Benefits such as death insurance and pension plans are among the reasons many farm workers risk their jobs and deportation to join the United Farm Workers. PHOTO: Joaquín Magón/Coachella Unincorporated

“It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.” – César Chávez

I would assume that the world would see it cruel to desert an old man because he is no longer able to produce the means to sustain himself, or to be a productive member that keeps cogs in the industry going. It would seem too radical to think that there comes an age where all women and men deserve to rest and enjoy their lives after giving so much to society. But the reality is that it is not cruel, and such a thought is radical, because before humanity comes capital, and those that cannot produce capital have no room in this world.

I know an old man that bends down low, his hands calloused and eyes going blind. He looks at the fields he worked for decades. He’s in his late seventies and work for him is as much a reality as when he first came to this country with a dream he still has not reached. His time to rest is used for collecting cans and finding food, not enjoying his old age.

And in a number of super markets little boxes ask for pennies to send a body home to wherever, México, El Salvador, Guatemala, they are all just as far as the answer to the question- why does it have to be like this?

Because the reality is that poverty among farm workers is as real as it was when industrial farms began. Because those who came were not needed as humans only as arms and so they were called Braceros. And today they don’t even have a name and have forgotten what it was like to be more than an arm.

It is not enough, I’m afraid, to say that if they work hard enough, or if they want it bad enough, they’ll succeed because no one wants it more than those who left their homes, who crossed deserts and faced death in every step to be able to live with dignity. And I hate to speak in such a somber tone but Audrey Lorde has taught me well: “It is better to speak/ remembering / we were never meant to survive.”

Nevertheless that does not stop us from trying. There is a reason why so many farm workers risk their jobs and deportation to join a Union. There is a reason why I do the things I do. I am, after all, a privileged one who does not know the struggles of a farm worker first hand and so it is with this conviction that I join this fight. Because I do not think it’s true that things have to be this way.

I think of these things and many more as I listen to our members talk about the benefits they have by being part of a Union. By far one of the greatest benefits is the death insurance, they say. To die in peace knowing that their families will not have to wash cars or put boxes in super markets to scrape together the little money they have to burry them or send them back to their home country. To know that their death, although sad, will not be a burden on their families.

What surprises me and saddens me the most is that this death insurance provided to UFW members is a benefit. Not a right endowed to all that live in this country. I don’t know how many people in the United States have such a benefit, but I’m sure a lot don’t, and I can bet that the majority of farm workers don’t.

As we continued to talk about the benefits that workers have, one older gentleman, a UFW veteran from the huelgadays speaks about retirement. He, like so many others in the Union, has a pension plan and feels blessed to not be like so many of the other workers that don’t have a UFW contract and so have no pension, their lives depended on their family if family they have.

These two things, death insurance and a pension plan, are two things so basic yet so fundamental to the lives of all of us that it’s surprising that we have to struggle so much to obtain them.  Any person that has worked as hard as a farm worker, a construction worker, a teacher, or whatever, deserves to enjoy their old age in the manner in which they wish and to know that their final resting place will not come with a number of boxes scattered across super markets asking for donations.

As we move on to help more and more farm workers I imagine the struggles that lie ahead of those who join the fight for unionization. I imagine the coffins of those old men and women that ask for a large UFW flag to be placed above their coffins before they descend to their final resting place. And I think of all those that fought for a Union contract and won; but I also think of those that fought for a Union contract and lost — yet still ask for the flag to be placed on their coffins because they knew they were fighting for something so powerful: a bit of dignity, a bit of respect, a bit of security.

It is my deepest belief that a Union is of absolute necessity for farm workers. In a world that is completely against them, in a society that is beginning to rally against the 1% en masse, and in the minds of those who believe that we are all entitled to our lives if nothing else, we must move forward to ensure that all people can live as human beings.

“Joaquín Magón” is a youth reporter from Coachella living in Salinas and working for the United Farm Workers. He contributes blogs regularly for Coachella Unincorporated.

Source: CoachellaUnincorporated.org, “The Diary Of Joaquín Magón Entry 10: Why Does it Have to be this Way?” by Joaquín Magón, 13 Feb 2012.

“Did you eat today? Thank a farmworker!” has greater meaning for me following the National Farm Worker Ministry Board meeting Jan. 27–28 in Yuma, Ariz., winter lettuce capital of the United States.

