[dda]

Once again I have been called to do battle with the imperial forces of oppression of the working class.

In San Joaquin County we have a thriving wine industry. Many square miles of land is planted in grape vines. Many agricultural workers (mostly undocumented guests in the United States) are necessary to do all of the necessary chores attendant to the raising of grapes.

The Great State of California, the people of which I represent in the hallowed halls of justice, in their infinite wisdom have passed laws to protect the previously mentioned workers from exploitation. The laws require:
that workers have training in how to recognize heat illness in its various forms;
that potable water be provided for the workers in sufficient quantity for the workers to continually replenish the loss of water due to heating;
that workers be provided with shade from which they can escape the direct rays of the sun durning work breaks;
that the employer have a plan in place in case a worker in the field who is injure or seriously ill (such as sun stroke) which tells everyone what should be done and who should be contacted;
that should an employer fail in one of the above rules and should such failure result in the death of a worker that this becomes a felony offense.

The Great State of California has, interestingly, enacted a law which relieves the land owner and those who lease the land to engage in farming enterprises (many of whom are multi-million dollar corporations) are not held responsible for this if the contract out the farm work to Farm Labor Contractors. The Farm Labor Contractor then provides laborers which it pays the salary of and is responsible for the well being of. The Farm Labor Contractor in turn receives payment from the grower. The Farm Labor Contractor is the person or persons upon whom the law falls should the above laws be flaunted.

A 17-year old woman who was an undocumented resident of this country for four months got a job working for a farm labor contractor working for a Farm Labor Contractor. On the third day of her employment she collapsed in the field and died two days later of heat stroke.

There was no shade in the field and water was at least a ten-minute walk from where she collapsed.

There was no training provided for any of the workers regarding symptoms or what should be done in the case of emergency.

The supervisor in the field down played the seriousness of what was occurring. The supervisor told the boyfriend of the woman who collapsed that it would be bad if the authorities should find out that the woman had been working when this happened and that it might result in the woman, the boyfriend and the supervisor all being deported.

For this reason no one called for medical attention for the woman

When the woman collapsed it was about 15 minutes before the working day was done. The woman was carried to the van in which she had arrived to wait 15-30 minutes for the others in the car pool to get off and come to the van. The woman was placed in the van.

The temperature was 95 degrees fahrenheit and said van had been standing in the sun for 10 hours. The temperature within the van was likely above 140 (f) when she was first placed inside. Eventually, when everyone in the van pool was at the van they left with her unconscious body being held by her boyfriend (age 19).

They had a cell phone but no medical assistance was called for. Instead they drove two miles to a small store where rubbing alcohol was purchased to rub on the young woman to see if she would revive. Several minutes were waisted there while the rest of the group purchased beer, sodas and snacks.

Across the street from the store was a fire station which had personnel who could have provided immediate first aid and could have called for additional emergency medical help or could have rapidly transported the woman to the nearest hospital.

As they left the supervisor called to see if the woman had revived. When told that she had not, he told the boyfriend that they should take the woman to a medical clinic near where the girl lived. The clinic was 45 minutes away, there was a hospital with an emergency room 30 minutes away. The supervisor also told the boyfriend to tell the medical personnel that she had been jogging near home and collapse.

The woman was taken to the clinic. The clinic called an ambulance and she was transported to a nearby hospital. When she arrived her temperature was 108.4. Over the next two days her internal organs began to shut down. It turned out she was two months pregnant, though she may have been unaware of this, and she miscarried then died.

I have been tasked with righting this great wrong.

The owner of the Farm Labor company and the safety coordinator are being prosecuted for all of the safety violations and for causing the death of the young woman.

I will make the world safe for the working man/woman.