'At no point do we stop working,' farmworkers say amid historic heat wave
Farmworkers and their advocates during a press call Thursday continued to shine a light on the ongoing need to pass both workplace protections and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, citing a historic—and deadly—heat wave. Daily Kos’ Laura Clawson recently wrote that farmworkers who have been “picking cherries and blueberries in temperatures over 100 degrees included children as young as 12 and adults in their 70s, with some employers not even supplying water, let alone shade.”
But as Clawson also noted, “some coverage of agriculture in the heat wave talked entirely about the danger to crops and never even mentioned workers.” Farmworkers said during the press call this week they’re always there, whether mentioned or not. “At no point do we stop working,” said Alejandra, a farmworker in Texas, where the heat there is yet again straining the state’s energy grid. “Under the hot sun, in the rain. We don’t have another option but to work to survive. And the bosses keep us working so the harvest isn’t lost.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2039039