Around 5 a.m. our group drove some 45 minutes to the U.S. side of the border crossing, where hundreds of Mexican nationals were waiting at pick-up points for buses to take them to the fields for a day of labor.

Walking among them for a half hour or so, we board members were able to converse with them and gain some insight into their daily experience harvesting the food for our tables.

Depending on how close to the border a worker lives, she or he may have awakened at 3 a.m. or earlier to get to the crossing point. There is a wait of 2–3 hours in order to be checked through to the U.S. side. Fast food restaurants and street vendors are all open for breakfast, and drivers of the buses belonging to various growers are pumping gas. It can take another hour or so to drive to the specific worksite for which the worker’s H-2A visa provides seasonal employment at $9.94 per hour. Add 8 hours of work plus lunch, break times and supper, and then reverse the timeline until the worker is back at home in a Mexican town or village. Workers are exhausted by both the work and by long hours of waiting. Their whole routine occurs daily.

The workers know who the “good employers” are. All too often though, employers and unscrupulous job recruiters abuse the visa system, extorting fees and exploiting vulnerable workers. It was a “good employer,” owner of Rodriguez Growers Company, who later that morning brought our NFWM group to two of his extensive fields. In the first, romaine lettuce was being picked and trimmed to the romaine hearts, which were packaged and sealed, tagged, packed in produce cartons, loaded on trucks, and destined for U.S. supermarkets within three days.

Reflecting on our collective experience brought forth comments like, “It’s a parallel universe of thousands of people, hundreds of buses and massive border crossings.” “This is assembly line work outdoors, with machines that never stop.” “It’s industrial control; each team of workers is organized, but work is based on the machine.” “From the worker’s perspective, it is work with dignity, conferring status in the home community.”

For H-2A agricultural workers, contracts and labor standards are in place. Nevertheless, it’s food safety that is primary, over and above any other consideration. So the National Farm Worker Ministry carries on its role of advocacy and accompaniment, especially where standards of worker fairness and safety are violated. NFWM supports small-step achievements. These can become beneficial opportunities for a limited number of individuals from poor communities where families can’t eat regularly. We consumers are beneficiaries as well of farmworker labor.

Source: BVMCong. org, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ”BVM Reports on National Farm Worker Ministry” Feb 2012.

OAKLAND, Calif. – California workplace regulators have fined a labor contracting company $74,125 in the death of a farmworker last summer.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal-OSHA, said Wednesday that it issued the citation and penalty to Holtville-based C. Clunn Consulting after the death of Romero Vasquez on July 7.

Cal-OSHA officials said Vasquez, 47, was loading 40-pound boxes at a cantaloupe field in Blythe when he collapsed in 102-degree heat. He died after being taken to a hospital.

“Heat illness is totally preventable and should not occur if proper procedures are followed. We take any heat-related incident seriously and enforce our standard to the fullest extent possible,” Cal-OSHA Chief Ellen Widess said in a statement.

California introduced the first heat regulations in the nation in 2005 to protect the state’s 450,000 seasonal farm workers.

The agency said the company violated state regulations by failing to provide employees or supervisors with training on how to identify and treat symptoms of heat illness.

Cal-OSHA said C. Clunn also failed to enforce its own heat prevention rules, which included having emergency medical procedures in place to safeguard workers from heat illness.

The agency also cited and issued a penalty of $61,425 to Los Banos-based AgPrime Corp. after a 16-year-old farmworker became ill with heat illness symptoms as he picked bell peppers in 105-heat near Bakersfield on July 6.

The teen, whose name was not released, later recovered from his illness.

The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement also fined the company for child labor law violations.

Officials at C. Clunn Consulting and AgPrime Corp. did not immediately return calls late Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the citations.

Source: SacBee.com, The Sacramento Bee, “Cal-OSHA cites, fines company for farmworker death” Associated Press, 11 Jan 2012.

With funding from University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, researchers at UC Davis and the California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS) recently partnered with the Organizacion de Trabajadores Agricolas de California (OTAC) to conduct interviews with farmworkers in the Stockton area. We hoped to learn more about the off-farm environmental factors that could contribute to the risk for heat stress illness among farmworkers. The interview results will assist the research team in identifying household and community factors that may contribute to heat stress illness in farmworker communities.

