UFW supporters march in Fresno in August 2022. File photo

A local agricultural leader is calling out the United Farm Workers union and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, insisting that the industry’s heat illness rules protect workers.

Manuel Cunha, Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League in Fresno and leading farm lobbyist, said the industry under the Schwarzenegger administration in 2005 instituted key heat illness protections for farmworkers including shade breaks for workers feeling symptoms of heatstroke and mandates for the amount of water available for workers in the fields.

Padilla and the UFW held a press conference last week calling for stricter federal heat protections for workers. Padilla recently introduced a bill that would do just that.

The news conference came after the death of a 59-year-old field worker who collapsed and died while picking tomatillos in Fresno County on Aug. 8, according to The Fresno Bee. The temperature was around 100 degrees when Eliido Hernandez Gomez fell ill.

The Fresno County coroner said there was no evidence the worker’s death was related to heat, but rather cardiovascular disease. The UFW said the death was heat related.

That’s the part that had Cunha up in arms. He said he agrees with Sen. Padilla that California’s long-standing heat illness protection rules should be applied nationwide, but he rejects that industry negligence had a hand in Hernandez Gomez’s death.

“He made us look like a bad guy,” Cunha said of Padilla’s participation in the news conference. “To blame us, to say lies that this was caused by ag is absolutely wrong.”

“The farmer should not be held hostage,” Cunha added.

Like any other industry, Cunha said the farm industry is barred from asking questions about its employees’ health status. He suggested the UFW focus on promoting healthier habits.

“We cannot inspect a worker’s lunch bucket,” Cunha said.

Teresa Romero, UFW president, spoke at the news conference, remarking that California’s outdoor heat standard has saved lives, but employers must know there will be legal consequences if they don’t take action when their employees show signs of heat illness, reported CalMatters.

“The law on the books is not the same as the law in the fields,” she said.

At least 112 federal lawmakers recently signed a letter pushing President Joe Biden to take administrative actions to better protect workers from too-hot workplaces.

Padilla’s Asunción Valdivia Heat, Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act refers to a California farmworker who died of heat illness in 2004. The bill recently went to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It has 18 cosponsors in the Senate and 35 in the House of Representatives.

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CalMatters contributed to this report.