Dean Florez for California Lt. Governor 2010: Respect for Farm Workers

“You can’t stand for your convictions if you always stand with the crowd.”
-Dean Florez

Worker Safety

Intervention programs to increase agricultural safety practices in the fields and orchards are a priority. Stopping accidents, injuries and illnesses in agricultural production starts with better training and focus. Dean will work on creating new educational modules on first aid, heat-related illness and accident prevention in areas that help deliver farm safety skills to farm workers and employers.

Equal Protection

Agriculture work is at the very top of the list for hazardous workplaces. Yet policies are now in place that repeatedly subject farm workers to a lower standard than workers in other industries. Dean will continue his work to break through unfair policy hurdles so that agricultural production is brought up-to-date with current industrial standards.

Surprise Visits

California needs more labor inspectors to perform unannounced enforcement activities in the fields, orchards and food-processing plants. Employers found to be violating state workplace and safety laws need to face stiff fines. Dean will work to create collaborative state health and labor inspector teams to monitor the agricultural workplace and conduct regular inspections.

Housing Our Workers

Privately run farm labor camps around the country have a reputation for providing very poor quality housing and unsafe living conditions. High quality, affordable dormitories or studio apartments best meet this group’s housing needs for short stays during a harvest. Dean will create a new model for temporary and migrant farm worker housing so that farm workers will no longer have to live in tents, garages, motels, in the orchards or in the fields. California needs to leverage its low-income housing funding to create the necessary structures that address the temporary nature of migrant farm work.

As soon as he was elected to the State Assembly, Dean authored legislation to outlaw dangerous transportation practices that cost many farm workers their lives each harvest season. His legislation did away with the practice of replacing manufacturer installed seating with parallel wooden benches meant to maximize the number of farm workers who could be carried in each farm labor van rather than assure the safety of the worker. The requirement that farm labor vans retain forward-facing seating with safety restraints and latched tool boxes led to a dramatic decline in farm worker fatalities and has been considered as a model for legislation in other states.

As urban development has moved closer to the Central Valley’s agricultural fields, the threat of pesticide drift into residential neighborhoods has greatly increased. After one such drift incident sickened hundreds and demonstrated a gap in understanding how to adequately respond to pesticide drift, Dean passed legislation to require counties to prepare for such incidents and for those responsible to cover the medical expenses of victims.

After several farm worker heat deaths, Dean also convened his colleagues for a “Meeting in the Sun” to help urban members understand the circumstances of those who labor outdoors in Central Valley heat. Ensuing negotiations between Dean, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the United Farm Workers led to tougher workplace heat regulations, worker and employer education on heat stress, increased inspections, rest breaks and access to water.