08/12/2024 Farm worker Lourdes Cardenas speaks at #HeatWeek kickoff

My name is Lourdes Cardenas; I live in Fresno, California. I have been working in the field for 21 years. I am proudly a member of the United Farm Workers. Thank you for inviting me to this call. Heat is a very important issue for farm workers.

Here in Fresno it's reaching 105, 110 temperatures this summer. The heat has been unbearable. And every year the heat gets stronger. I have had many horrible experiences happen to me at farms that are not under UFW contract while I am working during the heat.

I had experienced heat stress. I've felt dizzy, dehydrated and wanting to vomit. I've experienced the water being very far away, where we cannot reach it. I've experienced working where they do not provide us with enough shade, or they provide it too far away, or they do not provide us with any shade.

In California, all farm workers are supposed to have the right to water, shade, and rest during the heat. But it doesn't happen like that. And when you talk to Cal/OSHA, all they tell you is that they don't have staff, or that can't find our location. I myself spoke to Cal/OSHA in July 2023. We were working in tomatoes near Huron, California. I told the supervisor that we had no shade. I already felt bad, and I knew I had to get out of work. I had a lot of vomiting and a headache. Many workers don't say anything when they feel bad because they are afraid they will be fired, or because they earn so little that they feel they have to take risks to get a paycheck.

For me, I know that a job is not worth my life. I know that my health does not matter to the boss. I have to take care of it. We workers have to take care of each other. I asked a coworker to come with me. We were working more than an hour and a half from Fresno, and I didn't feel okay driving alone. But the supervisor told my coworker not to leave. It made me very sad that the supervisor, so cruel, didn't even want to let another worker help me. I called Cal/OSHA, but they never came.

There is still a lack of compliance with the laws. That is sad. That is why farm workers have died, because they do not implement the heat law well. That is the problem we have had here in the state of California, where we have already had a heat rule for 19 years.

Now, we are very happy about the new federal rule for which we will all fight together. I am happy that now workers in Texas, Arizona, Florida and other states will have the same right to water and shade as I do. And I am very happy with the administration of President Biden and Vice President Harris for listening to us and for creating this new rule.

But a right cannot exist only on paper. It has to exist in the fields. So my message is that this fight has only begun. First, we have to make sure that this rule is not taken away from us if Trump comes back in! But then we also have to continue fighting until the right to water, shade, and rest is truly respected for all farm workers and workers in this country. We know that for that, workers really need to have power to be able to defend our rights ourselves.

Thank you, and Si Se Puede!

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