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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:51 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/university-of-california\">University of California\u003c/a> faculty members across the state are accusing the UC system of carrying out an illegal campaign to repress academic freedom in the wake of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984645/photos-campus-protests-grow-across-bay-area\">pro-Palestinian campus protests\u003c/a>, according to an unfair labor practice charge filed Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the allegations filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board, UC administrators have started investigations and disciplinary proceedings against faculty for supporting on-campus student encampments, backing a related \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989563/judge-orders-temporary-halt-to-uc-academic-workers-strike-over-war-in-gaza\">strike by student academic workers\u003c/a> in the spring, or even teaching about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a summary of their charge, the faculty members accuse administrators of sending several “vague but threatening communications warning faculty that they could be disciplined for violating the faculty code of conduct, including by purportedly ‘indoctrinating’ students or teaching coursework outside the scope of their course material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations gathered at UCLA on Thursday to announce the charge, which was not far from where the UC Board of Regents was meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the systemwide council, the charge was also brought by faculty associations at seven UC campuses, including Berkeley and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just been a systemwide attack on faculty, staff and students who have chosen to be vocal about the war in Gaza,” said Jess Ghannam, chair of UCSF’s faculty association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two faculty members at UCSF, a medical school, faced intense pushback for speaking out about the health consequences resulting from the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure in Gaza, Ghannam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That falls within the purview of health-related academic discussion at the university, Ghannam argued, but he said those faculty members were “either written up, counseled, or had their material taken down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12005210 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/WashingtonHighSchoolGetty1-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One UCSF staff member, Denise Caramagno, said other employees filed complaints against her after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12003439/a-ucsf-student-advocate-spoke-up-for-faculty-of-color-then-she-was-fired\">expressed support for a colleague\u003c/a> facing criticism for questioning the impact of Zionism among doctors on health equity efforts. Caramagno said administrators told her she hadn’t violated any policies, but after she shared one of the complaints with colleagues, she was fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghannam said faculty members at UCSF have also been told not to wear pins with the Palestinian flag or with watermelons, a symbol of support for Palestinians, but they are free to wear other symbols of support, such as the LGBTQ pride flag or Black Lives Matter pins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like different rules apply, and that has the immediate impact of putting a chilling effect on faculty, staff and students who want to speak, who want to do academic research in this area, who want to show their solidarity,” Ghannam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF was also notably the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986812/some-bay-area-universities-reach-deal-to-end-encampments-but-students-say-their-fight-continues\">site of the stiffest university opposition to student encampments\u003c/a> among Bay Area campuses. Administrators at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Sonoma State University negotiated with student organizers and agreed to some demands. However, at UCSF, administrators called on police to clear that encampment multiple times within a week until student activists called off the demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roshanak Kheshti, co-chair of UC Berkeley’s faculty association, said several faculty members there are under investigation for discussing the history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in their classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kheshti said those investigations, reportedly being run by the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, are not transparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So some of the mechanisms within the institution that are designed to protect vulnerable populations against discrimination and harassment are being very cynically deployed against faculty right now,” Kheshti said. “They have resulted in faculty incurring legal fees in order to defend themselves against accusations where little to no evidence is presented. So it’s a very McCarthyist moment for us as faculty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12005195 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-018-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF officials did not immediately return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for UC Berkeley declined to answer questions about allegations specific to its campus and directed KQED to the UC Office of the President.