Another Farm-Laborer Tragedy, With a Political Spin

First came last month’s bloody crash on a rural road southwest of Fresno, which killed 13 Mexican farm workers and injured two. The next collision may be in court between competing special interests who have, since the accident, scavenged through the wreckage in search of opportunity. This is a familiar story with no happy ending.

In the San Joaquin Valley, summer means harvest, full employment and money to buy school clothes. In recent years, summer has also meant death on the road. When temperatures rise, Valley residents brace themselves for ambulance sirens and sights of twisted metal among grapevines. In the past five years, at least 63 farm workers have died in vehicle accidents.

Last month’s accident was the worst. It occurred in the early morning, when a farm-labor van smashed into a tractor-trailer making a U-turn. The van was carrying 15 farm laborers who had just finished a late-night shift picking tomatoes at Terra Linda Diversified Farming near Huron in southwestern Fresno County.

A few days after the crash, a group of lawyers representing families of the victims and survivors called a press conference in Fresno to announce that they were filing what could be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The defendants are the truck driver, who wasn’t hurt, and the trucking company he worked for, as well as the owner of the trailer, which the lawyers contend may not have been equipped with reflectors. The lawyers are also contemplating suing the farm-labor contractor who hired the workers and the employer, Terra Linda farms.

The next group to circle the accident scene has read its own obituary more than once. Representatives of the new and improved United Farm Workers, joined the conference and blamed the grower. The event was held at the Mexican consulate, which has offered to assist family members with the paperwork required to ship their loved ones back to Mexico.

UFW Vice President Tanis Ybarra told a newspaper that he blamed the deaths on lax enforcement by government agencies and a “corrupt farm-labor system [that] encourages abuses and violations of state and federal laws.”

Lawyers, victims, activists, farmers and diplomats--these are the usual players in such tragedies. At first, not one elected official seemed to know what to say or do.

Then opportunity knocked. It was learned that the farm workers, most of whom were seated on carpeted benches installed in the van, had not been wearing seat belts. It was also learned that, according to the law, they weren’t required to do so. Farm-worker vehicles are exempted from the state’s 1985 mandatory seat-belt law.

That exemption gave reform-minded politicians something to attack. Assemblyman Dean Florez (D-Shafter) convened a community forum to discuss farm-worker safety and unveil legislation aimed at the problem. Several hundred people attended, with dozens more clamoring to get in. Besides Florez, Assemblywoman Sarah L. Reyes (D-Fresno), state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante were present.

Florez’ bill, AB 1165, would extend the seat-belt requirement to include farm-labor vehicles, require mandatory inspections of these vehicles by the California Highway Patrol and approve nearly $2 million to fund them. Last year, the CHP conducted more than 1,200 farm-labor vehicle inspections. AB 555, proposed by Reyes, would make farm-labor contractors and growers liable for whatever infractions are uncovered by the inspections and increase penalties.

Both bills sailed through the Legislature and are on Gov. Gray Davis’ desk. Davis has said he intends to sign them, as well he should.

The system for transporting workers to and from job sites is unregulated and unsafe. It is also, for a state that is the nation’s richest agricultural producer, indefensible. The raitero (farm-worker transport) system has long been a breeding ground for abuse and exploitation. As a condition of employment, workers are blackmailed by labor contractors into paying $3 to $5 for a round-trip to the fields. To maximize profits, people are crammed into vans.

Still, the legislation isn’t likely to satisfy hard-liners. To the UFW, the Florez and Reyes bills nibble around the edges of real reform. The union would prefer that lawmakers require growers to transport their workers to and from their fields. Since Florez and Reyes are moderate to conservative “Valley-crats” who need agribusiness support in future elections, they aren’t likely to translate the union’s wishes into legislation.

But swept up by emotion, Florez and Reyes jumped in with both feet and contended that, with enough resolve, government could fix this problem and keep moving metal out of the grapevines. The activists now will up the ante: Should government not also compel growers to create a private taxi service?

The UFW is right about one thing: The bills on the governor’s desk are neither genuine nor gutsy reforms. They’re symbolic gestures born of compassion, outrage and political opportunism. Last month’s deadly accident gave legislators a rare opportunity to propose something more revolutionary for the farm-labor industry. They settled for seat belts, increased penalties and extra funding.

Some special investigators for the California labor commissioner’s office, which polices the state’s agricultural fields for labor-law violations, had hoped the politicians would go further and regulate the “day hauler” industry. The raiteros who transport the workers should be tested and licensed by the state, and their fares should be set. One obstacle is liability insurance, an issue lawmakers are not eager to tackle.

Just a few days ago, near Fresno, there was more metal scattered among grapevines. Though there were no deaths, another batch of farmworkers were sent to the hospital.

Californians shouldn’t count on government exclusively to figure this out or on politicians to summon the courage required for reform. In the San Joaquin Valley, the only comfort for those who toil in its fields, and take their chances on its roadways, is that summer is finally over. *