Sunday July 13, 2008

Open Letter To The Governor of California

Your repeated statements to the news media on Public Safety as a number one prioroity within your administration sounds hollow in light of the multiple deaths of Farmworkers due to heatstroke within California’s Farmlands. Cal Osha’s website states the following: 

“In California every employer has a legal obligation to provide and maintain a safe and healthful workplace for employees, according to the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973. As of 1991, a written, effective Injury and Illness Prevention (IIP), Program is required for every California employer. This manual describes the employers’ responsibilities in establishing, implementing, maintaining, an IIP Program. It also outlines steps that can be taken to develop an effective Program that helps assure the safety and health of employees while on the job.”

I would have to ask you Governor, where is the enforcement? How many more Farmworkers have to die before you take proactive steps to apply and enforce the current laws of California? If indeed you and OSHA consider it prudent and necessary to:

1) Provide heatstroke training to employees and supervisors,
2) Provide adequate amounts of water,
3) Provide access to shade/rest,
4) and written procedures for compliance,

Then why are people dying out in the fields? It is one thing to have laws in the books and selective enforcement is not an option.

Augustine Lerma, Editor
California Forumeer
American GI Forum
San Jose, California

cc: Arturo Rodriguez, UFWA
Willie Galvan, Commander AGIF-California