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unfair labor practice charge was timed “to counter the even more restrictive practices on free speech and assembly that the UC has imposed at the start of this academic year,” said Constance Penley, president of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules include \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002150/uc-academic-workers-union-says-new-protest-policies-will-limit-free-speech\">revised restrictions on encampments\u003c/a> and a ban on wearing masks for the purpose of concealing identity. Students and faculty also criticized the university system when the policies were announced last month, saying they are meant to\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001778/students-suspended-over-pro-palestinian-protests-tread-a-fine-line-as-fall-semester-begins-at-bay-area-universities\"> deter pro-Palestinian protests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charge builds on a similar filing by UCLA faculty members in response to the university’s handling of the student encampment there, accusing administrators of knowingly standing by while counterprotesters attacked the camp, then sending in police days later to clear the camp and arrest participants, including some faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for comment on Thursday, officials for the UC’s Office of the President pointed to their response to the initial charge from UCLA faculty. In that filing, university officials wrote that they continue to allow lawful protests around the conflict, “but when protests violate University policy or threaten the safety and security of others, the University has taken lawful action to end impermissible and unlawful behavior. That is precisely what occurred at UCLA, where administrators took steps to disperse an encampment protesting conditions in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s filing asks the California Public Employment Relations Board to find that UC “unlawfully discriminated against its employees for engaging in protected activity” and order UC administrators to rescind its recent policy changes and disciplinary action against faculty association members — including back pay for those who were suspended or fired — and remove the actions from personnel files.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:51 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/university-of-california\">University of California\u003c/a> faculty members across the state are accusing the UC system of carrying out an illegal campaign to repress academic freedom in the wake of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984645/photos-campus-protests-grow-across-bay-area\">pro-Palestinian campus protests\u003c/a>, according to an unfair labor practice charge filed Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the allegations filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board, UC administrators have started investigations and disciplinary proceedings against faculty for supporting on-campus student encampments, backing a related \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989563/judge-orders-temporary-halt-to-uc-academic-workers-strike-over-war-in-gaza\">strike by student academic workers\u003c/a> in the spring, or even teaching about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a summary of their charge, the faculty members accuse administrators of sending several “vague but threatening communications warning faculty that they could be disciplined for violating the faculty code of conduct, including by purportedly ‘indoctrinating’ students or teaching coursework outside the scope of their course material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations gathered at UCLA on Thursday to announce the charge, which was not far from where the UC Board of Regents was meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the systemwide council, the charge was also brought by faculty associations at seven UC campuses, including Berkeley and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just been a systemwide attack on faculty, staff and students who have chosen to be vocal about the war in Gaza,” said Jess Ghannam, chair of UCSF’s faculty association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two faculty members at UCSF, a medical school, faced intense pushback for speaking out about the health consequences resulting from the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure in Gaza, Ghannam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That falls within the purview of health-related academic discussion at the university, Ghannam argued, but he said those faculty members were “either written up, counseled, or had their material taken down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One UCSF staff member, Denise Caramagno, said other employees filed complaints against her after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12003439/a-ucsf-student-advocate-spoke-up-for-faculty-of-color-then-she-was-fired\">expressed support for a colleague\u003c/a> facing criticism for questioning the impact of Zionism among doctors on health equity efforts. Caramagno said administrators told her she hadn’t violated any policies, but after she shared one of the complaints with colleagues, she was fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghannam said faculty members at UCSF have also been told not to wear pins with the Palestinian flag or with watermelons, a symbol of support for Palestinians, but they are free to wear other symbols of support, such as the LGBTQ pride flag or Black Lives Matter pins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like different rules apply, and that has the immediate impact of putting a chilling effect on faculty, staff and students who want to speak, who want to do academic research in this area, who want to show their solidarity,” Ghannam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF was also notably the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986812/some-bay-area-universities-reach-deal-to-end-encampments-but-students-say-their-fight-continues\">site of the stiffest university opposition to student encampments\u003c/a> among Bay Area campuses. Administrators at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Sonoma State University negotiated with student organizers and agreed to some demands. However, at UCSF, administrators called on police to clear that encampment multiple times within a week until student activists called off the demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roshanak Kheshti, co-chair of UC Berkeley’s faculty association, said several faculty members there are under investigation for discussing the