Farms And Workers Trying To Avoid COVID-19 In The Fields And The Orchards

Spring has arrived and that means many farmworkers will be arriving in California soon. County health and agriculture departments are trying to make sure farms and workers know how not to spread coronavirus and what to do if they get sick.

Yolo County is preparing for an influx of laborers coming up from Mexico, Arizona and other parts of the country to tend the fields and work in the orchards.

The county says it’s providing as much information as possible to employees and employers.  

“We want to make sure that we protect the people who already live here that have been sheltering in place and staying at home as well as those that are coming in either as workers or farm hands,” said Jenny Tan, county spokeswoman.

Information is available in English and Spanish at the county’s migrant centers.

Armando Elenes is the secretary treasurer for the United Farm Workers union in Bakersfield. He says he worries about the possible spread of the virus through carpooling.

“Anywhere between four to five, five to seven (people) depending on the size of the vehicle. So there is a lot of physical contact that is obviously very difficult to avoid,” he said, noting that carpooling is necessary since many farmworkers don’t have vehicles.

Elenes says daily crew meetings and spacing in the fields also should be changed. 

“They can alternate or skip a couple of rows,” he said. “For example if you’re doing wine grapes you can easily say, look we’re going to leave one or two rows in between us.”

Machinery that requires two people to work closely together could present challenges to distancing recommendations of six feet or more.

Farmers have offered workers sick pay for which they wouldn’t ordinarily be eligible.

Jamie Johansson is a citrus and olive farmer in Butte County and president of the California Farm Bureau. He says federal action makes that possible.

“One of the first actions taken back in Washington D.C.and signed by the president was the ‘Families First Coronavirus [Response] Act,’” Johansson said. “While in California we always had three days of sick pay in Family Medical Leave time. On a national level we have seen that increased to 10 weeks whether it’s yourself or a family member dealing with the coronavirus.”

That's an additional 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay. This is for a person who has already received two weeks sick leave at full or two-thirds pay and has been employed for at least 30 calendar days, according to the U.S. Department of Interior 

Both the farm bureau and the union say sick leave will allow infected workers or those with sick family members to stay home and avoid spreading the virus.

Both Elenes and Johansson cite studies that say more than half of farmworkers are here illegally. Johansson says a worker with two forms of identification qualifies for the increased time off. 

Elenes says it’s important to get a sick person the financial means to stay home. 

“All it takes is one person to be infected and It could spread into the crew,” he said.