‘What choice do we have?’ US farm workers battle deadly heat wave

As record-setting temperatures engulf the West Coast of the United States, farm workers must often choose between their wages and their health.

Arvin, California, United States — Martha Fuentes woke up at 3:30am last Thursday to prepare for her daily commute to her job in the grape fields of Kern County, California, one of the top vegetable producing regions in the United States. She donned a wide-brimmed hat and a colourful bandana decorated with butterflies to protect herself from the heat that will make her work highly strenuous, even with the rest breaks and cool water provided by her employer. When she started packaging fruit at 5:30 a.m, the air was already a balmy 26.7 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit). By 10am, it had risen to more than 32C, and perspiration poured down Fuentes’s face. “This year it’s going to be more hot,” she told Al Jazeera as she worked.