Florencio Gueta Vargas had always worked the land, beginning on his family ranch in his hometown of Zacatecas, Mexico, and later in the fields of California and Washington State. He was a father of six daughters, and the head of his household. In July of 2021, he’d worked at Virgil Gamache Farms in Yakima County, Washington for more than 18 years—but he’d always hoped someday to return to and die in his homeland.

He never had the chance. On July 29, 2021, at the age of 69, he died. That day, it was 100.8 degrees. The coroner ruled his cause of death was heat stress.

Only a few weeks earlier, the historic Pacific Northwest heat wave also took 38-year-old Sebastián Francisco Perez. Sebastián was moving irrigation lines at Ernst Farms and Nursery in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, when he went missing. When his fellow workers found him, he was unconscious in the fields and could not be revived. The temperature that day was 115 degrees.

Today, March 31, is marked as César Chávez Day. It’s a day to honor the legacy of the labor activist, co-founder of the farmworkers labor movement and what is now the United Farm Workers, who fought for dignity, livable wages and fair working conditions for these too often overlooked workers throughout his life.

On his 95th birthday, we are far from the justice Chávez sought. But there are solutions the Biden administration can implement today to protect those who feed us, and ensure that there are no more stories like Florencio’s or Sebastián’s. Today, we’re asking President Biden to act on the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ recommendation for a national heat standard and call on Congress to pass the Fairness for Farm Workers Act to update the nation’s labor laws to ensure farmworkers receive overtime pay, just like everyone else. We must ensure that the men and women who harvest our food receive the wages they have earned and need.

Florencio and Sebastián are two of at least 384 farmworkers who have died of heat-related causes in the United States in the last decade. And with climate change continuing to escalate, we can expect these stark statistics to get much worse.

But currently, there is no permanent, federal heat standard covering outdoor and indoor workers. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, heat has killed 815 U.S. workers have and seriously injured almost 70,000 more between 1992 and 2017. There is no standard reporting mechanism for heat-related death and injury so it is likely this number is higher. Heat-related injuries and death are only going to increase as the climate becomes hotter as a result of climate change. The summer of 2021 marked the hottest summer on record in the contiguous U.S. and the sixth hottest year on record, with Death Valley, California experiencing the hottest day ever recorded at 130 degrees. Scientists fear 2022 will also be among the seven hottest years ever recorded.

Farmworkers are roughly 20 times more likely to die of heat-related causes than workers in all other civilian occupations. In addition to requiring increased heat exposure, farmworkers are paid based on their productivity. As a result, taking a break to get out of the sun or to drink water can result in lower wages for these workers. And the Department of Labor estimates that roughly 50% of farmworkers are undocumented, who are less likely to be able to speak up for their rights in the workplace out of fear of retaliation

Last August, I joined Representative Judy Chu (CA-27) and more than 20 other members of Congress in calling on President Biden to do more to direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a permanent federal heat standard. The standard should be modeled after the provisions in H.R. 2193, the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatalities Prevention Act, introduced by Representatives Chu, Bobby Scott (VA-03), and Alma Adams (NC-12) and I in the House and supported by the United Farm Workers. In the Senate, the companion bill, S.1068, has been introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

The legislation would require employers to provide the following to employees: adequate hydration, rest breaks, areas for rest breaks that are shaded (in the case of outdoor work) or air-conditioned (in the case of indoor work), medical services and training to address signs and symptoms of heat-related illness, and a plan for acclimatization to high-heat work conditions.

The challenge, of course, remains the Senate. We know that Republicans in the Senate will not take up this bill, and are intent on keeping the filibuster in place to continue blocking legislation that would bring equity and justice. That’s why we need to use every tool available—including executive action. And it’s why when the Congressional Progressive Caucus released its comprehensive executive action agenda for the Biden administration, policies to expand worker power —including a national, permanent heat standard— were included.

Heat threatens workers in a variety of indoor and outdoor workplaces—but, it disproportionately impacts farmworkers, who are also disproportionately Latino. Since 2010, Latinos have accounted for a third of heat-related fatalities despite making up only 17% of the U.S. workforce. The President has declared his commitment to racial justice, and a national heat standard would be a way for him to match that with action.

President Biden has announced a series of actions to address heat-related death and injury that lay the groundwork for a strong OSHA heat standard. The Department of Labor launched an initiative to address heat exposure for indoor and outdoor workers, including farmworkers. The Administration increased the number of cooling centers in communities. And, the Biden Administration created an Interagency Working Group on Extreme Heat to coordinate a holistic response.

