The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disproportionate harm to working class people across the Pacific Northwest, to say nothing of the rest of the US and the world. Among these, Yakima County in Washington State has suffered the most COVID-19 cases per capita out of Washington, Oregon and California. The reasons for this are simple: with a third of the entire Yakima workforce involved in agriculture, farmworkers have been forced to labor in conditions not just unsafe for the COVID-19 pandemic, but which have facilitated its spread.
The conditions of work in central Washington agriculture, without any safety regulations imposed by employers, are the perfect vectors for COVID-19. Fruit sorting and packing facilities have workers in close proximity with one another, without face masks or adequate access to sanitation supplies and stations. With work continuing through the pandemic, and few (if any) alterations made to accommodate safety procedures or necessary leave for workers, the decisions of employers contributed greatly to the spread of COVID-19 among agricultural workers.
The response from agricultural companies has, by and large, been to ignore supplying adequate protective equipment, refusing hazard pay, not establishing social distancing guidelines and not granting greater leave for workers, despite constant demands from workers to do so. Instead, workers are told they must continue to come in under patently unsafe conditions. As workers began to fall ill, companies like the Allen Brothers refused to slow or shut down production, disinfect the worksite, or provide hazard pay.
With such intolerable conditions imposed upon the workers of Yakima and elsewhere, the subsequent infection rate and deaths from COVID-19 originating in the workplace, and the lack of action by employers, Yakima workers were spurred to action, fighting for better pay and conditions alongside groups such as the United Farm Workers and Familias Unitas. Since May 2020, hundreds of workers at seven of Yakima’s plants have gone on strike, with demands concerning more protective equipment, knowledge and notice of infected employees in their workplaces, sanitation and handwashing amenities, plastic dividers between workers, disinfectant, and wage increases from $13.50 an hour to $15.50 an hour for hazard pay.
The situation faced by Yakima farm workers illustrates both the callousness of the agricultural employers, but also highlights the path forward for vulnerable workers. Despite agriculture being an industry that has generally resisted unionization in Washington State, Yakima workers banded together and walked out on the job, forcing employers to the bargaining table. With any luck, the wave of strikes in central Washington will serve to ignite a permanent labor movement that is dearly needed among some of the most ruthlessly exploited and needlessly endangered workers in our region.
We, from the Cascadian Workers’ Association, voice our full support to the striking agricultural workers! ¡Demandos Justicia! Workers over profit!
Sources:
https://www.yakimaherald.com/…/article_fb916ae7-44a3-5b76-9…