history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in their classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kheshti said those investigations, reportedly being run by the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, are not transparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So some of the mechanisms within the institution that are designed to protect vulnerable populations against discrimination and harassment are being very cynically deployed against faculty right now,” Kheshti said. “They have resulted in faculty incurring legal fees in order to defend themselves against accusations where little to no evidence is presented. So it’s a very McCarthyist moment for us as faculty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF officials did not immediately return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for UC Berkeley declined to answer questions about allegations specific to its campus and directed KQED to the UC Office of the President.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unfair labor practice charge was timed “to counter the even more restrictive practices on free speech and assembly that the UC has imposed at the start of this academic year,” said Constance Penley, president of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules include \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002150/uc-academic-workers-union-says-new-protest-policies-will-limit-free-speech\">revised restrictions on encampments\u003c/a> and a ban on wearing masks for the purpose of concealing identity. Students and faculty also criticized the university system when the policies were announced last month, saying they are meant to\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001778/students-suspended-over-pro-palestinian-protests-tread-a-fine-line-as-fall-semester-begins-at-bay-area-universities\"> deter pro-Palestinian protests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charge builds on a similar filing by UCLA faculty members in response to the university’s handling of the student encampment there, accusing administrators of knowingly standing by while counterprotesters attacked the camp, then sending in police days later to clear the camp and arrest participants, including some faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for comment on Thursday, officials for the UC’s Office of the President pointed to their response to the initial charge from UCLA faculty. In that filing, university officials wrote that they continue to allow lawful protests around the conflict, “but when protests violate University policy or threaten the safety and security of others, the University has taken lawful action to end impermissible and unlawful behavior. That is precisely what occurred at UCLA, where administrators took steps to disperse an encampment protesting conditions in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s filing asks the California Public Employment Relations Board to find that UC “unlawfully discriminated against its employees for engaging in protected activity” and order UC administrators to rescind its recent policy changes and disciplinary action against faculty association members — including back pay for those who were suspended or fired — and remove the actions from personnel files.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Legislation seeking to provide financial relief for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wage-theft\">wage theft\u003c/a> victims who are still waiting to get paid was introduced to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Hillary Ronen, would create a Worker Justice Fund for people who have won cases before city labor enforcement officials. The fund would offer restitution for low-income workers whose employers closed down their business, declared bankruptcy or fled before paying what they owe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ronen, the fund would start with about $500,000 to $700,000, including fines paid to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement by businesses that broke the city’s minimum wage, paid sick leave and other worker protection laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to the lowest paid workers, we need to be able to have their backs when their employers do wrong by them,” Ronen, an attorney who used to represent workers in wage theft cases, told KQED. “We’re not going to let any employer off the hook. We will go after them. But at least the worker doesn’t have to suffer in the meantime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986837/san-diego-aims-to-help-wage-theft-victims-recover-money-owed\">San Diego County\u003c/a> and Oregon have created restitution funds for people who often struggle to feed their families or pay rent after employers failed to pay them their earnings. At the state level, California has industry-specific funds for workers in garment manufacturing, car washing and agriculture, sectors known for high levels of labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12002081 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/014_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, workers would be eligible for full or partial compensation from the worker relief fund if they won their cases before OLSE on Jan. 1, 2023, or after. Others who would benefit include workers whose employers breached a settlement deal or agreed to a payment plan of over a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adriana Rendon, who worked at a Burger King for seven years, said OLSE found her employer failed to pay for her meal and rest breaks, paid sick days and other required protections in 2021. More than 200 coworkers were also impacted, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her former employer agreed to a 10-year payment plan, but Rendon said she received only $900 in three years. A single mom, she wishes she could receive the rest of the money she’s owed to pay rent, take her kids to the movies or buy ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The right and fair thing to do would have been to get those stolen wages in less time to cover our needs or an emergency,” Rendon, who is now an organizer with Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, said in Spanish. “By passing the Workers Justice Fund, San Francisco would be recognizing, valuing and supporting workers who have experienced wage theft.