Thousands of people have fled the greater Los Angeles area in the wake of yet another firestorm in California, with the New York Times reporting that “the four major fires in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties had scorched more than 116,000 acres by Thursday morning,” destroying hundreds of homes and shutting down at least 322 schools. While an estimated 200,000 people have fled, some have stayed in the area because they have to. An SEIU Local 2015 tweet shows roughly a dozen farm workers hunched over as toxic smoke drifts over the field they’re working in.
Similarly, farm workers were also seen harvesting grapes as wildfires raged in Northern California this past fall. “Amelia Ceja’s vineyard in California's Sonoma Valley has been spared by the infernos raging through the region,” NBC News reported at the time. “But recently, in a nearby vineyard, she was taken aback by the sight of six crews picking grapes at night, under the cover of heavy smoke. ‘People shouldn’t be out there working,’” she said, but many farm workers are living paycheck to paycheck.
According to the National Farm Worker Ministry, a faith-based group inspired by the work of late labor leader and United Farm Workers co-founder César Chávez, “farm workers are one of the most highly at risk social groups in our country. They make low wages, work long hours in dangerous conditions, lack access to unions and proper healthcare, and many are undocumented.” According to some estimates, anywhere from 50 to 70 percent lack legal status, which makes them all the more vulnerable to exploitation.
In the case of the grape harvesters who continued working throughout the Northern California fires, “the state’s worker safety agency issued a worker safety advisory after NBC Bay Area took video of workers harvesting grapes at The Robert Mondavi vineyard in the fire-torn Napa Valley, some without any protection from the smoky air that surrounds them”:
While most workers are wearing some sort of mask, others use a bandana or no mask at all.
“That should not happen,” said Garrett Brown, a retired 20-year veteran inspector with the state’s worker safety agency, Cal/OSHA.
Brown says under state regulations, employers are required to outfit each worker with a specially fitted respirator mask, capable of filtering out fine particulates in the air. They should also limit harvesting time.
According to a chart on the website of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, air quality in Napa County ranged from unhealthy to extremely unhealthy as of Friday morning, based on high levels of the tiny particles from the massive firestorm.
Bad air has prompted schools as far away as San Jose to limit outdoor activities. Brown says workers in the vineyards should be protected, and it’s up to the employers to make sure that happens.
“It should not be simply a situation,” Brown said, “where some workers are sent, as sort of a sacrifice, to work outdoors in unhealthy air to gather grapes.“
Late Friday, Cal/OSHA issued an advisory notice to employers, telling them to provide approved masks, allow for breaks and to be alert to workers becoming dizzy due to exposure.
Mondavi did not respond to our requests for comment. Brown welcomed the advisory.
Some of these farm workers face even more challenges beyond the health risks due to environmental disasters and pesticides. In Napa, an estimated 5,000 farm workers were displaced due to the fires and were out of a job altogether. While most people have a chance to apply for federal disaster relief, undocumented people are barred. “In general, undocumented farmworkers are less likely to seek the assistance of organizations, like the American Red Cross—which provides assistance regardless of immigration status—for fear of being deported.” Thankfully, organizations and efforts like La Cooperativa Campesina de California and UndocFund—which raised $2 million for displaced workers—often step in.
Most importantly, let this serve as a reminder that to believe in labor rights means to also believe in immigrant rights. We must continue fighting against anti-immigrant polices, and that includes calling out unscrupulous employers and by continuing to push for pro-immigrant legislation, like the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2017, to ensure farm workers regardless of legal status get the rights and dignity they deserve. Remember, immigrant hands feed America. Honor them.