Farmworkers especially vulnerable as dangerous heat wave scorches wide swath of US

A heat wave has been scorching the West this week, and California's farmworkers have been enduring the dangerous conditions.

An unrelenting heat wave has been scorching the West and the Plains this week, and while many can hide inside and crank up the air conditioning, farmworkers have to endure the dangerous conditions. Heat kills farmworkers every year, according to Elizabeth Strater, director for strategic campaigns at United Farm Workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, recorded 43 deaths linked to heat exposure. Compared to other outdoor workers, farmworkers are especially vulnerable if they're earning a piece-rate wage instead of being paid hourly, because that's an incentive to not slow down or take breaks, she said. Also, the many farmworkers who are undocumented immigrants are more likely to experience labor abuses and are less likely to speak up, she added.