Cesar Chavez's mission is still sadly relevant today.

Tomorrow marks the 18th anniversary of his passing. With the GOP-led red states trying to kill unions and the GOP-led Congress trying to neuter the power of the EPA (EPA reconsidering toxic pesticide methyl iodide,sign the petition), and the heat deaths of farm workers here in the San Joaquin valley and other agricultural areas, remembering Chavez's work takes on a bigger significance. From the Valley Advocate, an article this year on the topic of worker safety:

Also, and less surprisingly, on the list of high-risk jobs: farm work. According to a 2009 report from the BLS, the agricultural, forestry, fishing and hunting sectors had a combined 26 workplace fatalities per 100,000 workers, higher than the rate in any other industry, including mining, transportation and warehousing, and construction. The health and safety risks faced by farm workers are caused by chemical exposure, heavy machinery and hand tools, livestock, toxic gases, and weather conditions such as extreme cold and heat, according to OSHA. In California alone, a reported 13 farm workers have died from heat-related causes since 2005, despite heat safety regulations introduced that year.

The risks inherent in farm work are heightened by several factors, Woeppel writes, starting with high-pressure quota systems on large farm operations. In the rush to meet those quotas, field workers may be denied rest or water breaks, or may cut corners when working with machinery. In addition, she writes, while farm workers have a legal right to information about toxic substances they are working with, that notification often falls by the wayside. (Woeppel cites a 2001 study from the American Journal of Industrial Medicine that found that fewer than half of workers surveyed had been notified by their employer about the risks of a pesticide they were using.)

Growers fight to keep any and all farm worker deaths from being classified correctly. I know, what a shocker...and even when the farm is found responsible for a worker's death like that of Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, law enforcement doesn't play fair in dealing with these murderers as they cut deals with them to avoid jail time.

Chavez realized that his mission was important on many fronts, especially Pesticide use and of course organizing workers and their safety on the job..which takes a back seat to productivity:

"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."
"Farm workers are society's canaries. They demonstrate the effects of pesticide poisoning before anyone else."

Words have power, even from beyond the grave. Thank you Cesar for a lifetime of work that still has as much relevance today as it did 30 plus years ago. Farmworkers still are not protected like other workers, contrary to popular belief. Below is an Edward R. Murrow report that could be about today's farmworkers.


California's Harvest of Shame from California Assembly Access on Vimeo.

TakeOurJobs.Org- put your $ where your mouth is nutters!

This action was started here in my little burgh of Bakersfield, CA or more specifically Keene, CA which is home to the UFW headquarters. The United Farm Workers (UFW) created this website and now Steven Colbert is doing a piece on it...which as most know...has a humor slant but it's always based in reality.

This morning, it was reported on our local news, Channel 29 KBAK, that over 5,000 people have 'signed up' on the website as of today...BUT:

Only three have actually followed through to actually apply for employment as a field worker...aka a farm worker, harvesting fruits and veggies. I have performed this type of work as a teenager, so I ain't no bleeding heart liberal whining about how hard the farm workers have it. But I am of course a bleeding heart liberal. ;)

From their website, some facts:

There are two issues facing our nation--high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce--that many Americans believe are related.


Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat - at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) - comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers.

Agriculture in the United States is dependent on an immigrant workforce. Three-quarters of all crop workers working in American agriculture were born outside the United States. According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.

We are a nation in denial about our food supply. As a result the UFW has initiated the "Take Our Jobs" campaign.

Farm workers are ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace them in the field. We will use our knowledge and staff to help connect the unemployed with farm employers. Just fill out the form to the right and continue on to the request for job application.

** Job may include using hand tools such as knives, hoes, shovels, etc. Duties may include tilling the soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning, picking, cutting, sorting & packing of harvested produce. May set up & operate irrigation equip. Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.(emphasis mine)

I have blogged and publicly spoke out, ad nauseum, about the plight of the farm worker, undocumented or not. I have done this for decades as a native Californian and Hispanic woman. How they work ten hours or more a day (without overtime), in 100+ degree heat. How the labor laws always have special 'rules' that usually make the farm workers a class of worker that isn't covered by the basic human rights or wage sections of said laws. This is no bullshit folks....farm workers are usually exempt from many if not most of the protections offered the rest of us as employees.

Most of the responses they have gotten on their website are disgusting, evil, hate-filled comments from rightwing nutters who have no fucking clue.

Every summer here there are dozens of deaths recorded of farm workers that die from heat exhaustion or because a farmer knowingly had a field sprayed with pesticides while humans were working in it. No one is ever prosecuted for these deaths. No ONE.

Spread the word and watch Colbert's report please....they need all the help and press they can get. If all farm workers who were undocumented left tomorrow...we would start paying 10 bucks a head for iceberg lettuce and who knows what for other produce that we all as Americans, take for granted.

Photo is by the great photographer Ansel Adams