Californians say they were fired for leaving their jobs in sweltering heat. Is the state on their side?
| CalMattersThey worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.
Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”
Q&A: A Conversation with the Women of Líderes Campesinas
| Alta JournalNovelist Helena María Viramontes deftly captures farmworking conditions of the mid-20th century in the August California Book Club selection, Under the Feet of Jesus. In carefully drawn descriptions and scenes, the book reveals the grueling circumstances workers are forced to toil under: constant exposure to the sun and toxic chemicals, minimal breaks, a lack of safe drinking water, and the push to always keep working faster and faster.
California Farmworkers Stand on Uneven Ground
| Zócalo Public SquareI’ve worked in the fields of the Salinas Valley since I was 18, tending grapes and picking broccoli.
Agricultural work has many contradictions. It is both steady and uncertain. I work constantly but don’t have one job. Instead, I work different jobs for different contractors during the picking season.
I could not have survived without doing this work, but sometimes I wonder how much longer I can survive doing it. Farmwork is getting easier in some ways, and harder in others.
Farmworker Leaders from Across the State Advocate for Change in Sacramento
| CalCAN | California Climate & Agriculture NetworkLíderes Campesinas aims to strengthen the leadership of farmworker women and youth so that they can be agents of economic, social and political change and ensure their human rights. For over 35 years, Líderes Campesinas has used outreach, organizing, and activism to improve the lives of farmworker communities.
Extreme Heat Threatens Agricultural Workers
| ABC 23 | BakersfieldARVIN, Calif. (KERO) — With the temperatures well into the triple digits, Líderes Campesinas of South Kern say they are facing an environmental and economic crisis.
Tres Hijas Berry Farms to Pay $200,000 in EEOC Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
| U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity CommissionCAMARILLO, Calif. – Tres Hijas Berry Farms, LLC, will pay $200,000 and furnish injunctive relief to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. The EEOC brought the lawsuit on behalf of a class of agricultural workers, whose primary language is Spanish.