Meet Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez.
On May 13, seventeen-year-old Maria was a farmworker, working the grape vineyard of West Coast Grape Farming in Stockton, California alongside her fiancee, Florentino Bautista.
Three days later, Maria was dead -- killed after working nine straight hours in the broiling heat of the California summer, without access to water or shade.
When Maria collapsed in the fields on May 14, her foreman initially denied that there was anything wrong with her. When she didn't come to on her own, he ordered her daubed with rubbing alcohol to cool her down. When that didn't work, he had her loaded into a van and driven to a local clinic, rather than to a hospital equipped to treat heat-related illnesses -- and with orders that the clinic be told that she had collapsed while exercising so that the company wouldn't be blamed for employing an underage worker.
The clinic quickly realized the seriousness of Maria's condition, and sent her to a hospital for treatment -- but by the time she arrived there, it was too late. Her body temperature exceeding 108 degrees, she fell into a coma, and lingered there for two days -- her heart stopping six times -- until, on May 16, she finally passed away.
When they examined her body to discover what had killed her, doctors discovered that Maria had been two months pregnant.
The death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez should have been prevented. California law states that outdoor workers must be provided with:
1. SHADE for workers during rest breaks who are trying to prevent heat illness or recover from it:
2. PAID RECOVERY PERIODS: Workers feeling the effect of heat must have access to a shaded area for no less than five minutes (and as long as they need) as many times in the day as they need it. If the worker is unable to work because of the heat, the employer can send the worker home for care.
3. DRINKING WATER: One quart per employee per hour for the entire work shift.
4. TRAINING: For supervisors and workers. Must include symptoms of heat illness, how to evaluate and control them, the importance of drinking water, and procedures for providing emergency medical services.
Had they been available, these protections could have saved Maria's life. But the company that hired her, Merced Farm Labor Contractors, chose to save a few pennies instead of obeying the law:
During eight hours of work beginning at 6 a.m. in heat that topped 95 degrees, Bautista said that workers were given only one water break, at 10:30 a.m. And the water was a 10-minute walk away – too far, he said, to keep up with the crew and avoid being scolded.
What's worse is that this is not the first time Merced Farm Labor had flouted the laws that were supposed to protect its workers -- they were cited in 2006 for violating the same laws. They simply ignored the citations.
Yesterday, farm workers and their supporters from across California set out on a four-day march from Lodi -- the town where Maria died -- to the state capitol in Sacramento under the banner of the United Farm Workers. When they reach the capitol, they will demand that the state finally enforce its own laws and ensure that no more workers suffer Maria's fate.
You can help them in this important mission -- the UFW is seeking assistance in covering the cost of the march, and every donation helps. Please consider using their secure online form to make a donation today:
Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez and her child are gone; nothing we can do can truly remedy the injustice they suffered. But we can unite together and ensure that no more workers have to die in the hot California fields just to pad some contractor's bottom line. We must.
UPDATE (June 3): Video from the march -- Florentino's message: "speak up and demand justice."