Temperatures are expected to go well above 100 degrees in some parts of Oregon starting Thursday. While the state has one of the strongest heat and wildfire smoke protections for workers, some farmworker advocates say they worry many people will be putting themselves at risk out of necessity because they can’t afford not to work
When temperatures get extremely hot or the air is too saturated with smoke, many farmworkers have to decide to either work in the fields and risk their health or stay at home and lose wages.
FILE - Farmworkers preparing the blueberries they picked in a farm in Albany to get them weighed and ready to ship to a pack house on June 28, 2021.
Monica Samayoa / OPB
Some groups estimate there are around 86,400 migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Oregon. With family who accompany them, there are nearly 173,000 people who depend on income from farm jobs — most of them Latino.
The Oregon Worker Relief Fund Coalition, made up of several immigrant justice groups, launched the Climate Change Fund to fill the financial gap when people miss work due to heat or smoke in the Pacific Northwest.
That program received a $10 million allocation from the Oregon Legislature through a 2021 emergency bill. The fund has served over 9,500 farmworkers who’ve lost wages due to hazardous heat or smoke conditions. They received an average of about $1,250 each.
Earlier this year, the coalition asked lawmakers for $9 million, but the Legislature didn’t allocate any money. That puts workers in a tough spot, said Reyna Lopez, the executive director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, a farmworker union based in Woodburn, Oregon.
“That’s leaving a lot of workers this weekend in limbo. It’s very limited, the funds that are available aren’t even at a million dollars, it’s just short of a million dollars,” she said.
Trying to keep workers safe during extreme heat
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or Oregon OSHA, requires employers to provide outdoor and indoor workers with cool water, shade and extra breaks if temperatures exceed 90 degrees. Since 2022 — when the rules went into effect — Oregon OSHA has issued 174 citations to employers for violations related to extreme heat, 19 of those citations were issued to agricultural employers, according to Aaron Corvin, a public information officer for the agency.
But while those protections are significant, and workers also have the right to refuse dangerous work conditions, like working through extreme heat, PCUN’s Lopez said many can’t afford to not get paid.
“We know that workers aren’t going to take that chance if they’re going to have to miss a day and they’re not going to be able to make up that day financially,” Lopez said.
Lopez said PCUN and other groups are in the early stages of conversations with policymakers to draft more permanent funding options. For now, the group is bracing for increased calls from farmworkers in financial need and having to put people on a waiting list.
“We would like to see that fund be replenished to a point that [if] there is another situation this year where workers have to take the day off because the weather is so extreme, that they’re able to count on that money being there,” Lopez said. “We have to make sure that we’re taking care of Oregon workers.”
Heat illness prevention resources are available on Oregon OSHA’s A-to-Z topic index page. They include video training in English and Spanish.