Friday, May 30, 2008

How Much is the Life of a Farm Worker Worth?


UFW reports -

On May 14, the official temperature was 95 degrees; it was even hotter inside the wine grape vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming, east of Stockton, where Maria worked. Maria had been working for nine hours.

At 3:40 p.m. Maria became dizzy. She didn’t know where she was and didn’t recognize her fiance. Maria passed out.

There was no water for the workers from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. When water arrived, it was a 10-minute walk from where Maria was working, too far to access. There was no shade or training for foremen and workers about what to do if someone became ill from the heat—as required by law.

The foreman came over and stood four or five feet away, staring at the couple for about five minutes. He said, "Oh, that’s what happens to people, but don’t worry. If you apply some rubbing alcohol to her, it will go away." It didn’t. After a number of delays Maria was taken to a clinic.

The foreman called on the driver’s cell phone and said, “If you take her to a clinic, don’t say she was working [for the contractor]. Say she became sick because she was jogging to get exercise. Since she’s underage, it will create big problems for us.”

They arrived at the clinic at 5:15 p.m., more than an hour and a half after Maria was stricken. She was so sick an ambulance took her to the hospital. Doctors said her temperature upon arrival was 108.4 degrees, far beyond what the human body can take.

Maria’s heart stopped six times in the next two days before she passed away on Friday.

Doctors said if emergency medical help had been summoned or she had been taken to the hospital sooner, she might have survived.

The UFW is sponsoring a four-day pilgrimage in Maria's memory that will begin this Sunday, June 1st from the Lodi church where Maria’s final eulogy was held. Over the 4 days, peregrinos will walk approximately 50 miles to California’s Sacramento capitol. They will then appeal to the Governor and lawmakers to protect farm workers in the fields and ensure nothing like this ever occurs again.

This pilgrimage will cost at least $36,068 to cover the costs of buses and vans for farm workers, food, housing, and of course cool water for the hot sun. They're asking internet supporters to contribute 15% of the cost which is $5,410.

6 Comments:

At 5/31/2008, Blogger superdave524 said...

What's a worker's life worth? In SC, it's worth 500 weeks times 2/3rds of their average weekly wage. Bet those contractors didn't have worker's comp insurance, though. Wonder how rigid CA's enforcement of labor laws in agriculture is?

 
At 5/31/2008, Blogger QuakerJono said...

While anon8:31 goes a bit far (maybe try shifting some of that blame onto the companies that hire them, anon), that is something to consider. What was Maria's status? While a life lost is a tragedy no matter what, it does occur to me that a pilgrimage for legal protection for someone who was effectively breaking the law themselves seems somewhat misguided.

If, however, she was a U.S. citizen or authorized to work in the U.S., that's a lawsuit.

 
At 6/01/2008, Anonymous Anonymous said...

When Illegal Immigrants are outlawed, only outlaws will have illegal immigrants...

 
At 6/01/2008, Blogger QuakerJono said...

Um, they are already outlawed, anon10:07, hence the "illegal" in the title. Otherwise they're just "immigrants" and there's no problem.

But hey, thanks for the sound byte. I always prefer my rabid xenophobia in bite-size pieces. Do you have any that rhyme?

 
At 6/01/2008, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A Mexican name of Miguel
Responded to liberty's bell
Got a job picking lettuce
It seemed to upset us
Now he don't feel so swell.

(hey, this in cognito stuff rocks!)

 
At 6/06/2008, Blogger superdave524 said...

No response? What, you didn't know that was me? Just trying it out. The in cognito stuff really doesn't rock.

 

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