tomato field owned by Giumarra vineyards.
This past Sunday, 24-year old Constantino Cruz died in a Delano hospital 10 days after he collapsed from the heat during a speed-up in a tomato field near Shafter on July 21, 2005.
Decades ago, Cesar Chavez said these workers “are not agricultural implements to be used and discarded. They are important human beings. They are important because they are from us. We cherish them. We love them. We will miss them.
"They are important because of the love they gave to their husbands, their children, their wives, their parents–all those who were close to them and who needed them. They are important because of the work they do, [bringing] food to the tables of millions and millions of people throughout the world.”
One year ago today, we promised Luis Valdivia, the son of Asuncion Valdivia, to do everything possible so his father’s death would not be in vain. As we prepare to bury the fifth heat-related victim, Constantino Cruz, we hope this is the last such death in the fields.
That is why the United Farm Workers and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation turned to Assemblymember Judy Chu and asked her to introduce AB 805, which passed the Assembly and is in the state Senate, to prevent further deaths and illnesses. Senator Dean Florez has been our primary sponsor in the Senate.
After the spate of additional farm worker deaths from the heat last month in the Central Valley, we called on Governor Schwarzenegger for an emergency regulation so farm workers could be protected during the summer harvest season this year.
The emergency regulation the administration has announced represents an historic breakthrough for farm workers. It is tragic that so many farm workers had to die before action was taken. A heat-illness regulation was first proposed 15 years ago, in 1990.
But Governor Schwarzenegger has done what three previous governors didn’t do. The governor, Senator Florez and Assemblymember Chu took action, and we applaud them.
We look forward to working with the administration to prevent further deaths in the fields.
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