As Mercury Rises, Spotlight is on Protection of Workers

Jul. 30–Peach pickers on Vito Chiesa’s Hughson ranch wear long-sleeve sweat shirts or flannel shirts to protect themselves from the peach fuzz that sticks to the skin and itches.

The heavy clothes make working in the heat of the valley even more difficult and potentially dangerous.

But farmers like Chiesa are aware of the problem and take measures to protect workers from heat stress.

“There’s no doubt picking peaches is physically demanding,” he said Wednesday, as crews with baskets strapped to their torsos climbed ladders and stripped fruit from trees.

“People get dehydrated very quickly. It falls on ourselves and the workers to stay hydrated,” Chiesa said.

The issue is again in the public eye after three farmworker deaths in the southern San Joaquin Valley during the current heat wave.

Legislation has been proposed to require shade and rest breaks when temperatures top 95 degrees, and Cal-OSHA is working on similar requirements.

State and local farm representatives say they are well aware of the problem of heat stress and work to educate farm employers and employees.

“When it’s hot, people start earlier. We certainly don’t want workers out when it is 105,” said Stanislaus County Farm Bureau Executive Manager Wayne Zipser. “We want to curtail that activity as early as we can.”

Zipser said when he grew up on a peach farm, picking started at 6 a.m., but some growers start as early as 4 a.m. when it gets hot, to finish by late morning.

“We are all a little smarter as we get older,” he said.

Elisa Noble, rural health and safety director for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said the Farm Bureau works on education and training of supervisors and employees.

Bilingual pamphlets are available for workers to take home and share, Noble said. They describe heat stress symptoms and what to do if you experience them.

A supervisor or crew member should be trained about what to do in the event of a heat stress emergency, she said.

“If you are not feeling well, stop working, get out of the sun and rest,” Noble said. It’s up to both the worker and the supervisor to be alert to heat-related symptoms, she said.

Workers should come to work hydrated and continue to drink as they work, she said.

The pressures on both sides during a harvest can cause problems, farm representatives admit. Farmers often have a narrow window of time to get the crop harvested and may be tempted to push workers.

And workers, frequently paid based on how much they pick, may be reluctant to stop and rest if they aren’t feeling well.

“That can be a concern,” Noble said. “You have to focus on encouraging employees, if they are not feeling well, to let the supervisor know. The supervisors have to recognize that someone isn’t feeling well. It’s finding that balance that’s a challenge.”

Isidro Flores, a peach picker at the Chiesa ranch, has been picking fruit for 20 years.

Slowing down is a tactic to beat the heat, Flores said through an interpreter. But he added, “If you are too slow or too lazy, there is no money.”

Too slow isn’t a problem, Chiesa said — making sure the workers rest and drink when they need to is the challenge.

“They want to go. There aren’t any harder-working people than the people who pick peaches,” Chiesa said.

“We try to get them to take breaks more frequently. During the day, they scream, ‘Bring me the water,’ and the graders have a cup of water ready when they come to dump (peaches to be graded).” That way, they don’t waste any time stopping to pour their own cup of water, Chiesa said.

Each crew of four pickers and two sorters at the Chiesa ranch has a 5-gallon water jug nearby. On hot days, the workers start at 5:30 a.m. and finish by 1 p.m.

“Everyone gets up a little earlier. It’s not fun,” Chiesa said, but it avoids the worst heat of the day.

The workers take a lunch break at 10 a.m., and Chiesa brings out an ice chest full of 7-Up and water later in the shift to get the workers to take a break.

The canopy in a peach orchard also provides shade that may not be available in other crops, Chiesa noted.

Peach farmers have an incentive to treat their workers well, he added. Most of the crews are ages 30 to 55, and not many young people want to work in the orchards.

“There’s not an excess of people willing to do this, so we have to differentiate ourselves,” he said.

Chiesa’s pickers recently worked on a Sunday, something they hadn’t done in many years. The harvest needed to come in, and Chiesa decided it was better to work the crews seven days with a shorter shift than to push for longer days in the heat.

He bought the workers lunch that day to thank them.

Zipser said farmers don’t want to make workers ill and need to have perspective at harvest time.

“Nothing has to be done absolutely today,” he said. “There’s nothing that can’t be finished the next day.”

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

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