Over the past summer and fall, a dozen in-depth interviews were conducted with farmworkers who live in the Stockton area, but who often commute to work as far as the Napa Valley. Although their living situations varied, there were four primary residential settings: trailers in rural trailer parks; trailers on company-owned ranches; apartments in an urban setting (downtown Stockton); and rented houses in suburban areas.  Unfortunately, there are also many farmworkers in the region that are unable to find or sustain housing that are forced to live at the margins of the city in ramshackle structures constructed from found materials. We interviewed one such farmworker to gain insight into the unique challenges faced by rural workers in similar precarious living situations.

The interviewees represented the diverse demographics of farmworkers: female/male, documented/undocumented, single/married and migrant/long-term.  Our conversations with the farmworkers illustrated detailed information about the worker’s background (e.g., state of origin in Mexico, legal status, and duration of time spent in the U.S.); typical workday routine (e.g., transportation, type of work, liquid consumption, and post-work obligations); residential environment (e.g., access to clean drinking water, safety issues, and ability to cool-off); and their own experience with overheating or heat stress illness.

The interviews revealed that some of the main factors determining a farmworker’s ability to cool-off at home include: 1) the farmworker’s sense of safety in his/her community; 2) rural vs. urban setting; 3) access to personal or family transportation; and 4) availability of functioning cooling devices. Whether they live in a rural or urban setting seems to be connected to their sense of safety—with workers in rural areas feeling safer than their counterparts in urban areas—and is therefore also related to the potential risk factors associated with safety (i.e., hesitance to seek cooling in outdoor areas). Similarly, those who live in rural or other ex-urban neighborhoods tend to have their own transportation or share transportation with a family member and typically have access to air conditioning and roomier seating during long commutes.

The lack of a sense of safety was a recurring theme for the interviewees who live within the city limits of Stockton. As stated above, the respondents who live in the outskirts, suburbs, or rural settings felt more secure in their neighborhoods. The respondents’ sense of safety correlated with their time spent outdoors: the safer they felt, the more time they spent outdoors. The interviewees in suburban or rural areas were more likely to have shade trees on the land or property they rented, while those in the city had to go to a park or street corner to find shade trees. Even though they had more access to shaded areas, the respondents in rural or suburban areas also indicated that they visited public parks more often than their counterparts in the city.

Having access to personal or family transportation often provides the farmworkers with a more comfortable commute to agricultural sites when compared with those who pay raiteros, or hired farmworker drivers, for transportation. Farmworkers with a personal or family vehicle typically ride with fewer passengers per vehicle and have air conditioning available. Also, the absence of functioning cooling devices inside residences is an essential component to consider in determining risk to heat stress illness. There were several farmworkers who had central air conditioning, but there were others who only had window air conditioning in one or two rooms or poorly functioning fans.

The interviewees had a mixture of central heat and air, window air conditioners, and fans. With the exception of a respondent living in a rented house and the transient farmworker, all the interviewees used at least one or more fans in addition to any other cooling method. There were four respondents who have window air conditioners, but they are not always reliable and are often in only one room of the house. One woman was even forced to remove her window air conditioner because it was located on the second floor of an apartment building and was deemed a safety hazard by the landlord. Another interviewee had air conditioning in her apartment, but it had been broken for at least a month, and the landlord had failed to fix it after repeated complaints. Urban dwellers interviewed typically did not have access to air conditioning and relied on fans or window air units, but shied away from opening windows for ventilation due to the safety concerns previously mentioned.

Another factor that should be considered in assessing farmworker risk to heat stress is workers’ access to health information and services. Overwhelmingly, the farmworkers expressed concern with the availability of onsite training for health risks and protection. The interviewees who received more frequent training were more likely to identify specific ways to protect themselves from symptoms of heat stress illness, such as avoiding both energy drinks and the use of thick cotton pullover sweatshirts. Among workers who received little or no on-site training, there was confusion about what could contribute to heat stress and, in an extreme case, there was the misconception that alcohol could help prevent the onset of heat stress. Social networks were another key source of health information, with friends and relatives sharing experiences about various service providers. Less prevalent for health education and outreach were non-profit and public sector agencies.

The majority of the interviewees recommended that the best way to inform farmworkers about health risks and protection methods was to provide training at work sites on a regular basis. The farmworkers interviewed often work six days a week, which leaves them little time to visit public agencies during office hours or leisure time to participate in community health events. Therefore, the interviewees stated that the work sites themselves were the most appropriate and logical location for outreach and education.

Information from these interviews and other research will contribute to the development of a community assessment tool to determine risk levels for heat stress illness at farmworkers’ residences.

