AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A heat wave is scorching big parts of California's Central Valley, where one quarter of the nation's food is grown. Farmworkers there are struggling to get through the triple-digit temperatures. Esther Quintanilla of member station KVPR in Fresno has our story.
ESTHER QUINTANILLA, BYLINE: Driving through the back roads of rural California, miles of abundant farmland stretch as far as the eye can see. Two miles outside the town of Exeter in Tulare County, a crew of about 20 farmworkers are harvesting plums on a farm managed by the High Sierra Ag Company. They're covered head to toe, wearing long sleeves, jeans and bandanas under wide-brim hats. Some workers move from tree to tree climbing the ladders to pick plums. Others load them into large bins for transport.
QUINTANILLA: The owner of the plum farm, Zack Stuller, says to deal with the hot temperatures, they've shifted working hours earlier. Today, the crew started at 5:30 a.m. It's 9:00 a.m. now, and it's already 90 degrees.
ZACK STULLER: I don't want my guys out in - when it's 115 any more than they want to be out there, but it's what makes the world go around, you know? They got to work to feed their families just like I do, and this is their line of work just like it's my line of work.
QUINTANILLA: The fruit is already ripe, Stuller says. And if they didn't work during the heat wave, the farm would end up with thousands of pounds of fruit that couldn't be sold. Stuller wouldn't allow interviews with most of the workers. He says they're hired by a third party and that their contract doesn't allow them to speak with the press. The crew's foreman, Rigoberto Ibarra, was allowed to speak with me. The 69-year-old has been working in the fields of the Central Valley for more than 50 years.
RIGOBERTO IBARRA: (Through interpreter) I love the work I do. The only bad thing is it's so hot.
QUINTANILLA: The majority of farmworkers in California are Latino. Some estimates found that more than 75% of the workforce is undocumented. Heat is one of the deadliest weather-related disasters in the country, and farmworkers are at a disproportionate risk of heat-related illnesses and death. Ibarra says he's heard stories about workers on other farms suffering the effects of heat. On this farm, Ibarra says his crew has managed to stay healthy.
IBARRA: (Through interpreter) There's lots of shade from the plum trees. We don't feel the heat as much as we would in an open field.
QUINTANILLA: California is one of the few states with heat labor protection laws in place, requiring employers to provide adequate shade, easy access to clean drinking water and rest breaks. The Biden administration recently proposed similar regulations for the whole country. But farmworker advocates in California say those laws aren't always enforced. Lourdes Cardenas lives just outside Fresno. Last year, when she was harvesting tomatoes in 90-degree heat, she says she started to feel ill.
LOURDES CARDENAS: (Through interpreter) I was dehydrated in a cold sweat. I felt dizzy and nauseous.
QUINTANILLA: She says the farm didn't have the adequate shade and water access that California's laws require. When she called Cal/OSHA, the state's agency that enforces the heat labor laws, she says they told her they didn't have anyone to send out that day to check the work site. They said they'd follow up, she says, but never did. In an email response, Cal/OSHA said it did not have a record of her complaint and that the agency regularly carries out, quote, "targeted high-heat inspections."
Antonio de Loera Brust of the United Farm Workers union says they continue to get calls about growers who don't comply with the law.
ANTONIO DE LOERA BRUST: These rules are very common sense, and when these rules are complied with, they absolutely save lives.
QUINTANILLA: Meantime, the National Weather Service expects this heat wave to linger in the region until next week. For NPR News, I'm Esther Quintanilla in Exeter, in California's Central Valley.
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