FA R M
L A B O R
I N F O R M AT I O N
B U L L E T I N
Voice of the Fields California
May 2021
FREE
Volume 31, Number 5
Farm Working in the Post COVID-19 Era
T
HE COVID-19 PANDEMIC brought lasting impacts to the farm working community in California and across the United States. It’s estimated that between 800,000 and 1 million California farmworkers lost family members due to coronavirus, lost work hours and wages due to COVID-19 restrictions and risked their own health by going to work in the midst of a global health crisis. As businesses across California shut down, farmworkers worked tirelessly to ensure that families across the country had food on their tables. The magnitude of the pandemic, in many ways, underlined just how vital of a role farmworkers play in our communities. And that long-awaited recognition is beginning to change the cultural and political landscape in California and the U.S.
In California, numerous bills are being proposed that aim to better working conditions for farmworkers and increase things like wages, paid sick leave, and other work benefits. Bills are basically an idea for a new law that, if passed, go on to become law. Bills are not voted on by voters, but by elected representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate who then vote for us. In other words, we vote to elect people that we hope will represent our values when deciding whether a bill becomes a law.
California Bills
One bill gaining a lot of attention and support in California is the Farmworker Wildfire Smoke Protections Act, authored by Assemblymember Robert Rivas. If passed, the bill would increase health and safety resources for farmworkers during California’s wildfire season. Among other things, the bill would ensure that N95 masks are stockpiled for farmworkers’ use and would also employ “strike teams” to travel to farms, ensuring that farmers are following health and safety protocols for their workers during a wildfire. The bill would also require that farmworkers are
provided with wildfire safety information in English and Spanish, as well as pictograms. (“Bill Bolstering Wildfire Protections for Farmworkers Advances,” Good Times Sacramento, April 2021) Just recently, the California State Senate approved the bill to name August 26 California Farmworker Day, authored by Senator Ben Hueso. The intention behind the bill is to commemorate and recognize all of the contributions made by California’s farm working community. Marco Cesar Lizarraga of La Cooperativa Campesina de California said that “by establishing a day out of the year to highlight their [farmworker] contributions, we can begin to have the conversations we need to erase these inequities.” The designation of August 26 as California Farmworker Day is, more than anything, a steppingstone towards addressing the gaps in resources and rights for the farm working community.
Federal Bills
At the national (federal) level, Congressman John Garamendi recently introduced one of the most prominent bills titled the Farmworker Pesticide Safety
Act. Various studies and reports have come out in recent years, detailing the many health risks associated with pesticide exposure and also highlighted the importance of creating safer work environments for the farmworkers that routinely work with these harsh chemicals. If passed, this bill would triple funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “to prevent, recognize, and mitigate pesticide exposures” among farmworkers. (“Garamendi introduces Farmworker Pesticide Safety Act,” Colusa Sun Herald, April 2021.) Perhaps the most significant national (federal) bill affecting farmworkers is the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA). If passed, the bill would provide undocumented farmworkers the opportunity to gain legal status. Farmworkers who worked on a farm for at least 180 days in a two-year period could apply for legal status that would prevent deportation and could be renewed every five years. The bill also includes a pathway to legal residency, though it requires a lengthy eight-year process. Experts estimate that FWMA is the most likely to pass, though there are two other bills proposed by President Joe Biden and Congress: the U.S. Citizenship Act and the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act that both provide streamlined pathways to citizenship for farmworkers. The fate of most of these bills is yet to be determined. But what we do know is that many state and national policymakers are shining a light on the farm working community, recognizing their significant contributions and also calling for increased rights and resources in the wake of the pandemic.