Source and additional photos: CIRSInc.org, “Farmworker Interviews Reveal Heat Stress Illness” by Vallerye Mosquera, 7 Jan 2012.

Editor’s note: This is the Immokalee Report, a monthly column written by researchers at the University of Florida’s Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. This column appeared in the November-December 2011 issue of Citrus + Vegetable Magazine.

A new University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences educational program has been developed and currently is offered to farm labor contractors and supervisors in Florida.

A primary function of these positions is to supervise seasonal and migrant farm workers in harvesting and other field activities on fruit and vegetable farms.

Other duties of a farm labor supervisor may include recruitment, hiring, transportation, payroll disbursement and housing of farm workers.

A supervisor may be a labor contractor, crew leader, field foreman, farm manager or farm owner.

To be officially designated as a labor contractor, a person must obtain a valid certificate of registration from both the U.S. Department of Labor and the Florida Division of Business and Professional Regulation.

Registrations vary with respect to authorization to drive workers, own buses or vans that transport workers and/or provide housing to workers.

Full-time employees of a farm may perform the duties of a labor contractor, but are not required to register as a FLC.

They are, however, obligated to follow the same rules and regulations concerning treatment of farm workers. State and federal laws that protect farm workers are extensive and have evolved over time.

Aside from passing a test to receive their initial certification of registration, labor contractors are not required by state or federal agencies to receive any additional training.

Many FLCs and supervisors are unaware of the full scope of current labor regulations and how the regulations have changed.

Program expands learning opportunities

Opportunities for continuing education for labor contractors and supervisors have been limited, with one exception: Worker Protection Standards, or WPS.

In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated that all agricultural workers, including contractors and supervisors, be trained in pesticide safety and be knowledgeable about five basic worker protection measures. They include pesticide decontamination procedures and where to find information about chemicals recently applied to the fields where they work.

Designed to address the most common violations cited by labor compliance investigators, the voluntary University of Florida Farm Labor Supervisor Core Training program expands training opportunities for farm personnel who directly manage and supervise seasonal and migrant farm workers.

The program’s content targets payment of at least minimum wage, correct accounting for hours worked during a pay period; proper record keeping; field safety; and maintaining regulatory standards for field sanitation, vehicle safety, and farm worker housing.

The two-day core program was offered during fall 2011 in Wimauma, Arcadia, Immokalee and Belle Glade.

The goals of this program were to develop and implement an educational curriculum that provides an integrated picture of regulatory responsibilities related to farm labor.

The underlying rationale is that enhanced knowledge about farm labor laws and regulations will improve the professionalism of labor contractors and supervisors, reduce the number of field violations, and improve overall working conditions of farm workers.

For more information about the training program, contact Fritz Roka or Carlene Thissen at (239) 658-3400.

Fritz Roka is an agricultural economist at the UF/IFAS Southwest Research and Education Center in Immokalee. Cesar Asuaje is farm safety specialist, UF/IFAS, West Palm Beach. Carlen Thissen is project coordinator-farm labor contractor training, SWFREC in Immokalee.

Source: The Grower.com, “Program teaches farm labor contractors how to avoid problems” by Fritz Roka, Cesar Asuaje, and Carlene Thissen, 28 Dec 2011.

OXNARD, CA — One of the nation’s largest orchid growers is paying $200,000 to settle a sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The lawsuit says Hispanic women at Oxnard-based Cyma Orchids Inc. were groped and sexually propositioned during a pattern of harassment by supervisors, manager and company owners.

The EEOC also says workers who complained were retaliated against, including a Hispanic male lead greenhouse worker who was fired after defending one of the victims.

Besides the $200,000, the EEOC said Tuesday that the settlement calls for a 2 1/2-year consent decree requiring Cyma to assign an equal employment opportunity coordinator.

A message left Tuesday at Cyma Orchids wasn’t immediately returned.

Source: BusinessWeek.com, “Orchid grower paying $200K for harassment” 29 Nov 2011.

KINGS COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) – Emergency crews rushed to the rural area next to a pistachio grove after a loud explosion fatally injured a worker. It happened on the property of Nichols Farms while several workers were trying to extract fuel from a diesel tank.

Det. Shawn McRae said, “They were pressurizing it to remove the fuel that was left in it and when it was pressurized the seam gave way and struck an individual.”

