The Coachella City Council has approved an ordinance to offer hero pay for farmworkers. The city says it s the first in the country to adopt such a rule for the farmworker community.
Given that farmworkers are deemed essential during the pandemic and due to their often cramped living conditions, COVID infection rates among farmworkers are high.
Donations have been focused on COVID safety items and other protective gear for the workers in the field. We re distributing all those items as well as hazard, dust pesticide resistant masks for farmworkers who are in season and those that aren t working at the moment, but do get back to work when they do, Martinez said.
California farmworkers severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, study shows
KFSN
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FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) California farmworkers have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
A just-released study by the California Institute for Rural Studies shows the effects of rising infection rates and vaccine uncertainties may be putting ag workers lives at risk. The long-term substandard working and living conditions of farmworkers combined with the historical disposable that shoulders agricultural production in California has been amplified during the pandemic, anthropologist Bonnie Bade said.
This 2nd phase study on California farmworkers and COVID-19 shows many of the people who toil in fields are ripe for transmission of the virus.
Advocates are lobbying for California s 800,000 farmworkers to have high-priority in receiving the coronavirus vaccine. Vaccinating our essential farmworkers will ensure the safety of their workplaces, their homes, their families, our food supply and the vital services that they perform, said Fresno County Supervisor Brian Pacheco.
The county has set aside enough doses from the state to get up to 3,000 essential agriculture workers vaccinated this week, but officials say that s not enough when you consider Fresno County has between 70,000 to 90,000 people who toil in the fields. We simply do not have enough vaccine, and I can t emphasize that enough. Get us more vaccines so we can protect our community, said Pacheco.