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Legislation seeking to provide financial relief for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wage-theft\">wage theft\u003c/a> victims who are still waiting to get paid was introduced to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Hillary Ronen, would create a Worker Justice Fund for people who have won cases before city labor enforcement officials. The fund would offer restitution for low-income workers whose employers closed down their business, declared bankruptcy or fled before paying what they owe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ronen, the fund would start with about $500,000 to $700,000, including fines paid to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement by businesses that broke the city’s minimum wage, paid sick leave and other worker protection laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to the lowest paid workers, we need to be able to have their backs when their employers do wrong by them,” Ronen, an attorney who used to represent workers in wage theft cases, told KQED. “We’re not going to let any employer off the hook. We will go after them. But at least the worker doesn’t have to suffer in the meantime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986837/san-diego-aims-to-help-wage-theft-victims-recover-money-owed\">San Diego County\u003c/a> and Oregon have created restitution funds for people who often struggle to feed their families or pay rent after employers failed to pay them their earnings. At the state level, California has industry-specific funds for workers in garment manufacturing, car washing and agriculture, sectors known for high levels of labor violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, workers would be eligible for full or partial compensation from the worker relief fund if they won their cases before OLSE on Jan. 1, 2023, or after. Others who would benefit include workers whose employers breached a settlement deal or agreed to a payment plan of over a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adriana Rendon, who worked at a Burger King for seven years, said OLSE found her employer failed to pay for her meal and rest breaks, paid sick days and other required protections in 2021. More than 200 coworkers were also impacted, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her former employer agreed to a 10-year payment plan, but Rendon said she received only $900 in three years. A single mom, she wishes she could receive the rest of the money she’s owed to pay rent, take her kids to the movies or buy ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The right and fair thing to do would have been to get those stolen wages in less time to cover our needs or an emergency,” Rendon, who is now an organizer with Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, said in Spanish. “By passing the Workers Justice Fund, San Francisco would be recognizing, valuing and supporting workers who have experienced wage theft.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "West Marin Worker Housing Often Substandard and Faulty, New Report Finds",
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"content": "\u003cp>Low-wage Latino workers who reside in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a>’s western region often live in substandard rentals with mold, mice and other serious problems because they have no other affordable options, according to a report released Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.wmhousingsolutions.org/\">study\u003c/a> on the West Marin housing landscape, which was funded by the county and philanthropic organizations, offers a glimpse into the living conditions of the population, relegated to a largely underground rental market that powers the agriculture and tourism industries in the bucolic area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 80% of the study’s participants lived in units with several major health and safety violations, according to interviews with dozens of Latino workers, representing the experience of more than 280 adults and children. The conditions, ranging from non-functioning toilets to holes in the walls and leaky ceilings, were particularly acute at housing on ranches, where most of the respondents resided, according to researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jasmine Bravo, who lived as a child in local ranches where her father worked, remembers the smell of mold, which can be toxic, in the shower and while falling asleep. Rats scratched the walls. She hopes the findings stir the local community and county to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have been aware of these conditions for so many years and have just looked away or have wanted to help, but nothing has come out of it,” said Bravo, 29, who was an interviewer for the report. “This survey is putting facts on paper. You cannot look away any longer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jasmine Bravo in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the report titled \u003cem>Growing Together: Advancing Housing Solutions for Workers in West Marin\u003c/em>, the area needs a bare minimum of 460 additional units of quality housing but likely closer to 1,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of decent housing for agricultural and other lower-income workers and their families is threatening the survival of local farms, restaurants and other businesses, according to employers surveyed for the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the land in West Marin, spanning from Stinson Beach in the south to Tomales in the north, is protected from development and dedicated to parks or agriculture. Restrictive land use policies, limited infrastructure for water and septic systems and community resistance to new developments have made housing scarce and very expensive, researchers concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most Latino households in the rural area rent their homes. Researchers found that many long-term rentals are unpermitted, old and often mobile homes or