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Another farm worker dies from heat stroke in Kern County
One year ago, when Kern County, Calif. table grape picker Asuncion Valdivia, 53, fell victim to 100-plus degree weather in July 2004, thousands of activists took online action to try to prevent more heat deaths. Yet last Wednesday, July 13, 2005--less than a year after Asuncion's death--another farm worker, Salud Zamudio Rodriguez, 42, succumbed to more than 105-degree heat while laboring in a bell pepper field outside nearby Arvin. Though co-workers attempted to hydrate and cool him when he began to shake and wave his arms frantically, the sweltering heat proved too intense. So once again we are asking you to help us create pressure to prevent further needless tragedies.
On Monday, July 18, United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez used a news conference in Bakersfield to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue an emergency regulation aimed at preventing more heat-related fatalities. The UFW is also calling on lawmakers to pass AB 805, by Assemblymember Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), UFW-sponsored legislation requiring basic steps by growers to prevent and respond to heat illness. A state regulation on heat illness was first proposed in 1990. But the state has been dragging its heels for 15 years. Table grape growers last year ignored pleas from the UFW for voluntary preventive measures against heat stress.
Among the requirements of AB 805 would be adequate hourly rest breaks during heat waves; shaded rest areas, where feasible; training for foremen and supervisors in spotting heat illness, providing first aid and summoning emergency help. The bill passed the Assembly and is now in the state Senate.
Currently, a heat wave with triple-digit temperatures is hitting the Central Valley and other parts of California. Farm workers are toiling to supply food for people worldwide while putting their own lives at risk. Please honor their sacrifice by sending an e-mail today to Gov. Schwarzenegger and your state senator if you live in California supporting AB 805. The battle against heat stress is one farm workers cannot afford to lose.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/heatdeath705
On Monday, July 18, United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez used a news conference in Bakersfield to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue an emergency regulation aimed at preventing more heat-related fatalities. The UFW is also calling on lawmakers to pass AB 805, by Assemblymember Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), UFW-sponsored legislation requiring basic steps by growers to prevent and respond to heat illness. A state regulation on heat illness was first proposed in 1990. But the state has been dragging its heels for 15 years. Table grape growers last year ignored pleas from the UFW for voluntary preventive measures against heat stress.
Among the requirements of AB 805 would be adequate hourly rest breaks during heat waves; shaded rest areas, where feasible; training for foremen and supervisors in spotting heat illness, providing first aid and summoning emergency help. The bill passed the Assembly and is now in the state Senate.
Currently, a heat wave with triple-digit temperatures is hitting the Central Valley and other parts of California. Farm workers are toiling to supply food for people worldwide while putting their own lives at risk. Please honor their sacrifice by sending an e-mail today to Gov. Schwarzenegger and your state senator if you live in California supporting AB 805. The battle against heat stress is one farm workers cannot afford to lose.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/heatdeath705
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What a tragedy. Salud Zamudio--if you are not aware, his first name means "health" or, as a toast--"to your health." But it is not workers' health that labor contractors and big central valley growers have in mind. It is the exploitation of their labor. ANYTHING to make a buck.
Surely, Salud had family--a spouse? children? brothers and sisters? parents? But it is more important for growers and consumers to save a penny a pound on green peppers than it is for Salud Zamudio to live, for his parents to have a son, his children to have a father.
We, the citizens of the empire, can drink our espresso and have the laborer at Whole Foods put green peppers in our omelette and then absent-mindedly read about the man who died to bring the peppers from the fields. The Zapatistas have a word for this kind of shit: "bastante!" "enough!"
All of us should, by all means, support the legislation referenced in Driller 9's piece. But there will never be peace and justice and libertad until there are no more big growers exploiting laborers; no gods, no masters.
I swear the next time I hear any mf denouncing illegal immigrants, I am simply going to say Salud.
What a tragedy.
Surely, Salud had family--a spouse? children? brothers and sisters? parents? But it is more important for growers and consumers to save a penny a pound on green peppers than it is for Salud Zamudio to live, for his parents to have a son, his children to have a father.
We, the citizens of the empire, can drink our espresso and have the laborer at Whole Foods put green peppers in our omelette and then absent-mindedly read about the man who died to bring the peppers from the fields. The Zapatistas have a word for this kind of shit: "bastante!" "enough!"
All of us should, by all means, support the legislation referenced in Driller 9's piece. But there will never be peace and justice and libertad until there are no more big growers exploiting laborers; no gods, no masters.
I swear the next time I hear any mf denouncing illegal immigrants, I am simply going to say Salud.
What a tragedy.
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