E-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger today!
I need to share some news with you that breaks my heart.Yesterday another farm worker’s life was lost due to heat stroke. Abdon Felix Garcia was the third farm worker heat death in the last 8 weeks and the 12th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office. Then I need to ask for your immediate help to e-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger and California legislatures today and tell them this has to stop now.
On Wednesday, 42 year-old farm worker Abdon Felix Garcia--father of three--died after spending the morning and early afternoon working for Sunview Vineyards in Arvin. According to the coroner's office, Felix was returning to Delano in a company vehicle and he became unresponsive. He was taken by ambulance to Delano Regional Medical Center when he later died. The coroner says Felix's body core temperature was measured at 108 degrees just 13 minutes before his death.
Sacramento Bee
Abdon Felix, 42, spent the morning loading boxes of table grapes onto a truck in an Arvin vineyard in heat that rose to 108 degrees, according to the Kern County Coroner's Office.
Felix and a co-worker drove north to put the grapes in cold storage in Delano, and Felix became ill near Bakersfield. His co-worker called 911 to summon help at 2:50 p.m., coroner's officials said. But when emergency workers arrived, they found that Felix was not breathing.
They took him to Delano Regional Medical Center, where staff said Felix's core body temperature was 108 degrees. He died about 4 p.m.
"We are treating this as a heat fatality, and we are investigating it," said Dean Fryer, spokesman for Cal-OSHA in San Francisco.
The second worker who died was 64 year-old Jose Macarena Hernandez. Today UFW President Arturo Rodriguez will attend his funeral. Jose died during a record-breaking heat wave on June 20 while harvesting butternut squash in Santa Maria on land owned by Sunrise Growers. According to news reports, temperatures reached 110 degrees that day.
KCRA
Heat Claims Life of Another Farm Worker: 64-Year-Old Man Died On 110-Degree Day - Another farmworker has died because of heat-related complications.
Jose Macarena Hernandez, 64, died during a record-breaking heat wave on June 20 while harvesting butternut squash in Santa Maria, the United Farm Workers of America said.
And then there was the May 23rd heat death of 17 year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died while laboring in the Stockton area grape vines.
Sacramento Bee
Witnesses told state labor inspectors the girl worked more than nine hours without shade and was too intimidated to take sufficient water breaks in temperatures that exceeded 95 degrees.
Witnesses also said she was not taken to a medical center for more than 90 minutes after she collapsed.
A San Joaquin County coroner's report released Wednesday confirmed the teen died of job- related heat stroke. At the time of her death, doctors discovered that Vásquez Jiménez was two months pregnant.
Governor Schwarzenegger came to Maria Isabel’s funeral and said he would do everything possible to prevent this from happening again.
News 10
"Maria’s death should have been prevented, and all Californians must do everything in their power to ensure no other worker suffers the same fate," the governor said in a prepared statement. "We have put in place employer regulations to prevent heat illness, and I cannot say strongly enough that they must be followed. Employers must provide water and heat illness training, allow ill workers to take breaks in the shade and have an emergency plan if someone falls ill. Where there are violations of these regulations, we will prosecute employers to the full extent of the law. There is no excuse for failing to protect worker safety."
But with the death of Abdon Felix Garcia and Jose Hernandez--the 11th and 12th farm workers who have died since Governor Schwarzenegger took office--it is clear the state does not have the capacity to protect farm workers.
ABC 30
CAL-OSHA Chief Len Welsh said "These cases are under investigation. I can't go into detail about them but people do die from heat. We are going to see heat deaths this summer."
San Francisco Chronicle
For more than 40 years, the UFW has worked with legislators from both parties to write laws to protect farmworkers. However, the scale of the agricultural industry - with more than 400,000 farmworkers moving between 80,000 farms - has meant that good laws are ignored.
Even when action is taken against corrupt labor contractors the law does not fully protect farm workers--such is the case of the reinstatement of the license for Merced Farm Labor--the labor contractor whom 17 year-old Maria was working when she died due to the heat.
UFW Press Release
"Merced Farm Labor should not be allowed to operate under any circumstances,: said UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez. "One month ago the Governor issued a statement saying ‘Employers or labor contractors who do not comply with the heat illness prevention standards will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.’ But at this moment his words are meaningless. It defies all reason why the state would allow Merced Farm Labor to operate again."
Sacramento Bee
The company that employed a 17-year-old girl who died of a heat stroke after hours of working in a hot vineyard has been shut down by the state for a second time after briefly reopening. Merced Farm Labor had been allowed to send its laborers back to the fields June 26 after it proved to Cal-OSHA that it met all heat protection requirements. The agency shut the company down in mid-June because it wasn't making sure that all employees received heat training. On Thursday afternoon at a Keyes vineyard, state inspectors found the company wasn't complying with regulations.
And now as yet another heat wave hits California, we must do everything we can to insure that no more farm workers fall victim to the heat because the laws written to protect them are not enforced.
We are not ready to accept more farm workers dying. click on this link to e-mail California Gov. Schwarzenegger (if you live in California, a cc of your e-mail will also go to your legislators) and tell them enough is enough. It’s time to put a law in place that will allow farm workers to protect themselves!
E-MAIL GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER TODAY!