U.S. and Salinas City representatives to give recognition to farm workers

SALINAS, CALIF. (KION-TV)- Central Coast leaders and U.S Representatives will be recognizing the work farm workers do, especially during extreme heat, thanks to a new resolution in the works.

Leaders like U.S. House of Representative Zoe Lofgren, Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig, along with Alisal High School student Melissa Zavala will shine a light on the hard situation that our farm workers go through Thursday afternoon at the Salinas Council Chambers Rotunda. 

Lofgren will be presenting this new resolution which will honor farm workers and support the designation of National Farmworkers Awareness Week.

The week will bring awareness to the dangers farm workers deal with compared to other jobs.

A study from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth estimates hot temperatures have caused at least 360,000 workplace injuries in California from 2001 to 2018, or about 20,000 injuries a year.

UC Merced also did a farmworker health study survey which showed:

• About 22% of farmworkers said their employer “never” monitors for heat illness. (A slightly higher percentage in the Imperial Valley, where scorching temperatures are common, said the same.)
• 82% of farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley said they have received heat related illness training.
• About 43% of farmworkers statewide, including two-thirds of central coast farmworkers, said their employers never had a written heat illness protection plan.

If passed, National Farmworkers Awareness Week would be from March 25- March 31, 2024. 

In 2021 Lofgren spearheaded the "Farm Workforce Modernization Act" which permits farmworkers, and their spouses and children, to earn legal status through continued employment in the agricultural sector.