migrant labor

By Amy Goodman, Jeff Goodell, and Ruth Cerezo-Mota - Democracy Now!, June 6, 2024

By Stephen Franklin - In These Times, April 26, 2024

The statistics are sobering, and it’s likely we’re still undercounting: Only one-fourth of injuries suffered by Latino workers on small construction jobs are regularly reported, one study found.

A burst of shouts cascades as three men plunge downward. Other workers reach for them as the scaffold plummets.

But no one can grab hold of them.

Thinking he can still save them, a middle-aged construction worker scampers to aid the three men, one a long-time friend, he had helped get hired on the site. 

“I saw everything,” he says and then repeats himself. ​“I saw everything. In a video you can see me removing planks from them because I thought they were alive, but they were dead.”

Jose Canaca, 26, Gilberto Monico Fernández, 54, and Jesus ​“Chuy” Olivares, 43, had been putting up an outer brick wall for a 17-story apartment building in a popular neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C., when they fell from the 10^th floor. They hit a patio rooftop on the fourth floor — a 70-foot drop. 

Months after the fatal construction accident in January 2023, the tragedy haunts him. He quit the risky construction work he’d done for about 15 years and has been taking lower-paying jobs.

“I don’t wish this on anyone, what happened there,” says Diego Sanchez, the construction worker who tried to rescue the three men. Sanchez, who came to the United States from Honduras, asked to use a pseudonym because he fears retaliation from immigration authorities. 

The deaths of Canaca, Fernández and Olivares added to the increasing numbers of Latino workers killed on the job, a death count that has grown steadily year after year. Latino workers today have the highest workplace fatality rate: The number of on-the-job deaths has declined over time for white people, and slightly increased for Black people over the past few years, but fatalities for Latino workers continue to rise sharply.

While workplace safety is an issue that affects everyone, a disproportionate share of those who will be mourned this Workers Memorial Day — observed on April 28 to honor people injured or killed on the job — were Latino. 

There were 1,248 Latino workers killed on the job in 2022, reflecting a 57% increase over the previous decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By Union Jake, Adam Keller, and Max Alvarez - Valley Labor Report, April 75, 2024

By Union Jake, Adam Keller, and Max Alvarez - Valley Labor Report, April 5, 2024

By Union Jake, Adam Keller, and Max Alvarez - Valley Labor Report, April 4, 2024

By Amy Green and Victoria St. Martin - Inside Climate News, March 19, 2024

ORLANDO, Fla.—Even if the often unbearable Florida temperatures started creeping up toward triple digits, Maria Leticia Pineda could usually be found clad in at least three layers of clothing to protect her skin from sunburns while she worked in an outdoor plant nursery.

Pineda spent 20 years working 11-hour days as she helped grow fruits like strawberries, blueberries and pineapples, as well as vegetables, ferns and other plants. But by 2018, between headaches that she believes were exacerbated by the heat, recurring pains in her right elbow and back and aches just about everywhere else, she’d had enough.

“I love agriculture and working with people and the environment, but I stopped because it’s so hot,” said Pineda, who is 51. “With the heat, it won’t kill you right away. I’ve felt the struggle for so long and the damage stays with you.”

The state’s 2 million outdoor workers are poised to have less access to accommodations like water and shady rest breaks under a bill the Florida Legislature recently approved.

The measure prohibits local governments from establishing heat protections for outdoor workers. It comes after commissioners in Miami-Dade County considered a proposal last year that would have compelled construction and agriculture companies to provide water and rest breaks when the heat index there rises to 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. The proposal also would have required training in heat illness and first aid, but it was never brought to a vote.

The new state legislation preempts any such local provisions. It was approved earlier this month, on the final day of the annual session, but still requires the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has described himself as “not a global warming person.” His climate change policy has focused on fortifying the state’s infrastructure against rising seas and increasingly damaging hurricanes, but he has done little to address the human-caused emissions contributing to hotter temperatures.

By Gerardo Reyes Chavez, Daniel Costa, Lloys Frates, Ph.D, Mireya Loza, and Ximena Bustillo - The Aspen Institute, February 28, 2024

By Tom Sexton, Union Jake, and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, February 19, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - The Valley Labor Report, January 29, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, December 28, 2023