California farm workers suffered from a perfect storm of deadly perils last year: the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme heat and choking smoke from wildfires.
Farm workers are especially vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus because they too often must live, commute and toil under cramped, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. They are least likely to have health insurance. At last half get no federal benefits that help other American workers survive because of their immigration status.
When COVID-19 first emerged, the UFW urged all unionized employers to ensure proper protections. Most acted responsibly.
The UFW keeps in constant contact with 50,000-plus farm workers—most non-union—through a Facebook page and other platforms in Spanish exclusively for agricultural workers, conducting surveys and receiving a stream of comments and reports over their experiences with COVID. Surveys show too many non-union employers have not taken proper precautions to protect workers from the virus and provide required PPEs.
The UFW and other food industry unions helped convince California Governor Newsom to require two weeks paid sick leave for all food workers, including farm workers.
A partnership between UFW Foundation, the UFW and chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen distributed nearly 190,000 fresh meals prepared by local restaurants to field workers across California between April and August. We continue distributing emergency boxes with help from local food banks.
And the UFW and UFW Foundation are distributing hundreds of thousands of surgical masks to protect against the virus and we handed out hundreds of thousands of N-95 or equivalent respiratory masks to protect from wildfire smoke.
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Governor Newsom announced on Monday that after Phase 1B, Tier 1—which includes farm workers—prioritization for vaccinations will be age-based. That leaves many unanswered questions.
Crucial new data was just revealed by a study from UCSF. It documents the urgent need to continue prioritizing farm workers. Based on death certificates from the state Department of Public Health, this survey estimated additional mortality among 18-to-65-year old Californians based on occupation, with other breakouts covering race and ethnicity.
According to the study, “Working age adults experienced a 22 percent increase in mortality compared to historical periods” during the pandemic. However, “relative excess mortality was highest in food/agriculture workers”—a 39 percent increase. And while “Latino Californians experienced a 36 percent increase in mortality,” there was “a 59 percent increase among Latino food/agriculture workers.”
One UCSF epidemiology professor who worked on the study said, “While we pay a lot of lip service to essential workers, when you see the actual occupations that rise to the top of the list as being at much more risk associated with death, it screams out to you who’s really at risk.”
Also disturbing is the fact most counties are not yet prioritizing agricultural workers under Phase 1B. So far as we know, only Riverside County has done so. This is very concerning given the data from the UCSF study and what we keep hearing anecdotally in the state’s main farming regions.
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All of us stand on the shoulders of those who preceded us. I’m honored to follow Cesar Chavez and Arturo Rodriguez as only the third president of the United Farm Workers.
My predecessors were both born in the United States. I was born in Mexico—and am equally proud of my Mexican and Zapotecan heritage and my U.S. citizenship.
It is not lost on me that I am the first Latina immigrant to serve as president of a national union in the United States. I can relate to a farm labor work force that is largely immigrant—and also heavily female.
Women farm workers face burdens men do not. In addition to doing hard—and often skilled—labor, women workers are also wives and mothers. They come home from work to face feeding their families and taking care of their kids.
They face special challenges and inequities in the age of COVID:
—Farm workers can’t shelter in place or work from home. Federal, state and local governments classify them as essential workers. They must do their work to feed America.
—Lack of transportation to and from the fields is an even bigger problem. Finding rides is now harder out of fear of COVID.
—Even if PPEs and social distancing are observed in fields and packinghouses—which UFW surveys show is too often not the case—farm workers frequently find themselves in close proximity to each other. And they commute packed together in cars or other vehicles because that is all they can afford in view of how poorly they are paid.
—Farm workers frequently live in cramped, multi-generational households. If they become infected with the virus or are exposed to others who are sick, where can they go to quarantine?
—Lack of childcare is an even bigger dilemma. Some moms face legal action because they are forced to leave kids alone while they work—and neighbors report them to authorities.
—They must deal with ensuring distance learning for their children—while they must be at work.
All of this is why the virus is disproportionately afflicting agricultural workers and why infections and deaths are growing at alarming rates. Government at all levels must do all it can to remedy these inequities. It begins with getting farm workers vaccinated as quickly as possible.
Thank you—and ¡Si Se Puede!
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