Farm Workers Face Double Threat: Wildfire Smoke And COVID-19

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Monterey County, Calif., is home to the Salinas Valley -- the 'Salad Bowl of the World.' Vast farm fields of lettuce, broccoli and strawberries feed the country. But farm workers there -- predominantly Latino – face hardships from COVID-19 and wildfires.

Kennedy said housing is just one root cause,"Often, they go back to very congested living situations and everyone in the family is infected."

A year ago, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, implemented new standards for. It requires employers to provide proper respiratory protection equipment, such as N-95 masks, when air quality is harmful. Whether or not use of a mask is voluntary or required depends on how bad the air quality is.

The labor union conducted a statewide poll in late August to get a better understanding of the situation. Armando Elenes, UFW's secretary treasurer, said of the 350 workers who responded, many from California's Central Valley, about 84% said they didn't get a mask. Workers told Elenes they could see the haze and felt a burning sensation in their eyes.

With over a dozen wildfires burning in California and a global pandemic that's making N-95s hard to find, the state's Office of Emergency Services answered calls for help. It shipped around 1.4 million masks to county agricultural commissioners in 35 counties.

 

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Thank you to our latino food pickers and meat packers who sacrificed their lives during this horrific pandemic while still not making a living wage You are heroes Latinoamérica 188,000 lives lost in America VoteBlue to get fascistTrump out! VoteLikeYourLifeDependsOnIt

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I'm from there. These field workers are the hardest working folks ever. Many go on to being legit citizens, opening businesses, restaurants, & every normal kind of making a living. After years of bending over, 8 hours a day. For our strawberries, broccoli, lettuce... Respect

Add ICE and pesticides to the list.

Illegal labor has enabled agribusiness to concentrate the production and processing of food further away from the table exploiting humans and animals in the process . But profits are high so let's keep illegal labor coming and not invest in automation 👍

Trump voters only care about THEIR wants (freedoms), which include them having guns and us not having abortions. They don’t care about racism and decency. They apparently don’t mind being lied to 22,000 times.

And Trump’s immigration policies, I should think.

terrible to treat the workers like that!

The libs could have thinned the coastal range. Instead they let the forests grow fuel on top of fuel for decades.

The idiot and corrupted governor prepaid 1 billion to order Chinese masks. China used these money to build 200 mask factories, producing 50 billion mask a year.

And the federal government.

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