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Newsom vetoes bill aiming to increase protections for farmworkers overcome by heat

Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that aimed to make it easier for farmworkers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. In a veto message issued Saturday, Newsom said there is “no doubt” that California farmworkers need strong protections from the risk of heat-related illness, especially as climate change drives an increase in extreme temperatures. Gavin Newsom’s desk …

Heat

Lawmakers take ‘creative’ approach to enforcing heat safety rules for California farmworkers

With the temperature well over 100 degrees, a farmworker takes a break in the shade of a peach tree in a Riverside County orchard. Gavin Newsom’s desk aims to compel employer compliance with the state’s outdoor heat safety standards by making it easier for farmworkers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. First enacted in 2005, the state’s …

Heat Illness

California legislators say new laws must protect farmworkers from extreme heat

State lawmakers, responding to a report that the agency charged with ensuring worker safety in California has sharply cut back on enforcement of outdoor heat protection laws, said new legislation is needed to protect employees amid escalating periods of extreme heat. Ortega, whose committee has heard testimony from farmworkers accusing Cal/OSHA of not enforcing safety laws, said the agency has …

California cuts back on safety enforcement as farmworkers toil in extreme heat

California has sharply cut its enforcement of heat-protection laws for outdoor laborers while extreme heat has intensified in recent years — endangering farmworkers, construction workers and others who toil in scorching temperatures — an investigation by the Los Angeles Times and Capital & Main has found. Worker advocates say the numbers show a failure to adequately enforce California’s landmark outdoor …

Central Valley, where 1/4 of U.S.'s food is grown, faces extreme heat for a 2nd week

Central Valley, where 1/4 of U.S.'s food is grown, faces extreme heat for a 2nd week The central valley of California produces a quarter of the nation's food. AILSA CHANG, HOST: A heat wave is scorching big parts of California's Central Valley, where one quarter of the nation's food is grown. QUINTANILLA: She says the farm didn't have the adequate …

Farmworkers report to work in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. California Democrats lambasted the state’s workplace safety agency on Wednesday after hearing testimony from farmworkers who said they have been exposed to extreme heat and pesticides on the job and have faced wage theft and other labor law violations. That understaffing has compounded workplace safety compliance in …

113 degrees at work, failing AC at home: Farmworkers can’t escape life-threatening heat

One morning this summer, several days into temperatures above 110 degrees in this farming community, Socorro Galvez, 53, began to feel weak as she picked grapes in the suffocating heat. Not right now.” For advocates, the large number of challenges facing workers and families in the eastern Coachella Valley can sometimes feel overwhelming — low wages, the lack of affordable …

Camilo Martin picks blueberries at the Coopertiva Tierra y Libertad farm Friday in Everson, Wash. As Earth this week set and then repeatedly broke unofficial records for average global heat, it served as a reminder of a danger that climate change is making steadily worse for farmworkers and others who labor outside. We just want to survive it.” As Earth …

Farmworkers Demand Basic Safety After Working In Extreme Heat Wave

LOADING ERROR LOADING Farmworkers are calling on Congress to pass basic safety standards to protect them from extreme heat after a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest killed hundreds of people, including an undocumented worker in Oregon. “Farmworkers are imperiled by a perfect storm of deadly plagues: Extreme summer temperatures fueled by climate change… field workers disproportionately afflicted by the …

Extreme Heat