Well, most of it is informative, but these days, everything ends up being a
political commercial.
Miriam
A Triple Tragedy for the Farmworkers: Covid 19, Racism, and the Fires This
Time
By Dennis J Bernstein, Reader Supported News
10 September 20
An interview with United Farm Worker president Teresa Romero
The dual pandemics of Covid-19 and economic racism have taken a costly toll
on Americas farmworkers, who do the hardest work and have now been
recognized as essential workers but still cannot get the safety
protections and the medical care demanded by the worst pandemic in over a
hundred years. Add to this the outbreak of massive fires across the state of
California and, yes, we have nothing short of a perfect storm of human
disaster.
I sat down this week with the president of the United Farm Workers (UFW),
Teresa Romero, the first Latina and first immigrant woman to become
president of a national labor union in the U.S. Romero has been burning the
candle at both ends, in her quest to bring some semblance of economic
justice to the farmworkers in the age oftCovid-19. The UFW is without
question the most effective union representing field workers and fruit and
vegetable pickers in the U.S., but they are in a life and death battle for
those whom they represent.
Romero, for her part, has taken on the multiple struggles facing
farmworkers, including the battle for better, less crowded living
conditions, the basics in health care, easy access to testing during the
pandemic particularly for those many workers who do not have insurance
protections, and a structure for emergency pay when farmworkers are being
forced to face off with the fire to save the grape harvest.
I spoke with Romero on September 4th in Southern California.
Dennis J Bernstein: Welcome. Thank you for joining us, President Romero.
Teresa Romero: It is nice to be with you.
DB: The United Farm Workers are now facing multiple pandemics triple
pandemics of Covid-19, burning flames across the hills and fields where they
work, and the endless pandemic of racism. So do you want to just give us a
general take? What does it look like at ground zero level?
TR: You know, Dennis, the workers are suffering from a perfect storm.
Because in addition to what you just mentioned, were talking about
Covid-19. Covid-19 has affected all of us. But it affects agricultural
workers because they are more vulnerable. They often live, commute and labor
in crammed, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. So that makes them more
vulnerable. They do not have the equipment to protect themselves that they
need. The federal government considers them essential, but they are not
treated as such. They are dealing with the horrible temperatures that weve
been having, in California several days over 100°. And as you know, in
addition to the immigration issues that the workers are facing, in some
areas the workers are having to work under dangerous conditions because of
the fires and the air quality. And unfortunately, the employers are not
providing the equipment that is needed to protect them. So it is very
difficult.
DB: It is interesting and quite troubling to see the owners heading for the
hills, if you will or away from the hills, I should say while the
farmworkers are facing off in some instances with the flames. These are
essential workers, and I know you strongly believe and are advocating not
only for special hazard pay but also for the sorely needed expanded
protections that are consistent with the dangers that theyre facing now. Is
there anything happening on that front?
TR: For example, if we talk about Covid, the employers are supposed to
provide equipment. The employers are supposed to keep the workers informed.
We negotiated with the State of California to include farmworkers on paid
sick leave if they contract Covid. But unfortunately, employers are not
informing the workers of these rights. So it is even more difficult for them
to demand what they dont know they are entitled to. And when you have the
fires, for example I think there are 51 grape growers/vineyards who
requested a special permit to continue harvesting. And they got it. But they
werent there harvesting it was the farmworkers. The owners are not in the
field suffering the risks the farmworkers are suffering.
DB: So this is in the face of Covid and fires.
TR: Yes, it is. Yes Dennis, from the beginning we have been distributing
face masks to farmworkers. You know the farmworkers are under contract. We
are able to communicate with the owners; we put in place safety precautions,
and they go above and beyond; we work with them. But many workers are not
under contract; they are like you said earlier undocumented. And they
work from sun-up to sundown, and nobody is willing to go in the fields and
let them know about their rights. And in many cases, even when you do that,
when you tell them what their rights are, they get fired. We have a case
right now in Kern County of a pistachio company, Primex, whose workers came
to us. There were a lot of workers who were testing positive, a couple of
workers died, and the workers who started demanding their rights were fired.
