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Category Archives: Farmworkers
Remembering Unity of Filipino and Mexicano Farmworkers
A good memory today of a forum held on this day back home, in 2023 at Cal Poly Pomona, on the exemplary unity between Filipino and Mexican farmworkers on September 16, 1965 and the meaning of the 50th anniversary of Agbayani Village.
Honored With a Visit by Augustine Romero
Honored with a visit by Augustine Romero with his daughter Pitzer student Luna Romero at Cesar Chavez Park clean-up and mural restoration in Pomona. Augustine is the gallery curator for the city of Albuquerque overseeing the South Broadway Cultural Center and KiMo Galleries (where his recent works shine a light to create counter-narratives told from the position of our historically excluded communities).
Farmworkers Across The State Are Still Getting Sick and Sometimes Dying from Preventable Heat
Unconscionable! … “20 years after California enacted a landmark heat safety law, farmworkers across the state are still getting sick and sometimes dying from preventable heat illness.
The law “is failing because of a lack of enforcement. It’s not doing what it was intended to do,” said state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), a former farmworker who carried legislation last year that would have made it easier for farmworkers to receive workers’ compensation if they were stricken by heat illness on the job. The measure was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. “It is the kind of thing that should be keeping legislators up at night. People are dying.”
The enforcement lapses come at a time when farmworkers — many of whom lack legal status and fear deportation — are already hesitant to voice complaints about working conditions, fearful that employers could retaliate by reporting them to immigration authorities. It is estimated that more than half of California’s approximately 350,000 farmworkers are undocumented.
A 2022 study by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center found that many farmworkers were still laboring without the protections. Of more than 1,200 workers surveyed, 43% reported that their employers had not provided a heat illness prevention plan and 15% said they had not received heat illness prevention training.”