These are great first steps, but they don’t go far enough. That is why the Congressional Progressive Caucus included in its executive action agenda a call for the Biden Administration to direct OSHA to issue a permanent heat standard to ensure farmworkers are protected. With the peak of summer only months away, time is of the essence. We need action urgently before the temperature becomes warmer and more farmworkers, warehouse workers, construction workers, and workers in other heat-exposed industries across our nation are unfairly left to face excruciating and hazardous work conditions with little protection.

I will continue to advocate for the passage of legislation that would give farmworkers additional legal protections, better working conditions and a pathway to citizenship. On César Chávez’s 95th birthday, President Biden has a chance to be the leader that delivers fair wages, compensation, and justice for farmworkers by updating our labor laws and declaring a national, permanent heat standard.

_________
Source: Latino Rebels – March 31, 2022
This is an excerpt. The full article can be found by clicking here.

A new law is giving veterans and Gold Star Families free lifetime access to national parks and federal recreational lands. The Alexander Lofgren Veterans in Parks (VIP) Act was rolled into the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law over the holidays.

Lofgren, a congressional aide for Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz, and former volunteer for Sinema, died at Death Valley National Park last April.

Before joining Grijalva’s office as a Wounded War Fellow in 2019, he served four years in the Army as a combat engineer and deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, according to the announcement of his hiring.

Grijalva said Lofgren loved the outdoors and used it as therapy.

“Alex working with us here saw that nature, our open spaces, our state and federal park lands and wilderness areas and public places were therapeutic, that they were important in the reintegrations of veterans back into our civilian life here after they completed their service to the nation, and he was a huge proponent of that,” Grijalva told The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.

_________
Source: USA Today – Jan 18, 2022
This is an excerpt. The full article can be found by clicking here.

A Latino Democratic lawmaker from Arizona has drafted legislation that would end federal contracts with private companies and remove federal prisoners and immigrant detainees from the facilities within two years.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona plans to reintroduce the Justice is Not For Sale Act on Thursday. It would bar the Justice Department from contracting with private entities to provide or operate prisons and immigration detention facilities, as well as move its prisoners and detainees out of those facilities.

“For too long, private prisons and detention centers have benefited from lucrative government contracts and taxpayer dollars to profit off the pain and suffering of others,” Grijalva said in a statement to NBC News.

Grijalva’s legislation would go further than President Joe Biden’s Jan. 26 executive order, which phases out private prison contracts and instructs the Justice Department to decline to renew private prison contracts.

Biden’s order does not address privately operated immigration detention centers as Grijalva’s bill does.

While only about 8 percent of imprisoned people were held in private prisons, 81 percent of people in immigration custody were held in privately run or -operated detention centers, according to a report last year by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bill also seeks to end contracts with private companies for other criminal justice entities, such as halfway houses, re-entry programs and community treatment centers, among others. Grijalva’s office said private companies have extended into those areas as the movement against the private prison industry has grown.

_________
Source: NBC News – Feb 11, 2021
This is an excerpt. The full article can be found by clicking here.

Small businesses within 25 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could get up to $500,000 in COVID-19 relief under a bill introduced Thursday by Rep. Raúl Grijalva.

If the Border Business COVID-19 Rescue Act becomes law, small businesses would be eligible for $10,000 grants or up to $500,000 in loans.

The money would be dispersed through the Small Business Administration’s Emergency Injury Disaster Loan Program.

Grijalva, D-Ariz., decided to focus on businesses near the border after looking at the distribution of the Paycheck Protection Program funds.

“It’s clear that many minority-owned businesses were some of the last to get relief — if at all,” Grijalva told The Arizona Republic in an emailed statement. “Simultaneously, much of the Paycheck Protection Program funds went to larger businesses.”

Grijalva, who represents a border congressional district, said he crafted the legislation with his constituents in mind.

“My office has heard of the devastating consequences of the border closures on those businesses in the immediate vicinity of the border such as restaurants and retail stores,” he said.

The border with Mexico has been closed for many months, causing many small businesses along the border to reel from the loss of customers.

“Many of the Mexican citizens used to come across the border to do a lot of essential shopping,” Ruben Walshe said.

Walshe owns two restaurants, La Bodega and La Concha, in San Luis.

“I want to say 80% of the people across the border they come and do some sort of shopping over here on the U.S. side,” he said.

His first restaurant, La Bodega, usually was filled with the sounds of karaoke on Thursday nights, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The professional musicians would take over the rustic restaurant and bar on Friday nights.

_________
Source: Arizona Republic – Jan 22, 2021
This is an excerpt. The full article can be found by clicking here.