conversions of buildings not designed for residential use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ranches are a top provider of affordable housing in West Marin. Most of the surveyed dairy and cattle workers lived in employer-provided housing. Other ranches have closed agricultural operations but continue to offer rentals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About half of the 68 Latino workers who participated in the in-depth interviews had one or more household members working in agriculture, including oyster and vegetable farms. The rest had jobs in fields such as food service, landscaping and housekeeping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many reported reluctance to request repairs because they feared losing the only housing they could afford near their jobs. Half of the participants were undocumented immigrants, even though all reported living in the United States for 20 years on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Bravo’s case, rent for her family of six was taken out of her father’s paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s another reason a lot of these people don’t feel like they have the right to say something because it’s tied to their employment, and they fear losing their employment if they speak up about these conditions in their homes,” said Bravo, who became a community advocate with the Bolinas Community Land Trust and is pushing for fair and secure housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Coast Guard housing that CLAM, the Community Land Trust of West Marin, aims to turn into affordable housing in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the county found dozens of Latino families living with \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinij.com/2023/10/21/bolinas-rv-camp-proposed-for-emergency-housing/?clearUserState=true\">raw sewage on the ground\u003c/a> and using water through garden hoses in unpermitted mobile homes at a Bolinas ranch. The property, which was cited about 30 years ago for unsanitary living conditions, now hosts a temporary recreational vehicle park secured by the Bolinas Community Land Trust while it \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marin-bolinas-housing-workers-19717600.php\">attempts to build\u003c/a> permanent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its natural coastal beauty and uninhabited open space, West Marin draws millions of visitors each year and most likely don’t see where the people shucking oysters, milking cows or making organic cheese live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more workers in West Marin commute from Sonoma and East Bay counties, local employers face increased competition from other businesses that are also recruiting for jobs, according to the researchers, who surveyed a total of 150 workers and 17 agricultural employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003108\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tamara Hicks closes a gate to a pasture where goats are grazing on her ranch in Tomales on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tamara Hicks, co-owner of Toluma Farms & Tomales Farmstead Creamery, bought permitted Airstream and Park Model trailers to house four of her 10 employees at the 160-acre property. They share a kitchen with all the amenities in a separate building. But that’s not a long-term solution, she said. She expects her workers, currently single and in their 20s, to move on to have families and better housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest rate-limiting factor of maintaining great people is the housing by far. And so, I’ve lost most of our really fantastic people to Vermont, to Maine, to Arizona,” said Hicks, who has owned the certified-organic goat and sheep farm with her husband for 21 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hicks said many farms and ranches in the region are more than a century old. Some landowners now fear that trying to fix or build units could lead to inspections that open the door to costly penalties due to other code violations, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a good, streamlined, affordable, fast, easy way for people to either rehab existing housing or build new housing,” Hicks, 56, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her husband have plans that were drawn a decade ago to build a couple of units for workers on their land. But the biggest obstacles have been permits and the money to do it, Hicks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tamara Hicks’ home on her ranch in Tomales on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study makes several recommendations to counteract what authors call decades of inaction limiting affordable housing. They include, among other things, proposed reforms to zoning and permitting and a code amnesty and financial assistance for landowners who want to improve housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish there was one solution. I’d say housing is a team sport,” said Cassandra Benjamin, who led the study and is interim director of housing at the Marin Community Foundation. “The way to solve this is through everybody flexing and doing more than they’re doing now — from the county to the local foundations, to the nonprofits, to businesses, to residents. So everybody has to be in this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12002081 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/014_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends that foundations invest in strengthening Latino organizing and advocacy so that agricultural workers and other residents can participate in housing solutions. Racist and exclusionary policies have long constrained opportunities for this workforce in Marin County, the most segregated in the Bay Area, according to the researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really became very restrictive, both in terms of community acceptance but also regulation about housing,” Benjamin said at her office in Point Reyes Station. “That’s part of what we have to turn around in this work. And what’s exciting is that county supervisors know we need more housing. The ranchers are advocating for it. Certainly, the workers