Citation

Nicholson E. J. Agromed. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1059924X.2022.2007655

PMID

34781848

Abstract

... Given the failure of the federal government to implement binding rules to protect agricultural workers, advocates were left having to push states to develop and implement their own rules. Yet even with these measures, the damage COVID-19 wrought on the farmworkers and the Latinx community is clear. They are one of the hardest hit constituencies in the United States, with too many women and men, and their families, having needlessly lost their lives to this virus.1 Unfortunately, the preventable loss of life in agriculture is not a new development. We know that agriculture is dangerous, not because it is by nature, but, as in the case of COVID-19, systematic measures to address workplace risks simply have not been taken broadly.

This is a direct legacy of black lives not mattering.2 In the 1930s, farmworkers were excluded from two key legislative acts: the National Labor Relations Act, which provided workers with a legally binding mechanism to unionize, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, amongst other things, stipulates all workers must receive two 10-minute paid breaks per 8 hours and overtime pay after 40 hours. The Congressional record is clear that the white (largely Southern?) Congressmen did not want the then black farmworker population to enjoy the same rights and ability to engage in collective activity as their white counterparts. Fast forward to Pasco, Washington, in 2015 and witness Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a disabled farmworker being gunned down by police in daylight, shot in the back as he walked away from officers after having thrown rocks at their patrol car...

Language: en