Friend,

The temperature was 100 degrees when Elidio Hernández went to work in a Fresno-area tomatillo field. Soon into the day, the 59-year-old father of two reported feeling ill to his supervisor, but was told to get back to work.

By 2pm that day, Elidio had died.(1)

On the other side of the country, 30-year-old Lopez Garcia was working on a Homestead, Florida, farm during a heatwave when he collapsed and died.(2)

With climate change rampaging, heat related farm worker deaths are becoming more common -- but instead of protecting workers, states are making it easier to exploit and abuse them. That’s why we are joining United Farm Workers to call on OSHA to provide farm worker-specific protections to keep them safe.

Help us tell OSHA: Protect farm workers!

Between 1992 and 2023, heat stress injuries killed more than 1,000 workers and harmed more than 100,000 more.(3) Farm workers are 35 times more likely to die of heat injury than other occupations. But there is still no federal protection for these hardworking individuals.

In the middle of the hottest summer on record, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law repealing mandated water breaks for outdoor workers. States like Arkansas have weakened child labor laws. We need the federal government to step in and mandate regular breaks, water supplies, and cancellation of shifts if temperatures reach a certain degree.

We depend on farm workers to help us put food on the table, and we owe it to them to not make their job deadly. OSHA must enact federal regulations right away, as the heat will only get worse.

Call on OSHA to protect farm workers now!

Thank you for joining the fight.

–Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Isidra, Jen, Sheena, and Lindsay (and the rest of the Courage team)

Footnotes:
1. https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2023/08/26/after-farmworkers-death-ufw-and-padilla-seek-stronger-protections/
2. https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/homestead-farmworker-dies-because-of-extreme-heat/
3. https://www.ufwfoundation.org/federalheatprotections

Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives. The Courage California Institute is the educational arm of the Courage California family of organizations. Our mission is to defend and extend human rights through innovative leadership development, training, strategic research, and public education.

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