J. Jesus Vidales Rivera, 51, of Tulare died from what appeared to be blunt force trauma.

Investigators believe the victim died on impact and are calling the incident a horrific accident.

The victim’s wife and other family members were devastated as they showed up to the farm to retrieve some of his belongings.

Fire investigators say several men were working along with the victim. Unlike a propane tank, which is designed to sustain high pressure, the tank they were working on was a diesel fuel tank.

Mike Virden said, “It doesn’t take a lot of pressure so if you just have slight pressure that the tank wasn’t designed for you will have failure of the tank and that’s what occurred.”

Det. McRae said, “The individual was down trying to remove the last of the fuel when the tank gave way and he was directly in front of it.”

Rivera worked at Nichols Farms just outside of Hanford. The owner, Chuck Nichols, told Action News that their thoughts and prayers go out to Rivera’s family. He said they are cooperating fully with law enforcement and state inspectors, who will be checking the equipment to determine if any of the machines malfunctioned.

Source: ABCLocal.Go.com, “Fatal explosion at a pistachio farm in Kings County” by Jessica Peres, 30 Nov 2011.

Source: Purdue University. Kansas City Star

The image of Patrick Hayes’ face after he suffocated in a grain bin under 60 tons of corn still haunts his father, Ron, who remembers: “Tears running down his cheeks; corn dust in his nose, his mouth, his eyes …”

That deadly accident occurred 18 years ago. But when Ron Hayes learned of the six workers killed in an Oct. 29 explosion at the Bartlett Grain elevator in Atchison, Kan., he understood what their families were going through.

“It brought back all the sadness … and I couldn’t hold back the tears,” Hayes said.

Working in grain bins is one of the most dangerous jobs in what has become America’s most hazardous industry: agriculture. And while deaths from grain elevator explosions such as the one in Atchison have become rare, grain bin accidents such as the one that killed Patrick Hayes are rising.

Indeed, grain suffocation deaths last year reached an all-time high of 26. Despite those rising deaths, little has changed since Hayes died nearly two decades ago.

His father — who now advocates for the families of workers killed on the job — maintains that it’s time to start treating such deaths as crimes and send those responsible to jail.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration considered criminal charges after Patrick Hayes suffocated while inside a grain bin without a safety harness in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., in 1993. But the agency dropped the criminal case and settled instead on a $42,000 fine.

Maybe if the agency actually put someone in jail, Hayes argues, grain bin operators would be more careful when workers are “walking the grain.”

That’s what it’s called when employees, even farm children, are sent into bins when grain clumps together or sticks to the sides. They often use shovels or pickaxes to break the clumps apart so augurs can pull the grain to the bottom of the bin for loading.

But once the grain is freed, it can act much like quicksand — swallowing workers, plugging their airways with grain and ultimately suffocating them.

Experts contend, however, that nearly every death could be prevented if bin operators adhered to simple, safety precautions, such as providing workers with a safety harness.

As recently as Nov. 10, Glenn Seba, 19, was trapped in grain up to his neck at Lathrop Feed & Grain in Lathrop, Mo. OSHA is investigating, but Seba was lucky. Rescue workers freed him after an hour of digging.

Neither Seba’s family nor the grain elevator’s operator returned calls seeking comment on the incident.

But other accidents have resulted in deaths, including:

• In December 2009, a grain bin worker in McLaughlin, S.D., died trying to free clogged sunflower seeds. OSHA proposed $1.6 million in fines for numerous safety violations.

• In November 2010, another worker died in a grain elevator in Taft, Texas. OSHA cited the company for 20 safety violations, including failure to provide a safety harness.

• In August that same year, OSHA fined a Wisconsin grain cooperative $721,000 after a worker was buried up to his chest in frozen soybeans for four hours. Later, the agency proposed an additional $374,500 in penalties for other violations.

At the time, OSHA chief David Michaels said, “This continued noncompliance with long established safety standards for working in grain handling operations … shows a complete disregard for worker safety.”

In July 2010, 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread and 19-year-old Alex Pacas died in a corn bin they were trying to clear in Mount Carroll, Ill. As the corn sucked the two boys deeper into the bin, a third boy, Will Piper, tried to help.

“Will was trying to keep the corn out of Alex’s face,” recalled Alex’s aunt, Catherine Rylatt.

