OSHA adopts emergency heat rules following farmworker death statesmanjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from statesmanjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Sebastian Francisco Perez arrived in the U.S. on May 5, hoping to save money so his wife at home in Ixcan, Guatemala, could begin fertility treatment.
“He came with many hopes to this country, without knowing that he wouldn’t return,” a pastor said at the beginning of a vigil for Perez, a 38-year-old nursery worker who collapsed in a field at Ernst Nursery and Farms during last weekend’s record-breaking heatwave.
Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, the farmworker union that coordinated the vigil on the edge of a hazelnut grove just outside Ernst Nursery and Farms in St. Paul, described Perez as “one of ours – he was a farmworker, Indigenous,” who arrived in the U.S. to fulfill his family’s dreams.
Farmworker dies in Willamette Valley record heat
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A farmworker died Saturday at a workplace in St. Paul as temperatures in the area that day topped 104 degrees.
Aaron Corvin, a spokesperson for Oregon OSHA, said in an email the agency has opened investigations into Brother Farm Labor Contractor and Ernst Nursery and Farms. The employee who died was working on a crew moving irrigation lines, Corvin said. Officials have not yet identified the person.
Ernst Nursery and Farms did not respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday. Brother Farm Labor Contractor could not be reached for comment.
Corvin said the agency was not aware of other fatalities that appear to be heat-related.