NEW California Campaign Aims to Inform Farmworkers About Labor Rights Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

As farmworkers picked the chard, kale and beets that Americans will eat on Thanksgiving Day, a truck blaring a recorded message pulled up to an eastern Coachella Valley field.

"If you or someone close to you tests positive for COVID-19, you should be able to focus on your health and not worry about your paycheck," it said in English and Spanish. "California and federal laws give you the right to paid time off, so you can stay home."

The effort is part of a new, statewide campaign called Sembrando Prevención, or Harvesting Prevention, aimed at educating farmworkers about health, safety and labor rights amid the coronavirus pandemic, and connecting them with available resources.

Along with the truck, which is broadcasting the message across the eastern Coachella Valley, volunteers and outreach workers are also visiting workers in the fields, as well as in neighborhoods and at churches and food drives, to distribute tote bags filled with face masks, gloves and packets of information from county and state agencies.

Volunteers and staff from Todec Legal Center give thanks to nearby farmworkers who were harvesting vegetables in Thermal, November 23, 2020. Todec and the California Labor Commissioner's Office have begun a campaign to educate farmworkers about COVID-19 protections and their rights as workers.

TODEC Legal Center, a nonprofit organization supporting immigrants in the Inland Empire, is launching the program in Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial and Inyo counties, and the California Labor Commissioner's Office is spreading the message to other agricultural regions across the state.

The campaign comes at a critical moment in the pandemic. Farmworkers have been hard-hit by COVID-19, with more than an estimated 15,700 workers testing positive statewide as of mid-September. The fall harvest in Southern California is now at full tilt, as COVID-19 surges in the state. And while agricultural laborers, as essential workers, could be at the front of the line for a vaccine, that help could be weeks or months away.

"This is very personal," TODEC director Luz Gallegos said of the outreach effort. "All of us within the organization, including myself, have lost loved ones, so this is why it's so important to continue protecting our workers."

A major goal of the campaign is to inform farmworkers about their right to sick leave under state law.

All California workers, including farmworkers, have 24 hours of annual paid sick leave, and up to 80 hours of supplemental leave if they are advised or ordered to quarantine or self-isolate due to COVID-19, Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said during a campaign kick-off event in Thermal on Monday morning.

Federal and state law granted supplemental leave for food-sector workers in April; California extended the benefit to all industries in September, she said. The provision sunsets Dec. 31.

The commissioner's website includes a tool, available in English and Spanish, to help people determine if they are eligible for the supplemental paid sick leave.

Farmworkers harvest green chard in an agricultural field in Thermal, November 23, 2020.

"You have the right to these hours without fear of retaliation," Garcia-Brower said. "If you are retaliated against, you have the right to file a claim. If your employer threatens you because of immigration status, threatens a relative because of immigration status, or threatens to call the police because of your immigration status, that is all illegal in California."

She continued: "I am here today to let you know that all farmworkers in California are protected, all workers regardless of status, and my office is committed to ensuring that [the laws] are followed."

She also sent a message to growers.

"If you are an employer, you need to understand that you have obligations," she said. "This is not optional."

Janell Percy, spokesperson for Growing Coachella Valley, said the requirement to provide annual sick time and supplemental leave during the pandemic was not news to Coachella Valley farmers. The nonprofit organization represents local growers.

Agricultural employers already educate workers about a variety of COVID-related issues during regular "tailgate meetings," Percy said. The campaign is "a good reminder for the field workers," she said.

"As far as the growers," she added, "we've been following the laws since they've been enacted."

The campaign will also educate workers about a program, called Housing for the Harvest, that provides support and financial relief to workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to the virus. The program is a collaboration between the state, Riverside County and TODEC.

Under Riverside County's version of the program, farmworkers who are quarantined or in isolation receive grocery delivery, a dedicated case worker who calls and provides daily wellness checks and, critically, a $2,000 check to ensure they can fully recover at home without facing financial fallout from lost wages.

Ruiz: 'A recipe for death with this pandemic'

In Riverside County, at least 4,300 farmworkers and day laborers had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Oct. 29, according to county data. But that number is likely much higher, as many people have declined to share information about their occupation with the county. The majority Latino cities of Indio and Coachella, and the more rural, predominantly farmworker communities of Thermal, Oasis and Mecca have had the highest rate of cases based on population in the Coachella Valley.

Myriad factors have left the farmworker community ravaged by COVID-19. Farmworkers are at especially high risk of exposure to COVID-19 due to working conditions in fields and packing facilities, lack of preventive education and protection equipment, and crowded transportation to and from work, advocates say.

Growers, meanwhile, say most workers are able to practices social distancing in the fields. They have always prioritized food safety practices, they say, and have taken additional steps to keep their crews safe amid the pandemic. Inside packinghouses, they are erecting barriers at work sites and break rooms when possible, providing people with both face masks and shields when such barriers aren't possible; and staggering shifts and lunch breaks.

The practice of one or more multi-generational families sharing households for budgetary reasons, common in farmworker communities, has also driven up the rate of the virus among this population, advocates say.

Additionally, farmworkers are largely uninsured and lack access to basic health services. Some people continue working despite being symptomatic, because they need a regular paycheck to feed and shelter their families, they say. Some are fearful of utilizing health services and avoid getting tested, concerned that a positive result would make it harder for them to gain United States citizenship in the future.

County and elected leaders highlighted these disparities at the event and called for change.

"If you ask me, it doesn't take a doctor to understand that this is a recipe for death with this pandemic," U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, a Democrat who is also an emergency room doctor, said at the event.

Ruiz called for hazard pay for essential workers at high risk of contract the virus. The Democrat-led House of Representatives in April passed legislation to create a $200 billion hazard pay fund for essential workers, but the Republican-controlled Senate balked and the provision has stalled.

To better protect farmworkers against COVID-19, Ruiz also called for testing at churches and in neighborhoods, as well as contact tracing conducted by Spanish-speaking community health workers and support for workers and families who are forced to isolate or quarantine.

Riverside County public health director Kim Saruwatari noted that the eastern Coachella Valley communities have been hard-hit by COVID-19 and said the education and outreach are among the "critical tools that we have to slow and eventually stop this virus"

"Educating workers about what they can do to protect themselves will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among workers in the fields and also among their families," she said.

Protecting the health and safety of farmworkers during the pandemic will also benefit the economy, said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat who represents the eastern Coachella Valley and Imperial County. Doing so, he added, requires the collaboration of local organizations and state agencies, as well as growers.

Farmers, he said, "have to be part of the equation in order for us to be successful with this outcome."