Farmworkers toil amid heat as bill strengthening union rights continues to sit on Newsom's desk
Sacramento has broken a nearly century-old record amid the searing heatwave currently hitting California, when the temperature in the capital’s downtown hit 116 on Tuesday. The last time the area saw heat that intense was 1925, when the temperature hit 114, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Still, the heat this week has not stopped a group of allies who have been holding a 24-hour vigil at the state capitol urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act. Despite resounding endorsements from the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic governor has not yet acted on the bill.
Northern California’s KCRA reports that vigil goers have been protected against the heat and sun only by some pop-up tents. They also know farmworkers laboring to put food on our tables are now enduring this every season. "The community members that are here are aware that farmworkers are here every day in the fields regardless of the heat wave, pandemic, smoke," United Farm Workers’ (UFW) Jessica Betancourt said in the report. Farm work has in fact been deadly.
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