Help Save Farm Workers' Lives This Summer

[Omaha Steve]

https://secure.ga6.org/08/heat/nP7S3S571RGwO?





Help Save Farm Workers' Lives This Summer

Things are heating up in California. Lives are at stake. Your financial support can help us reach tens of thousands of farm workers to let them know their rights under the law and how to avoid dying from the summer’s intense heat.

Last month, we told you about 54-year-old Eladio Hernandez and how he died while working under the scorching California sun. According to witnesses, the company waited nearly three hours before calling for medical assistance. Eladio's last words were telling co-workers "I don’t want to die." Similar tragedies could follow in the coming weeks if action isn't taken right away.

Since Eladio's death, the UFW has done an extensive investigation. We have come up with some very disturbing results...growers aren’t enforcing these regulations and workers are not being protected.



In a meeting two weeks ago, we asked the 120 or so San Joaquin Valley farm workers in attendance if the company provided cool drinking water, adequate shade and training when they work under extreme temperatures. Only four people raised their hands. And they all worked for the same company.

Workers are scared to speak up for their rights--scared they will lose their jobs. While there are good regulations that Gov. Schwarzenegger’s administration passed last year, there are not enough people to enforce them.

Jorge Rodriguez told us how last summer, while working in an almond field, he watched many of his coworkers suffer. "There was never water for us," he said. "We could only take breaks when we were told." He remembers people fainting. "They would vomit; they'd pass out."

Juanita Mendoza shared the fear she and many workers feel. "My co-workers and I are fearful that some day a person in our crew could feel sick because of the heat or could die because we do not have the proper equipment or shade."

https://secure.ga6.org/08/heat/nP7S3S571RGwO?

Please help save lives this summer. Make a contribution of $10, $25, $50, $100 or even more to help the UFW inform workers about staying safe and about their rights under the heat regulations.

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Don't want to pay by credit card? Prefer to pay by check? No problem: Please print out this page fill out the form. Then mail in your check to: United Farm Workers, "Heat Safety Outreach", 29700 Woodford-Tehachapi Rd., P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA, 93531.

Tax Notice: Contributions and gifts to the United Farm Workers are not tax deductible.

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[rubberducky]

1. If you ever saw with your own eyes these worker`s conditions you would wonder

what third world country they working in. It truely is one of this country`s dirty little secrets. These people are treated like slaves. Do you really think these people will go to the owner and complain?? Won`t happen. They NEED the work. How many porta-johns have you ever seen in the fields? If bush says these are jobs Americans wont do, why do you suppose that is? Thses people (including thier children) are treated as if they are not human. They are 100% expendable, because the flow of "illegals" is never ending. If you think there is no child labor in this country, think again. Whole families are put to work in the fields. I have seen this with my own eyes and it broke my heartand being married to a "rancher and exploiter" it broke my marriage. You can send all the money you want to, but it will not stop the exploitation of these people. I have never stopped contributing to thier unions, but I also saw the sad fact of thier lives. The problem rests with the employers, but big money will never allow a clamp down to be put on them.

[silverojo]

2. Put the blame where it belongs

On the employers. They're hurting people in a myriad of ways.

* They're endangering lives (see above)

* Their refusal to pay decent wages and offer safe working conditions is making all these jobs inaccessible to Americans who simply can't live on those wages.

* They attract millions of illegal aliens into this country, and because the pay is so poor, these people become a burden to the country that's forced to support them.

Crack down on these bastards, MAKE them clean up and pay up, and you'll find a lot of problems are eased: Americans will take more of these jobs, illegals won't risk their lives coming here for jobs that aren't there, and hospitals wouldn't be closing down left and right by having to treat all these people who can't pay because they're basically being treated as slaves.

[rubberducky]

3. I agree with you, but until there are real penalties nothing will change.

Until it hits them in the pocketbook, the ranchers and big corporationes will continue to exploit these unfortunate people. The word "exploit" does not even begin to describe the working conditions of these people. How very sad thier lives are.