New rules offer agricultural workers some relief, but concerns remain

Arimateo Villegas’ workdays this week have started at 5 a.m., an hour before the sun rises.

Wearing a headlamp under a shade tunnel that covers blackberries, he selects the best berries and drops them into baskets hanging around his waist, then fills 6 oz. plastic containers that will soon line grocery store shelves.

This was his first week of work at Sandy Ridge Berry Farms near Brooks, where farmworkers began their days earlier than usual to avoid the worst of the 100-plus-degree temperatures expected amid this most recent heat wave.

After Sebastian Francisco Perez died at Ernst Nursery & Farms on a 104-degree day during June’s record-shattering heat wave, Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHA) issued temporary rules to protect workers in extreme temperatures, a move worker safety advocates had called for long before that heat wave.

The temporary rules apply not just to agricultural settings but to any workplace where the weather could cause extreme heat and expose workers to heat-related illnesses.

Some worker advocates have lauded the temporary rules as the most protective heat standards in the nation, but worries remain that workers are unaware of their rights, that growers will not uphold them, and that most growers’ piece-rate pay system will spur workers to push themselves even in extreme temperatures.

Education on the rules

Under a shade canopy in between the blackberry bushes, Daniel Quiñones gathered a group of about 30 farmworkers and described the protections the temporary OSHA rules guarantee them, including a ten-minute break in the shade every two hours when the heat index passes 90 degrees, as well as other rights they have under state and federal laws, such as being paid the minimum wage and filing a workplace complaint.

Quiñones is an outreach worker for migrant and seasonal farmworkers at the Oregon Employment Department, through a Department of Labor program called the Monitor Advocate System.

Quiñones and his colleagues make sure workers know their rights and have equitable access to state workforce agency programs, as well as provide them a route to file a complaint and attempt to resolve employer issues at a more local level, without the intervention of enforcement agencies.

Quiñones said Tuesday he planned to visit as many farms as possible near his Woodburn office this week to share information about workers’ protections, teach workers and employers how to recognize the signs of heat illness and distribute water bottles.

For him, the reason is simple.

“We want to make sure we have no deaths here in the Valley or hopefully anywhere in the state of Oregon,” Quiñones said. “There’s been a lot of public pressure this year about the rules since we had a death in the county and it made international news, and it’s the last thing we want Oregon agriculture to be known for.”

The temporary heat rules also include requirements that employers train employees on recognizing heat illness, provide workers with at least 32 oz. of cool or cold drinking water per hour and access to shade when the heat index passes 80 degrees, and develop acclimatization plans when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees.

Anareina Ramirez, 42, has worked at Sandy Ridge Berry Farms for the past four seasons and in agriculture for over 25 years.

When she harvested blueberries at another farm during the June heat wave, she left work after two hours one day and stayed home the next when she concluded it wasn’t worth it to work, she said in Spanish. But that choice meant she earned less money those days.

The safety presentation was a reminder of the new rules, she said, and that someone cares.

“The presentation was perfect because it shows they care about us,” Ramirez said.

‘It’s very hot’

Yulsi Ocampo, 18, will soon be a senior at Salem’s McKay High School. She also said the June heat wave complicated her work picking blueberries at another farm because after the sun burned them, she had to work much more slowly to salvage the remaining berries.

At Sandy Ridge, she can fill 36 boxes each containing a dozen six-ounce containers of blackberries in a day, she said.

She said supervisors remind them of the safety precautions on hot days.

“This is my first time picking blackberries, and it’s very hot,” Ocampo said. “They tell us to always drink a lot of water, and to always eat when we get our break and lunch, and to use the restroom, and to always take care of ourselves.”

Hector Verdejo, junior ranch manager, said he notifies workers when temperatures will exceed 80 degrees, and reminds them to drink water and take breaks in the shade.

He said he usually sends people home when the temperature reaches 95 degrees.

Ira Cuello-Martinez, climate policy associate at PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union, said based on accounts from workers, some agricultural employers are upholding the temporary rules while others are ignoring them.

“That’s the people we want to be in touch with so they can file a complaint with Oregon OSHA or so that we can reach out to the employer and make sure their rights are being respected,” Cuello-Martinez said.

PCUN is hosting an event via Zoom and Facebook live next week with staff from the Oregon Health Authority for people to learn more and ask questions about the emergency rules. Watch it here.

OSHA has also committed more enforcement, education and consultation resources to heat-related issues.

Impact of heat on the body

Farmworkers are at least 20 times more likely than other workers to die of heat stress, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Linda McCauley, dean of the School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, said heat-related deaths among farmworkers may actually be undercounted.

She used to research farmworkers’ exposure to pesticides through Oregon Health and Sciences University, and one of her current projects is a four-year study on decreasing heat-related illness in Florida farmworkers.

If a farmworker dies of a heart attack at home instead of in a field after a long day in high temperatures, their death may not necessarily be counted as heat-related, she said.

Prevention of heat-related illness is key, McCauley said, because once heat stroke starts, it triggers a cascade of events that’s difficult to reverse.

In the Pacific Northwest, heat waves can be especially dangerous because of how much they can elevate temperatures from the average temperature, McCauley said, and because most agricultural labor housing and many other apartments and houses in Oregon do not have air conditioning. That means they may have no opportunity to bring their body temperatures down at night before returning to work the next morning.

Oregon OSHA recently issued another emergency rule requiring some cooling mechanisms, but not necessarily air conditioning, in labor housing.

Quiñones also said he worries farmworkers in many cases will not seek medical care because they are afraid of the cost, especially if they don’t have health insurance. Nationwide, 44% of farmworkers reported not having health insurance, according to the 2017-2018 National Agricultural Workers Survey.

Changing pay structures

Cuello-Martinez said workers are often reluctant to stop work even in high temperatures because of the agriculture industry’s piece-rate pay system and pressure to earn money during a short season.

Even if they leave one job earlier in the day, it’s not uncommon for people to head to another farm that will continue working into the afternoon, he said.

McCauleyechoed that concern

“We still pay people by the piece, which is an incentive to work as fast and hard as you can,” McCauley said. “Imagine if we had a regulation that said, if the temperature is over 90, you have to pay per hour, and not production.”

Quiñones reminded workers Tuesday they can request to be paid the hourly minimum wage if they cannot meet that standard in a piece-rate setting.

The temporary heat protection rules do not include an order to stop work above a certain temperature and also have no suspension of productivity requirements on hot days.

Worker advocates are trying to secure regulations around more frequent breaks and workload adjustments for the permanent rules, which are supposed to be completed by the fall, Cuello-Martinez said.

“If folks are working out in 100-degree weather, two hours of work in a row is a lot,” Cuello-Martinez said. “It’s a lot to be outside, even without intense labor.”

The next heat rulemaking meeting is Aug. 19. Listen to it here.

Dora Totoian covers agricultural workers through Report for America, a program that aims to support local journalism and democracy by reporting on under-covered issues and communities.

You can reach her at dtotoian@statesmanjournal.com

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