According to Rylatt’s account, now part of a safety video produced by the National Corn Growers Association, Alex “was praying and telling Will to ‘tell everyone (his six little brothers and sisters) I love them.’ ” In the end, Rylatt recounted, Will was rescued, but he “couldn’t keep Alex alive. He couldn’t keep the corn out of his face.”

OSHA proposed more than $500,000 in fines for the company’s failure to train the boys or turn off the bin’s augur.

Haasbach LLC, which runs the elevator, is contesting the fines, arguing that it is a farmer-owned facility with fewer than 10 workers and therefore not subject to OSHA regulations.

As in the Illinois case, the victims are often boys or young men — one victim was only 7 years old — and most of the deaths last year occurred on family farms not covered by federal safety rules, according to a recent study by Purdue University.

Jess McCluer, director of regulatory affairs for the National Grain and Feed Association, said the industry was aware of the Purdue study and that his association and others had dealt with the issue by “developing numerous training materials around engulfment and emergency rescue.”

Record deaths

Last year was the worst year for grain entrapments on record, with 51. Experts contend that number is probably low, however, because many incidents go unreported.

Purdue researchers found such accidents are becoming more common because more grain is being stored on farms and in bigger grain-handling facilities, partly because of the increased demand for ethanol.

In addition, much of the grain stored in 2010 was “out of condition,” because of a short growing season the previous year, causing it to “clump” or stick inside bins and elevators, and requiring workers to free it up.

The study also found that “every flowing grain entrapment is a preventable incident.”

Last year Michaels, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor, sent out thousands of letters to grain storage companies warning that he was appalled at the “outrageously reckless behavior” of some operators.

Hayes, however, insisted that warning letters and fines weren’t enough.

“There’s one way to stop it, and that is to put someone in jail,” he said.

Although some local prosecutors have sought jail time for employers in egregious workplace incidents, the federal government seldom seeks such remedies.

Though most OSHA fines are civil, criminal misdemeanor penalties — including fines and up to six months in jail — are available under federal workplace safety laws. But such cases are few and far between because they’re more difficult to prove and the U.S. Justice Department must agree to file them.

Bill Field, a Purdue professor who helped conduct the most recent safety study, agreed that putting a grain bin operator in jail might help. But Field pointed out that there are only about 10,000 commercial grain storage bins nationwide that would be affected by criminal penalties.

Most of the bins — numbering more than 1 million — where most of the accidents occur, are on family farms that aren’t covered by federal safety rules.

Tempel Grain

Critics such as Hayes said that OSHA squandered an opportunity to set an example of tough enforcement in a 2009 Colorado case involving Tempel Grain Co.

After Cody Rigsby, 17, suffocated at the Tempel elevator in Haswell, Colo., OSHA proposed $1.6 million in fines, and the government pursued criminal prosecution of Tempel executives. In the end, however, the government agreed that no one would serve prison time.

A company official pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in Rigsby’s death but was sentenced to five years’ probation. Tempel agreed to pay $50,000 in fines plus $500,000 to Rigsby’s family.

According to published accounts, Kelly Spitzer, Tempel’s vice president, said in court that the company had no idea it was sending Rigsby into danger when he was told to “walk down the grain” without a safety harness.

“With the Tempel case, OSHA could have fired a shot heard throughout the grain industry. But rather than a bang, this case ended with an enforcement whimper,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit group that represents state and federal employees.

Asked about the agency’s actions in the Tempel case, an OSHA spokesman issued a statement from Michaels, the agency’s director.

“We know that money won’t bring back this young man’s life, but we can make every effort to ensure that these terrible tragedies don’t happen again. We will use any means — from tough enforcement to aggressive outreach efforts — to put this industry on notice that we will not tolerate risking workers lives in hazardous situations that are entirely preventable.”

Changes coming?

State workers’ compensation laws have long protected employers from lawsuits filed by the families of dead and injured workers. But another grain bin death in Nebraska could challenge that long-held employer protection in one case.

In May 2007, a week before he was to graduate from high school, 18-year-old Joseph Teague was shoveling grain inside a bin owned by Crossroads Cooperative Association when an augur at the bottom of the bin, which should have been turned off, caused the grain to suddenly flow.

Teague was pulled under and suffocated.

A few months later his son, Joseph James Teague Jr., was born, and a few weeks after that, OSHA took action. It listed the same violations cited in case after case of grain bin deaths — inadequate safety gear, a running augur and improper rescue equipment.

OSHA proposed $130,050 in civil penalties, and in March 2009 Crossroads was prosecuted on a federal misdemeanor charge.

