The workers providing the nation’s food are toiling for low wages and no benefits. They can’t work remotely or take time off.
“If there is a major outbreak among agricultural worker communities, it can spread really, really quickly,” said Lucas Zucker, policy and communications director for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy , which advocates on behalf of immigrant, indigenous, and undocumented communities throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Certain employers operating under union contracts have issued new guidelines, such as picking practices that require social distancing. But across the industry, the UFW said, it has learned through its members that companies are not actually enforcing these best practices. In its March 30 letter to agricultural employers, the UFW called for extended sick leave and easy access to medical services as well as screening, testing, and treatment for nonunion farmworkers who lack health care.
Beate Ritz, an occupational epidemiology expert at the School of Public Health at the University of California–Los Angeles, said it’s very likely that the coronavirus will spread into working-class farming communities, based onThe impact of the coronavirus will be determined by how seriously the agricultural industry takes this health threat, whether it enforces safety measures, and what resources are directed at addressing issues such as health care access.
“These are folks that need to be working and can’t afford not to work, even if they get sick,” said the UFW Foundation’s Delgado.
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