On June 2, I wrote about “The Short Life and Preventable Death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez” — a teenage farmworker who died in May from heat exposure while working in a California vineyard:
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.
You might have thought that the public outrage that followed Maria’s unnecessary death would have led to substantive changes that would protect the health of farmworkers.
And yet, it’s only been a few weeks since Maria died and two more farmworkers are dead in the fields:
DELANO, CA (AP) — State officials are investigating a possible third heat-related farmworker death as a triple-digit heat wave settles over California’s Central Valley.
Forty-two-year-old Abdon Felix died Wednesday after laboring in the fields at Sunview Vineyards near Delano. The coroner’s office says his body temperature was 108 degrees when he arrived at the hospital. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.
The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA)is examining what could be the third heat stroke death in the fields over the last several months. Officials also are investigating the May death of a pregnant 17-year-old farmworker. Last week, the Kern County coroner’s office confirmed the heat-caused death of a 27-year-old oil worker, also in May.
The United Farm Workers are asking everyone who cares about the health and safety of farmworkers to join them in writing to Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature and demanding action now:
- Take Action: Stand up for farmworker safety
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What sort of cruel, inhumane boss would force workers to pick crops in 113 degree weather - without water, without shade, and without breaks?
These tragic, avoidable deaths illuminate the need for effective, strong, and real regulation for worker safety - even in the field of the California, the richest state in the U.S. Enough is enough!
Where is our sense of decency? Where is this controversial?
Thank you for alerting me to this terrible, under-publicized story!
Posted by Eric Roth on July 16, 2008 at 2:02 PM
Posted on July 16, 2008 at 2:02 PM