[ad_1]
The climate crisis is putting farm workers in the United States at risk who work outdoors in excessive heat all year round without any federal protection from workplace heat exposure.
“It’s really hard to work in the heat, but the reality is that we have to do it, we don’t really have a choice, we have to keep working even when it is unbelievably hot,” said Tere Cruz, farm worker for 15 years in Immokalee, Florida. “The first thing in the morning you don’t feel that much, but after 11am your body really starts to feel the heat. You feel like all the energy has been sucked out of you and it’s really hard to keep going. ”
Cruz explained that workers will often get too hot and vomit from drinking too much water too quickly, but they face tremendous pressure to continue working despite the heat stress.
“It would be really nice to have a rule of thumb, so when farm owners see that the temperatures are way too high, they have to stop and allow people to rest. Things as they are now, you can see when it gets really hot at 1 or 2 in the afternoon people can’t work anymore. But there is this real pressure to keep working and keep working, ”added Cruz. “We are not animals, we are human beings, but there is this feeling that no matter what, even when people don’t seem to be working anymore, the bosses keep pushing and pushing.”
An analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Washington in March 2020 found that U.S. farm workers will experience an increase from about 21 days of unsafe temperature work per season to an average of 62 days by the end of the century – almost three times more. .
Heat waves have also become more common and intense in recent decades, with the west coast of the United States having experienced record heat waves this year. June 2021 was the hottest June on record in the United States.
“It’s extremely hot out there and it gets worse every year,” said Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, general coordinator of the Farmworker Association of Florida. “One of the biggest issues is the way farm workers are paid. When they are paid by the piece, it encourages workers to spend even more. When they’re in a crew, the person who slows down because he has to take a water break or go to the bathroom, then they become the guy who slows down the crew.
Death of a worker
Washington state recently announced emergency rules to provide heat protection for farm workers and other outdoor workers, shortly after Oregon issued emergency rules in the wake of a farm worker who died from exposure to heat during record temperatures in the region. Sebastián Francisco Pérez, a 38-year-old Guatemalan who worked on a forest farm in rural St Paul, Oregon, died after collapsing on June 26.
California and Minnesota are the only two other states in the United States that offer thermal protection for workers, although Colorado has limited protection.
Reyna Lopez, executive director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), said the organization had demanded that the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) publish heat protection rules before the latest heat waves In the region. Workers were concerned about the lack of shade or water during the blueberry and cherry harvest.
“There are a lot of sacrifices on the part of immigrant workers so that we have food on our table,” Lopez said. “We are convinced that any type of workplace fatality is absolutely preventable. This is the first fatality recorded in the Osha Oregon Death Report that is specific to farm work and heat. “
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 53 workers died in the United States due to extreme temperatures in 2019, and the climate crisis is creating more dangerous conditions for workers as extreme temperatures become more common.
Heat stress can cause kidney problems and worsen pre-existing conditions such as asthma and heart disease, as well as cause sudden death at work.
According to CDC data, farm workers are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than other workers.
Farm workers and several organizations advocated for Osha to enact federal thermal safety standards to ensure basic protections for workers, including shade, water and breaks. Advocacy efforts have also pressured states to pass standards, and bills have been introduced in Congress to give workers federal heat protections.
Alfredo Juarez, a 21-year-old farm worker from Skagit County, Wash., Wakes up every morning at 3:30 a.m. during harvest season so he can get to work before 5 a.m. He works until 4 p.m. or later, seven days a week.
“We work by being paid by the kilo, so we try to work as fast as possible and it gets very hot as soon as we start to pick, even when temperatures are normal,” Juarez said.
He explained that if the workers have a break, they stack the cars and blow up the air conditioning to relieve the excessive heat, but in general, workers end up with water that heats up very quickly while being outside. They have no shade and nowhere to sit for a break.
“Picking strawberries takes a lot of concentration. You are on your knees every day and some rows are very difficult to pluck and your back will hurt from bending over looking for berries, ”he added. “There is a lot of pain.
[ad_2]
Source link