For Immediate Release
June 21, 2024
Contact:
Claudia Quintero, Esq. (413) 686-9054
Maya McCann, Esq. (413) 686-9025
Farmworkers in Massachusetts continue to be excluded from wage-and-hour laws, and other protections that would provide farmworkers better working conditions in the face of climate change and extreme weather.
This week, Massachusetts experienced a heat dome, bringing extreme temperatures across the state. Parts of Western Massachusetts were under an Excessive Heat Watch and Boston declared a Heat Emergency. The advice of experts and local leaders? Stay indoors, hydrated, and out of the sun.
Unfortunately, just like during the COVID-19 shut-down, this is not a possibility for some of the Commonwealth’s most essential workers: farmworkers. Farmworkers continue to work through the heat to put food on our tables. Patricia Lopez, a Massachusetts farmworker shares, “the temperature is over 100 degrees, it is difficult to do a full day's work, our body no longer reacts very well, a colleague yesterday fainted due to the high temperatures personally. My body gets tired. I feel dizzy and my vision is cloudy, yet I must continue as long as my body can withstand working 11 hours a day, from Monday to Sunday planting tobacco and on certain days, picking the vegetables, weeding the field.” (Translated from Spanish by authors).
High heat, humidity, sun exposure, dehydration, and physical exertion can contribute to heat illness. Because farm work requires strenuous labor in hot temperatures, often without sufficient water, rest, or shade, “farmworkers are at critical risk for heat stroke and illnesses related to excess heat. Frequent breaks for hydration are necessary in these times,” says Dr. Norbert Godfield, Attending Physician at Baystate Medical Center (Baystate). Practitioners at the local health clinic, Baystate Brightwood Health Center, note that farmworker patients regularly come in with symptoms that can often be attributed to dehydration. They are also coming in with acute food insecurity and related health-issues,” says Ryann McChesney, Family Nurse Practitioner, she continues that “as daytime temperatures increase it is imperative that field workers are given regular breaks during the day to hydrate (key to replenish both water and electrolytes if sweating), as well as access to shade or a cool indoor space in order to bring down cool body temperatures.”
While many farms do try to offer their employees rest and hydration, many workers are not accorded sufficient breaks or access to water. Dr. Audrey Guhn, M.D., Medical Director at Baystate Brightwood described working with a farmworker who suffered from heat stroke who explained that she typically worked 12-hour days without any scheduled breaks. When she was able to get water, the water was in a central location far from where she was working in the field. A member of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center recently testified before the Commission on Poverty about a worker who fainted and had a seizure while working in the field due to heat stroke. When he asked why she returned to work right away, she said that she felt that she had to because she could not afford to take time off and lose wages. The FFA would address these concerns by mandating two paid breaks on either side of the lunch break for those who work more than 8 hours in a day.
Experts have warned that this heat wave could be the longest one that some have experienced in decades, and it may be the first of many this summer. Global warming is making heat waves hotter, longer lasting, and more frequent. Farmworkers have been bearing the brunt of climate disasters in the Commonwealth, from losing hours and wages when last summer’s flooding devastated Western Massachusetts farms, to toiling outdoors through heat waves.
Farmwork is skilled, difficult, essential labor performed through difficult conditions. However, Massachusetts farmworkers are not guaranteed any paid breaks, nor are they guaranteed a day of rest. The Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition aims to change that unjust reality and improve the health and wellbeing of Farmworkers through proposed legislation - The Fairness for Farmworker’s Act (FFA). Additionally, Massachusetts law still allows farmworkers to earn a poverty level minimum wage of $8.00 an hour, without the guarantee of overtime pay, despite often working 60 or more hours a week. The FFA will significantly improve farmworkers’ wages, guaranteeing them the state minimum wage and the ability to earn overtime, enabling workers to purchase nutritious food, and ensure they have a safe stable home in which to recover after a day of difficult labor. The FFA would mandate two paid breaks on either side of the lunch break for those who work more than 8 hours in a day and would allow workers to earn paid time off. This bill does not address everything but is a necessary first step in improving the working conditions and lives of farmworkers in the Commonwealth.
The FFA is currently before the Committee on Revenue and Lead Sponsor Representative Gonzalez plans to propose the inclusion of the FFA as an amendment to the House Economic Development Bill. The Coalition hopes that legislators of the Commonwealth will see that the FFA is critical for the safety and wellbeing of Farmworkers and the agricultural sector as a whole and will support the inclusion of the FFA in the Economic Development Bill. Ms. Lopez says “We (farmworkers) are publicly forgotten by society. I make a strong call to legislators and other people in authority to please pass this law, we deserve decent wages and paid rest. With my hand on my heart, I tell you that it will be of great benefit to have better working conditions in our workplaces.” (Translated from Spanish by authors).
The Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals, advocating for legislation to improve the lives of farmworkers in the Commonwealth. For more information, please visit https://www.fairnessforfarmworkersma.org/
Comentários