So it is one of the problems that we have, like you said earlier. Thats why
Im calling it a perfect storm, because all these are happening at once.
Workers know that theyre going to get fired, know that theyre
undocumented, and many members of the family work at the same company, so
they have a lot to lose. And they dont want to risk not having the money to
pay the rent, not having the money to feed their families, because all these
programs and help that the federal government is approving are not including
the farmworkers.
DB: Were talking about a very difficult situation for the farmworkers,
President Romero. Its of course always tough for the people you represent,
but now its a pandemic, its fire, and its racism and neglect. And I want
to ask you, I want to really ask you to put a human face on this a couple
of very specific examples of what has been happening to the people you
represent.
TR: The people, the farmworkers, they are the people that are harvesting and
doing work that probably most of us would not be able to do, Dennis. And
like I said earlier, we have always known that they are essential workers,
but now the federal government is recognizing them as essential. And when
you talk to them and they hear that theyre essential, to them its
laughable because they are saying we still have no protections, we still
have no extra benefits. We received a donation of N95-type masks from the
Port of LA because they knew the farmworkers were working in fire areas. And
when you go there and see them and give them the masks, the gratitude on
their faces is just unbelievable. It is something that they deserve, but
when you give it to them they are so thankful. We have been working trying
to not only the masks, like I said, but we have kind donations. Our sister
organization, the U.S. Dahlia Foundation, got a donation of 800,000 masks
that were distributing right now, but these are not to protect them from
the air quality in the fire area. But we also have done food distribution,
meal distribution in different areas, agricultural areas, to help
farmworkers. As you know, they are workers that are in many cases seasonal.
They work 7-8 months a year, but they still have to survive 12 months of the
year. What is saving lives is the protections that we helped get California
to implement, and since 2015 when they were implemented, thank God we
havent had any death of a farmworker in the fields because of the high
temperatures.
DB: We know that in the White House and State Department, particularly in
the White House, people are tested at least one or two times a day. How many
times a day could a farmworker expect to get tested? Or a week or a month or
a year?
TR: Oh my God! You know there are companies and like I said, Im going to
give you the example again of this company that is a pistachio company
they have never tested the workers. And thats why the infection got so high
and workers died. We are dealing right now with one contra company, Foster
Farms in Livingston, where weve been demanding that the workers are tested
because, to date, up to 9 workers have died in that plant.
DB: Foster Farms, right? Is that what youre talking about?
TR: Foster Farms in Livingston, California, yes. The Livingston plant is
where we work with them and we have been pushing for them to do testing. And
they have been pushing back and doing partial testing, but unfortunately
with this virus you cannot do partial testing. We have to ensure that
everybody gets tested; we have to ensure that those who are testing positive
are not coming to the plant until they test negative. Actually the county
weve been working with the county, with the authorities and with the
Attorney General, but the county finally is shutting it down, and they
agreed to shut down the plant tonight so they can test all the workers. When
you have one place where 8 workers have died, its not acceptable. We need
to do more to protect the lives of workers.
DB: 8 people.
TR: And that is the plant that is being closed by the health department.
What we are doing is demanding that workers are paid during the closing of
the plant, ensuring that the workers are tested, and that they will not come
back to work until they get the results and they are negative, and then
continuing to work with the company so they can continue testing the workers
every two weeks. But it is a dangerous situation when you have 8 workers
that have died. We often ask how many more? How many more did you need to
see to do something?
DB: What kind of medical care do the people you represent generally have?
And in terms of living situations, is that problematic as well?
TR: It is problematic in the sense that many times you have in one household
multi-generational families. You have the mom, the grandpa, the grandma and
the children, so that can be difficult. And in many cases, they live in the
camps that the growers have for the workers. In many cases you have 2 or 3
families living in one household. And the majority of the farmworkers do not
have health insurance. So they have to find a way for the company to test
them, or where they are not going to have to pay $100 for tests themselves,
because they cannot afford it.
DB: And is there a fear of showing up positive, and maybe a tendency to hide
it, because it could be used against you in a variety of ways?
