As weather becomes more extreme, outdoor workers become more vulnerable

July was the hottest month ever recorded. Tropical Storm Hilary gave Palm Springs one of the wettest days on record, and last week’s monsoonal storm caused Riverside County to declare a local emergency after discovering that flash flooding had caused potentially contaminated water from a toxic dump site near Thermal to flood into three nearby mobile home parks.

As extreme weather continues to impact our valley’s communities, we must continue to question how our outdoor workers are being protected under these sudden weather shifts – including our farmworkers.

Agricultural workers play a vital role in our society. In the Coachella and Imperial valleys, the labor of this societal cohort puts food not only on our own tables, but those of the rest of the nation and, indeed, the world.

Farming is the second-largest contributor to the economy of the Coachella Valley, generating crops valued at approximately $600 million annually, according to the 2019 Coachella Valley Water District’s (CVWD) Crop Report.

It accounts for half the estimated $1.3 billion agriculture industry in Riverside County. By CVWD’s estimations, agriculture is the “second largest contributor to the local economy.” They estimate it contributes nearly $1 billion to the local economy and creates approximately 12,000 jobs.

Whatever one’s position is on the heated and long-running debate over immigration policy in America, the reality is much of the food we all eat is harvested by those who live among us without immigration status. Too many agricultural workers have little to no access to basic rights such as health care or worker protections. In addition, many avoid seeking out help in other circumstances, such as legal matters or when they’ve been victims of a crime, due to fear their undocumented status will be used against them.

California operates an OSHA-approved state plan in outdoor places of employment, covering most private sector workers and all state and local government workers.

California’s Heat Illness Prevention Standard requires employers to provide training, water, shade, and planning.

Yet are these standards current?

Recently, Sen. Alex Padilla introduced the Asunción Valdivia Heat, Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act to protect the safety and health of workers who are exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace.

Senator Padilla underscored the importance of such protective acts.

“Following a summer of record-breaking heat waves in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys, and across California, every day we fail to act means another day a worker risks their safety in extreme heat to provide for their family,” Padilla said.

“An enforceable federal heat standard that requires common-sense safety protections like access to water and shade, paid breaks in cool spaces, limitations on time exposed to heat, and emergency response for workers with heat-related illness is long overdue. As we continue to experience more intense natural disasters, I am committed to working in Congress to protect our workers who are on the front lines of the climate crisis.”

Federal-level change must work in tandem with change at the local and state levels – the question is, how?

Most importantly: by working with organizations that already help farmworkers on a daily basis.

At a local level, we offer kudos to the Riverside Board of Supervisors for approving $1 million in funding for the expansion of the Galilee Center to help build out an expansion project that will serve more community needs in the eastern Coachella Valley.

According to Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, “Over the last three years and during this pandemic, the Galilee Center has become even more of a vital and key partner to the eastern Coachella Valley, stepping up when the community has needed assistance the most, responding to emergency needs of access to clean water, a safe haven to asylum seekers and keeping its doors open to the North Shore community through power outages.”

The Galilee Center founders Gloria Gomez and Claudia Castorena are vital stewards of resources – their mission-driven focus provides weekly food distribution, meals, clothing, baby formula and diapers, as well as the Mecca Comfort Station shower, restroom and laundry facility, and a new emergency shelter for farm workers.

The county must ensure the Galilee Center can continue to flourish once the expansion is complete. Local individuals and philanthropies should also consider support for the Galilee Center.

Extreme weather will continue to impact our eastern valley farming communities. We urge our local leaders to address the realities of these harsh events with new and current locktight support.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: As weather becomes more extreme, outdoor workers become more vulnerable