Crossroads pleaded guilty under an arrangement where no one was required to serve jail time. It also agreed to pay $100,000 in fines and to comply with OSHA rules in the future.

In a separate action, Teague’s estate filed a civil lawsuit, arguing that workers’ compensation laws should not limit the damages paid to his family because “Mr. Teague’s death was not an unforeseen accident.” The lawsuit alleged “assault and battery and willful unprovoked physical aggression.”

On Nov. 9, the Nebraska Supreme Court set the stage for a possible and extremely rare exemption from workers’ compensation laws in the Teague case. It reversed a lower-court decision and sent the case back to a district court.

Teague’s lawyers will be arguing again that the case is a criminal matter not addressed by workers’ compensation laws.

Meanwhile, Crossroads was cited once again last year by OSHA while the company was still on probation for another violation of grain-safety standards.

Jan Sharp of the U.S. attorney’s office in Nebraska said OSHA was supposed to notify his office of any new citations but had not done so in the Crossroads case. Sharp said it was unclear whether the citation would have violated the terms of Crosssroads’ probation.

But the issue is now moot, he added, because the term of Crossroads’ probation ended last March.

Hayes is calling on OSHA and the Justice Department, the two federal agencies that try to prevent deaths such as his son’s, to communicate better.

“Better communication could eventually result in jailing a company official,” he said.

To reach Mike McGraw, call 816-234-4423 or send email to mcgraw@kcstar.com.

Source: KansasCity.com, Kansas City Star, “Number of suffocation deaths in grain bins is increasing” by Mike McGraw, 25 Nov 2011.

Whether you’re sitting down to a Tofurky loaf or a bacon-swaddled Turducken this Thanksgiving, now’s a good time to show some gratitude to the country’s food workers and food justice activists who are fighting to keep communities whole while they keep the country fed.

People of color are most likely to live in poor neighborhoods classified as food deserts, where healthful, affordable food is too far out of people’s reach. At every step of the food chain, from farming and processing to distribution and service, there’s a significant wage gap between people of color and white workers. And in all of these spheres, it’s people of color and immigrants who are most likely to work for the lowest wages in the harshest conditions.

It’s against this backdrop that food workers, immigrant rights activists and local communities have been spurred to fight for safe working conditions for workers and sustainable and community-driven pathways to healthy food access. The resistance is as varied as it is ferocious. Here now, a roundup of some vibrant local projects, a few of 2011’s policy wins, and live campaigns in the ongoing fight for just and humane food access and workers rights. As folks dig in to their Thanksgiving meals this year, take a moment to remember to folks who make our dinner possible.

California’s S.B. 126: After an initial crushing veto this summer, California Gov. Jerry Brown came back around this fall with a compromise bill, S.B. 126 to strengthen the organizing rights of farmworkers in the state. The landmark law, signed in October, gives farmworkers more rights to challenge growers in labor disputes. A key provision allows the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify a union when it can determine that employer misconduct threw an election’s results.

Brown produced his compromise package with California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg in September, midway through a 167-mile march that 5,000 farmworkers and supporters walked from the farms of Central Valley to the state capitol to demand the governor protect farmworker rights. United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez hailed the law as “the biggest step forward yet in the cause of fair treatment for farm workers.”

Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Network: Vermont, thanks in part to the organizing of the Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Network, is celebrating its new Anti-Bias Policing Policy, unveiled by Gov. Peter Shumlin just weeks ago, which ensures that local and state law enforcement make public safety, and not immigration enforcement, their first priority. The policy bars police from questioning someone for the sole purpose of inquiring about their immigration status, and forbids a criminal investigation from being initiated solely on the suspicion that a suspect might be undocumented.

The organization fought for the policy after a member farmworker named Danilo Lopez and his cousin Antonio who both work on local farms were asked for their immigration papers when a state trooper stopped the car they were riding in on their way to work.

“The reality is that what happened to me and Antonio and what happened up on Chris Wagner’s farm in Franklin County, who was was handcuffed and had his employees deported after a 911 call, shouldn’t have happened,” said Lopez, adding that he was “hopeful” about the new policy.

Viet Village Urban Farm in New Orleans East: The Katrina recovery story from the Gulf Coast is as much about renewal as it is about survival. For the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East, recovery included the expansion of what was a family-based community farming tradition and weekly market into the now-vibrant collective community urban farm, called the Viet Village Urban Farm. The Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corporation acquired 20 acres of property in 2007 to formalize the whole thing. The farm, which includes small family plots and larger commercial plots, also has space for livestock like chicken and goats.

