They 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.”
Novelist 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.
I’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.
Líderes 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.
ARVIN, Calif. (KERO) — With the temperatures well into the triple digits, Líderes Campesinas of South Kern say they are facing an environmental and economic crisis.
CAMARILLO, 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.
On May 29, 2024, representatives of the Campaign for Healthier Solutions attended Dollar General’s annual shareholders meeting in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, urging the company to commit to eliminating chemicals of concern from its supply chain. After the company failed to make any new commitments to strengthen its chemical policy or expand its restricted substance list, representatives from the campaign delivered a letter to company executives urging additional action, and announced that they were actively testing Dollar General products for chemicals linked to health conditions like cancer, learning disabilities, and reproductive harm.
The Coachella Valley Unified School District has released its draft LCAP for the 2024-25 school year. The district presented its goals for the next three years at its May 16 meeting. The LCAP, or the Local Control and Accountability Plan, is how school districts across California determine their goals, set plans to reach those goals and allocate funding. It’s also the best indicator of what the school district is prioritizing in the coming years.
Last week I laid down on the floor inside of the Swing Space chanting, “Don’t balance the budget on our backs. No podemos equilibrar el presupuesto sobre las espaldas de los sobrevivientes.” I was wearing a red shirt to symbolize the blood California will have on its hands should it choose not to fund crime victim services.
BAKERSFIELD, California — The Central Valley is finishing out its first heat wave of the year. Despite it only being three days long, many in the agriculture industry are already feeling the heat, especially farmworkers.
