Teen farmworker's death, probed as heat-related, stirs outcry

[Guest guest]

Another

tragic story. Two articles, the first describing the death the

Isabel Vasquez, a teen farmworker who died after working hours in a hot

vineyard and the second discussing that labor contractor that employed the

teenage farmworker who was cited in 2006 for failing to provide employees with

training to avoid heat stress, Cal-OSHA records show.

Teen farmworker's death, probed as heat-related, stirs outcry

By Ferriss - sferriss@...

Published 12:15 am PDT Thursday, May 29,

2008

Until

her death on May 16, Isabel Vasquez Jimenez was another undocumented

farmworker at the bottom rung of California's

farm production chain.

On

Wednesday, nestled in a white satin coffin, the 17-year-old girl became to farm

labor advocates more a symbol of what they say are secretive and abusive

conditions in some of the state's orchards and vineyards.

California occupational safety authorities

are investigating the girl's death in Lodi

as a heat-related fatality. The United Farm Workers Union is calling her

treatment an " egregious " violation of safety regulations put into

effect three years ago after three farmworkers and a construction worker died

of the heat.

" 's

death should have been prevented, " Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a

statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier

in the day he met with the young woman's family at St. Anne's Catholic Church

in Lodi after a funeral Mass. " This land gave us a lot of

opportunity but gave her death. And we have to make sure this doesn't happen

again, " Schwarzenegger said.

Vasquez

Jimenez and her fiancé, Florentino Bautista, were working in a vineyard

east of Stockton

on May 14 when she collapsed. The pair were employed by Merced Farm Labor

contracting service out of Atwater.

In a

phone interview, Merced Farm Labor safety officer Elias Armenta said, " We

are really, really sorry " about the teenager's death. " Unfortunately,

we cannot make any other comment. "

Under

rules enforced by Cal-OSHA, each worker is supposed to be provided one quart of

water per shift. Employers are required to provide shaded areas and allow workers

to take five-minute breaks as necessary to cool down. Bosses also have to train

their supervisors and employees and have a written program ready for inspection

if Cal-OSHA officials request one.

Cal-OSHA

inspectors already have interviewed Bautista and others about the incident,

said division spokesman Dean Fryer.

He said

time is of the essence because " these are farmworkers, and they might move

on. "

Fryer

said that employers who are found to have willfully violated heat laws can be

fined a maximum of $25,000. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office

will receive a copy of the division's report and can make a decision to

prosecute.

When

Vasquez Jimenez collapsed, she had been on the job three days, pruning vines

for $8 an hour in a vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming.

During

eight hours of work beginning at 6 a.m. in heat that topped 95 degrees,

Bautista said that workers were given only one water break, at 10:30 a.m. And

the water was a 10-minute walk away – too far, he said, to keep up with

the crew and avoid being scolded.

Vasquez

Jimenez collapsed at 3:30 p.m., Bautista said, and for at least five minutes,

the foreman did nothing but stare at the couple while Bautista cradled her.

Bautista

said the foreman told him to place the teenager in the back seat of a van,

which was hot inside, and put a wet cloth on her.

Later,

Bautista said, the foreman told a driver to take the pair to a store to buy

rubbing alcohol and apply it to see if it would revive Vasquez Jimenez. When

that failed, the driver took the couple to a clinic in Lodi, Bautista said, where her body

temperature had reached more than 108 degrees.

" The

foreman told me to say that she wasn't working for a contractor, that she got

sick while exercising, " Bautista said in Spanish. " He said she was

underage, and it would cause a lot of problems. "

Bautista

and family members said that clinic staff rushed the girl to a hospital, where

she was revived several times before finally succumbing two days later without

ever regaining consciousness. Doctors later discovered she was two months

pregnant.

UFW

President Arturo delivered a eulogy in Spanish at the Lodi church Wednesday.

" What

value does a farmworker's life have? Is it less than the life of any other

human? " he said.

He

announced that the UFW will join the family in a four-day march from Lodi to Sacramento

in Vasquez Jimenez's honor starting Sunday. They will urge punishment for those

responsible for her death.

Schwarzenegger,

who strongly backed rules to prevent farmworker heat deaths, walked into the

church Wednesday with .

Once

inside, he placed his hand on Bautista's shoulder as the young man described

Vasquez Jimenez, who was his sweetheart from the same Mixtec Indian town in Oaxaca, Mexico.

She

wanted to earn money to send to her widowed mother, Bautista said. The couple

planned to marry and return to Oaxaca

in three years. She may not have known she was pregnant.

" I'm

sure she was a good woman, " the governor said. He walked over to gaze into

Vasquez Jimenez's casket, where she was dressed in a white wedding gown and

veil, a symbol of her dream to be a bride.

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Employer of farmworker who died had been fined for violations

in 2006

By Ferriss - sferriss@...

Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, May 30, 2008

The

labor contractor that employed a teenage farmworker who died after working

hours in a hot vineyard was cited in 2006 for failing to provide employees with

training to avoid heat stress, Cal-OSHA records show.

California's

Division of Occupational Safety and Health also cited Merced Farm Labor

contracting services in 2006 for not having an injury-prevention plan for its

workers or enough toilets for them to use, agency spokesman Dean Fryer said

Thursday.

The

company was fined $750 for each of the violations and was told to fix them by

December 2006.

Company

representatives told Cal-OSHA it had corrected the problems, and staff members

" felt comfortable the abatement was done and didn't make an actual field

visit, " Fryer said. " That's not unusual. Usually, we get great

cooperation from employers. "

Merced

Farm Labor representatives did not return phone calls for comment.

On

Thursday, Cal-OSHA officials continued to investigate the May 16 death of

Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, 17, who had collapsed two days earlier in a field east

of Stockton

after pruning vines for eight hours.

Attorney

General Jerry Brown said one of his investigators has joined Cal-OSHA

representatives as they interview workers, supervisors and others involved in

the incident.

" I'm

concerned about what happened to this woman, and I'm concerned about what's

happening on other farms in other counties, " Brown said.

Merced

Farm Labor, which was paid by West Coast Grape Farming to provide workers for

its fields east of Stockton,

could face fines up to $25,000 if Cal-OSHA finds the contract company willfully

violated laws designed to protect workers from the heat. Representatives of the

company also could face criminal prosecution by either the local district

attorney or the state attorney general.

Brown

said he has contacted the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office to

offer assistance should a decision be made to pursue criminal charges.

Like

Vasquez Jimenez, many low-wage workers are " undocumented and

vulnerable, " Brown said. Their legal status, he said, makes no difference

to state officials when it comes to decisions to investigate or prosecute.

State

labor laws apply to all workers, regardless of legal status, and Fryer said

Cal-OSHA does not even inquire about status.

" We

would never get any cooperation in our investigations, " he said. Probing a

worker's status, he said, " would erode the trust " the agency has

tried to build with workers in industries heavily staffed by immigrants.

The

federal agency in charge of immigration – U.S. Immigration and Customs

Enforcement – fields tips about employers suspected of hiring illegal

immigrants and takes notice of stories about such employers in the news, said

spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

But Kice

said the agency will not discuss its investigations of employers until it takes

action.

At a

funeral for Vasquez Jimenez on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and United

Farm Workers President Arturo said the young woman's death was

preventable, and they condemned employers that violate regulations designed to

protect workers.

Vasquez

Jimenez's fiancé, Florentino Bautista, who was working with her, said

temperatures reached more than 95 degrees on the day she collapsed. Workers had

no shade, he said, no break long enough to go get water and no training to cope

with heat.

He also

said it took 90 minutes to get Vasquez Jimenez to a clinic after she fell to

the dirt in the field, and that a foreman told him to tell clinic workers that

she became ill while exercising, not working.

She died

on May 16 in Lodi

Memorial Hospital.

Doctors later discovered she was two months pregnant.

Concerned

about a spike in temperatures in mid-May, Cal-OSHA issued a news advisory the

same day. Communications staff members at the agency didn't know of Vasquez

Jimenez's death at the time. The advisory, which was sent to English- and

Spanish-language media, warned employers and workers to be aware of the risks

of heat exposure and to follow state rules.

The state

instituted stronger protections for workers in 2005 after the heat-related

deaths of three farmworkers and a construction worker. It also has become more

aggressive in its enforcement.

The

agency has 198 inspectors to cover California's

17.4 million-strong work force, and 60 inspectors assigned to a special

coalition to monitor farms, construction, car washes and other businesses where

safety violations often occur.

In 2005,

inspectors went to only 39 work sites to check for policies and equipment to

protect workers from the heat. Last year, the agency checked 936 – and

found 488 violations. So far in 2008, inspectors have checked 248 work sites

and found that 40 employers haven't done employee training and 129 don't have a

written safety program.

Employers

are required to report a worker accident or injury to the state within eight

hours.

Fryer

said Merced Farm Labor did not report Vasquez Jimenez's collapse until the day

she died, two days after the collapse.

" This

is something we will be looking at, " he said.

In the

2006 Cal-OSHA report about Merced Farm Labor – which stemmed from a

routine inspection – an inspector wrote: " The employer failed to

provide employee training on heat stress issues. … The employer requires

employees to work in agricultural fields and orchards during summer months,

thereby exposing workers to heat stress or heatstroke-producing weather

conditions. "

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This

article is protected by copyright and should not be printed or distributed for

anything except personal use.

The Sacramento

Bee, 2100 Q St., P.O. Box 15779,

Sacramento, CA

95852

Phone: (916) 321-1000

Copyright © The Sacramento Bee