TR: Oh Im sure there is, especially in those areas where the workers are
not aware, or not told, that they have by law the protection where they can
take two weeks off and the employer has to pay them. What the employers are
doing is firing them, so workers dont have the information that they need,
dont have the support that they need, dont have the representation that
they need. Im sure many of them would prefer not to say anything so they
are not fired. But that is why its important that the employer tell all the
farmworkers that work for them, if you test positive you can stay home and
we will pay you for the two weeks. Which would be the 14 days that we need
for the virus to leave our bodies.
DB: I want to come back to the vineyards getting special dispensation or
permission to force the field workers to keep working. Why would expensive
grapes, luxury grapes we know wine is generally a luxury item why would
farmworkers be forced to work? Its not like this is crucial medicine in
terms of life and death situations. These are grapes. Why would that take
precedent over the lives of farmworkers?
TR: Dennis, if I knew the answer to that! It is a special interest. They
dont want to lose money; they dont want to they prefer to risk the lives
of the workers than to risk their profits. And there is an index that says
above a certain number of the air quality, the workers should not be working
without a special mask. And if it gets above a certain number, even at that
point even with a mask they cant work. But these are things that happen.
Fire lasts a week, two weeks, and by the time workers realize what their
rights are, the fire is already in the past. But to me it is nothing but
special interests, because farmworkers are still and I go back to what you
said earlier they are still undocumented and they prefer to accept this
rather than lose their jobs. Remember, they have a family to support. If
they tell them if you dont work you are fired, theyre going to work. They
are going to do everything they can to support their family.
DB: You know people sometimes like to say weve come a long way, but not
very far when it comes to the folks who do some of the most difficult work
and important work, the farmworkers. Many cannot afford to buy the food that
they break their back to pick for others. And yet it seems like its going
to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Theres a presidential election coming up. Has the UFW taken a stand? Im
remembering back when Ill date myself I remember very well as a young
activist, when Robert Kennedy went into the fields, went in to see Cesar
Chavez, went in to sort of sit with him during his fast and feel the sweat
of the suffering and get some kind of understanding. Whats the word from
Biden?
TR: Joe Biden has always been in our corner. When we needed bills when he
was in the Senate, he was always in support of farmworkers. He understands
the important work that they do. And right now, unfortunately, we have an
administration that has demonized immigrants and has made it okay to talk
about people of color as if we were inferior and as if we did not belong
here. And that is even a more difficult thing nowadays, because everybody
says farmworkers in surveys, well, they shouldnt be here. If they dont
like it, they can go home. That is the wrong position, but thats what he is
motivating his followers to say. Vice President Biden and Senator Harris,
both of them, have been tremendous supporters of farmworkers rights,
tremendous supporters of immigrants rights. And I think it is important
that we know that if we want change in this country, we are going to have to
make sure that we vote, our family members vote, not only in California but
every State of the Union. We need to go out there and vote and have somebody
there that is going to be representing us we the people, not special
interests.
DB: And of course we know that the brown vote, the Spanish-speaking vote in
this country can and will make the difference.
TR: Voting is going to be crucial. But you know Dennis, its not just the
presidential voting. We need to vote and get engaged in our local elections:
county elections, city elections, state elections. It is vital the
presidential election and voting in the presidential election, especially
when there is so much at stake, it is vital. But we cant forget, we need to
ensure that we get the senators there that we trust, that we know are going
to represent us all, the Congress people, the Assembly members, the mayor.
At every level, we need to make sure were engaged and we vote.
DB: Right. And so are you sure your mailbox is still out front there?
Because they seem to be disappearing these days. You might want to go out
there and chain it down right now.
TR: I hear you. I shouldnt laugh because this is a very serious matter. But
we know that we have a challenge on our hands. We know that the decision to
remove mail boxes, the decision to remove the machines that sort the mail in
the post office is a decision geared to keep people from voting. But we need
to understand how important it is, and if we wear masks and we have to wear
double masks or a shield or something, we need to make sure that we vote. We
need to make sure that we bring our ballot to the post office early enough
so we dont wait until the last minute and people can use that as an excuse
to invalidate our votes.