“We’re leveraging the heritage of the Vietnamese seniors here who have actually been growing a lot of microgreens, a lot of the herbs, a lot of the fresh vegetables in their own backyards,” said James Bui, a special projects manager with the MQVN CDC.

The project was awarded an Excellence Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2008, in part for the organic farming practices, like integrated pest management, cover cropping and composting that were designed into the space.

Urban farmers persevere in California: In its heyday, the South Central Farm in South Central Los Angeles was considered one of the largest urban farms in the country. Community members grew chayote, chamomile, avocadoes, sugarcane, a veritable rainbow of bean varieties. But when a developer and the city organized to kick out the community who’d been cultivating the 14 acres, finally winning in 2006, a chapter of the farm’s storied history closed, and another began.

Last summer, farmers committed to feeding their community flipped the switch on new property up in Bakersfield, where they’d leased new land to begin growing again. The worker and farmer-owned co-op now operates on 85 acres of donated, unused land in Buttonwillow, California, and serves both L.A. and Bakersfield with CSA boxes and weekly stands at local farmers markets.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers: And we’re giving our last round of thanks to folks leading the ongoing fight for justice and fair compensation for farmworkers, like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Their latest campaign, taking on Trader Joe’s and Publix supermarkets, urges these grocery giants to take seriously the rights of the workers who pick the produce they sell in their stores. From Oakland to Trader Joe’s headquarters in Monrovia, California, folks have been turning out to demand a penny more per pound of tomatoes that farmworkers pick. Currently, farmworkers make just 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket they pick.

Source: ColorLines.com, “Need a Reason to be Thankful This Year? Look at These Food Justice Wins” by Julianne Hing, 23 Nov 2011.

Thanksgiving is a holiday built around food. We gather, we gorge, we acknowledge the work of the cook, and perhaps we thank the divine. But rarely do we honor the hands that feed us.

Growing the food that feeds our country is one of the most thankless and low-paying jobs a person could have. In 2002, the median net income for a U.S. farmer was $15,848, while hired hands and migrant workers averaged around $10,000 per year. Farming has become so unpopular that the category was recently removed from the U.S. Census, and federal prison inmates now outnumber farmers.

Migrant pickers often put in long hours — up to twelve hours a day, in fact — and earn about 45 cents for each 32- pound bucket of tomatoes. This amount hasn’t risen in more than 30 years. At that rate, workers have to pick two and a half tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage. Most farm workers don’t get sick days, overtime or health care. Some farmers often don’t fare much better.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we stopped putting such an emphasis on “cheap” and instead put an emphasis on “fair,” maybe those people who grow our food could afford to eat as well. Raising farm wages would have little effect on supermarket prices, mainly because farmers and farm workers are paid only about 6 to 9 cents out of every retail dollar spent.

If we raised farm wages by 35 percent and passed that cost on to consumers, it would raise the retail price of food by only a few pennies, according to the Center for Immigrant Studies. The total cost to consumers for all fresh produce would add up to less than $34 per year, per family. If we raised wages by 70 percent, that cost would be about $67. Divide this among 52 weekly trips to the supermarket, and you’re looking at spending barely a dollar more each week. Wouldn’t you spend that much to know that people didn’t suffer to feed you?

In Jan. 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor informed Congress that farm workers were “a labor force in significant economic distress.” The report cited farm workers’ “low wages, sub-poverty annual earnings (and) significant periods of un- and underemployment,” adding that “agricultural worker earnings and working conditions are either stagnant or in decline.”

For agriculture to be sustainable, it must provide a living for those who work our land. Let’s honor the hands that feed us by restoring the dignity of a fair wage to farmers and farm workers. Here are a couple ways to do that:

• Buy your produce from local farms, where you can meet the farm workers and see for yourself whether they’re treated fairly. The smaller the farm, the more likely the owners are to treat workers well; often, they’ll have only family members working the farm.

• Support an increase in farm worker wages by joining the Alliance for Fair Food.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. You can contact her at Shawn@ShawnDellJoyce.com.

Source: SanFernandoSun.com, “SUSTAINABLE LIVING- Thanking the Hands That Feed Us” by Shawn Dell Joyce, Creative Syndicate, 23 Nov 2011.