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Death stirs leaders March brings focus to state regulations
March brings focus to state reulations
By MARTÍN E. MARTÍNEZ AND By JENNIE RODRÍGUEZ / Vida En El Valle
(Published Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 08:56AM)
The death last month of 17-year-old María Isabel Vásquez Jiménez from heat-related illnesses while working at a Lodi vineyard spurred calls for tougher enforcement of state regulations designed to prevent such deaths and a four-day march from Lodi to the state Capitol to underscore the lax enforcement of those rules.
State laws designed to protect farmworkers on the job aren't being applied, said labor leaders and legislators who want employers to improve workplace safety.
"The fact is that no one cares or supervises the conditions under which farm laborers work. This is something that has to change," said Assemblymember Fabián Núñez, D-Los Ángeles, at a rally outside the Capitol last Wednesday.
He was joined by about 500 people who also supported Núñez's bill that would make it easier for farmworkers to unionize. The bill, which has reached Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk, makes it easier for farm workers to unionize, by allowing them to vote on unionizing from a home or from a polling station. Currently, organizing activities must be done at the work site.
United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodríguez said California has plenty of workplace safety laws, but no one enforces them in the agricultural arena.
"We've made some surveys and more than half of the contractors and farmers don't enforce safety laws. That's why we're urging Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign into law a bill that allows (farm) workers to form labor unions. That's the only way we will prevent more deaths," Rodríguez said.
He said labor officials seldom show up at the state's 80,000 ranches and farms where thousands of farm workers toil, often without the guarantee of a safe workplace.
"By joining a labor union, the worker would feel protected and free to report unsafe conditions without fear of being fired or intimidated," Rodríguez said.
On the day the protest took place, Schwarzenegger said the state's Labor Commissioner had started proceedings to revoke the operations permit of María de los Ángeles Colunga, head of Merced Farm Labor, the agency for which Vásquez worked for. The governor said in a press release that the company violated safety guidelines and falsified identity documents for Vásquez, making her appear to be 20.
"Any company or contractor that fails to take steps to prevent heat-related illnesses will be severely punished. My administration will rigorously enforce the bills we signed into law in 2005," he said.
The release also said that agencies such as the Occupational and Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA) and the Employment and Economic Enforcement Coalition (EEEC) would work closely with the San Joaquín County District Attorney, which is conducting a criminal investigation on the contractor.
In general, those who employ farm workers have an obligation to install a shaded area, allow for water breaks every four hours and inform their employees of the risks of working out in the open.
"It's almost impossible to believe that such simple rules are not being implemented on the fields only because employers don't want to," said state Sen. Majority Leader Gloria Romero.
Vásquez's uncle, Doroteo Jiménez, was among relatives who participated in the march and rally.
"It's very painful for us... we never thought our niece would come work in this country only to die. We don't want her death to be in vain. We want this to serve as an example for employers to pay more attention to the health of their workers," said Doroteo Jiménez, Vásquez's uncle.
In Lodi on Sunday, anywhere from 500 to 600 people descended from St. Anne's Catholic Church in a northbound pilgrimage that honored Vásquez and other farmworkers who died from heat-related illnesses they encountered while on the job.
They carried a sign that read "Farm Workers are Human Beings, Too," chanted "Que viva María Isabel (Live, Maria Isabel)," and carried crosses and three caskets.
One casket symbolized the death of Jiménez, who was pregnant.
Another coffin was dedicated to her unborn child. And the third was for other farm laborers who have died of similar circumstances.
On Sunday, demonstrators stopped traffic, as the mass of people marched through Lodi, Woodbridge, Acampo and surrounding agriculture fields. On Monday and Tuesday, they marched from Acampo to Elk Grove. And on Wednesday, they arrived to the state Capitol.
Motorists honked their horns and onlookers stood outside, gazing at crowd passing on the curbs.
James Attaway stood outside his Lower Sacramento Road home in Woodbridge.
"This is beautiful. I'm damn near crying," Attaway said, as he threw his fist in the air encouraging the marchers. "This is the Christian thing to do. They're marching very peacefully."
In an Acampo cherry orchard, Rosario Rentería watched the marchers go by as she took a break from picking cherries. She recounted when her brother also died in 2006 of heat exposure in a corn field.
"This is very good," said Rentería, a 35-year-old Stockton resident. "It's necessary to send a message."
Marchers ended the day's walking in Acampo, about six miles short of their goal to end in Galt. The majority of them were bussed back to their residing cities, including Salinas, Oxnard and Napa.
Among the four-day march participants was 16-year-old Jéssica Vizcarra of Lodi.
Vizcarra, who is on summer break from school, was adamant about walking the whole way, along with her grandmother and two cousins.
"We need justice," Vizcarra. "I believe it's wrong that there are a lot of people working in the fields and too many people take advantage of them."