are. So I’m hopeful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edward Flores, who studies farmworker wellbeing at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, said the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973396/half-moon-bay-commemorates-1-year-anniversary-of-mass-shooting-that-killed-7\">mass shooting that killed seven workers at two farms in Half Moon Bay last year\u003c/a> highlighted deplorable living conditions for farmworkers at those sites, increasing awareness about the issue throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Marin County decides to use public funds to help agriculture businesses build housing, Flores said it would be an opportunity to support employers that raise pay and safety standards for laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question is, how do you best support the farms that want to do the right thing?” he said. “Because the competition is so stiff that if you’re not providing public subsidies to those farms that want to do the right thing, they might be pushed out of business, and that’s not in the public interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Low-wage Latino workers who reside in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a>’s western region often live in substandard rentals with mold, mice and other serious problems because they have no other affordable options, according to a report released Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.wmhousingsolutions.org/\">study\u003c/a> on the West Marin housing landscape, which was funded by the county and philanthropic organizations, offers a glimpse into the living conditions of the population, relegated to a largely underground rental market that powers the agriculture and tourism industries in the bucolic area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 80% of the study’s participants lived in units with several major health and safety violations, according to interviews with dozens of Latino workers, representing the experience of more than 280 adults and children. The conditions, ranging from non-functioning toilets to holes in the walls and leaky ceilings, were particularly acute at housing on ranches, where most of the respondents resided, according to researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jasmine Bravo, who lived as a child in local ranches where her father worked, remembers the smell of mold, which can be toxic, in the shower and while falling asleep. Rats scratched the walls. She hopes the findings stir the local community and county to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have been aware of these conditions for so many years and have just looked away or have wanted to help, but nothing has come out of it,” said Bravo, 29, who was an interviewer for the report. “This survey is putting facts on paper. You cannot look away any longer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jasmine Bravo in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the report titled \u003cem>Growing Together: Advancing Housing Solutions for Workers in West Marin\u003c/em>, the area needs a bare minimum of 460 additional units of quality housing but likely closer to 1,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of decent housing for agricultural and other lower-income workers and their families is threatening the survival of local farms, restaurants and other businesses, according to employers surveyed for the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the land in West Marin, spanning from Stinson Beach in the south to Tomales in the north, is protected from development and dedicated to parks or agriculture. Restrictive land use policies, limited infrastructure for water and septic systems and community resistance to new developments have made housing scarce and very expensive, researchers concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most Latino households in the rural area rent their homes. Researchers found that many long-term rentals are unpermitted, old and often mobile homes or conversions of buildings not designed for residential use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ranches are a top provider of affordable housing in West Marin. Most of the surveyed dairy and cattle workers lived in employer-provided housing. Other ranches have closed agricultural operations but continue to offer rentals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About half of the 68 Latino workers who participated in the in-depth interviews had one or more household members working in agriculture, including oyster and vegetable farms. The rest had jobs in fields such as food service, landscaping and housekeeping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many reported reluctance to request repairs because they feared losing the only housing they could afford near their jobs. Half of the participants were undocumented immigrants, even though all reported living in the United States for 20 years on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Bravo’s case, rent for her family of six was taken out of her father’s paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s another reason a lot of these people don’t feel like they have the right to say something because it’s tied to their employment, and they fear losing their employment if they speak up about these conditions in their homes,” said Bravo, who became a community advocate with the Bolinas Community Land Trust and is pushing for fair and secure housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Coast Guard housing that CLAM, the Community Land Trust of West Marin, aims to turn into affordable housing in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the county found dozens of Latino families living with \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinij.com/2023/10/21/bolinas-rv-camp-proposed-for-emergency-housing/?clearUserState=true\">raw sewage on the ground\u003c/a> and using water through garden hoses in unpermitted mobile homes at a Bolinas ranch. The property, which was cited about 30 years ago for unsanitary living conditions, now hosts a temporary recreational vehicle park secured by the Bolinas Community Land Trust while it \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marin-bolinas-housing-workers-19717600.php\">attempts to build\u003c/a> permanent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its natural coastal beauty and uninhabited open space, West Marin draws millions of visitors each year and most likely don’t see where the people shucking oysters, milking cows or making organic cheese live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more workers in West Marin commute from Sonoma and East Bay counties, local employers face increased competition from other businesses that are also recruiting for jobs, according to the researchers, who surveyed a total of 150 workers and 17 agricultural employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003108\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tamara Hicks closes a gate to a pasture where goats are grazing on her ranch in Tomales on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tamara Hicks, co-owner of Toluma Farms & Tomales Farmstead Creamery, bought permitted Airstream and Park Model trailers to house four of her 10 employees at the 160-acre property. They share a kitchen with all the amenities in a separate building. But that’s not a long-term solution, she said. She expects her workers, currently single and in their 20s, to move on to have families and better housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest rate-limiting factor of maintaining great people is the housing by far. And so, I’ve lost most of our really fantastic people to Vermont, to Maine, to Arizona,” said Hicks, who has owned the certified-organic goat and sheep farm with her husband for 21 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hicks said many farms and ranches in the region are more than a century old. Some landowners now fear that trying to fix or build units could lead to inspections that open the door to costly penalties due to other code violations, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a good, streamlined, affordable, fast, easy way for people to either rehab existing housing or build new housing,” Hicks, 56, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her husband have plans that were drawn a decade ago to build a couple of units for workers on their land. But the biggest obstacles have been permits and the money to do it, Hicks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240903-MARIN-SUBSTANDARD-AG-WORKER-HOUSING-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tamara Hicks’ home on her ranch in Tomales on Sept. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study makes several recommendations to counteract what authors call decades of inaction limiting affordable housing. They include, among other things, proposed reforms to zoning and permitting and a code amnesty and financial assistance for landowners who want to improve housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish there was one solution. I’d say housing is a team sport,” said Cassandra Benjamin, who led the study and is interim director of housing at the Marin Community Foundation. “The way to solve this is through everybody flexing and doing more than they’re doing now — from the county to the local foundations, to the nonprofits, to businesses, to residents. So everybody has to be in this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends that foundations invest in strengthening Latino organizing and advocacy so that agricultural workers and other residents can participate in housing solutions. Racist and exclusionary policies have long constrained opportunities for this workforce in Marin County, the most segregated in the Bay Area, according to the researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really became very restrictive, both in terms of community acceptance but also regulation about housing,” Benjamin said at her office in Point Reyes Station. “That’s part of what we have to turn around in this work. And what’s exciting is that county supervisors know we need more housing. The ranchers are advocating for it. Certainly, the workers are. So I’m hopeful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edward Flores, who studies farmworker wellbeing at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, said the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973396/half-moon-bay-commemorates-1-year-anniversary-of-mass-shooting-that-killed-7\">mass shooting that killed seven workers at two farms in Half Moon Bay last year\u003c/a> highlighted deplorable living conditions for farmworkers at those sites, increasing awareness about the issue throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Marin County decides to use public funds to help agriculture businesses build housing, Flores said it would be an opportunity to support employers that raise pay and safety standards for laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question is, how do you best support the farms that want to do the right thing?” he said. “Because the competition is so stiff that if you’re not providing public subsidies to those farms that want to do the right thing, they might be pushed out of business, and that’s not in the public interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Strikes Start at Top Hotel Chains as Housekeepers Seek Higher Wages and Daily Room Cleaning Work",
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"content": "\u003cp>Over 2,000 hotel workers in San Francisco and San Mateo are striking today, calling for higher wages and fair workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the UNITE HERE Local 2 union, including cooks, housekeepers and dishwashers at Grand Hyatt SF, Grand Hyatt SFO, Hilton Union Square, Palace Hotel, and the Westin St. Francis walked off the job today. They are protesting against workloads and wages they say aren’t enough to afford the cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m on strike because I struggle to pay my bills,” said Hannah Lin, a housekeeper at Hilton Union Square who has worked there for 10 years. “I used to work full-time every week, but now some weeks I get only two days or even no days. Even when it’s busy I might not work, because after COVID the hotel started ‘holding’ checkout rooms, which is when they wait to clean these dirty rooms instead of calling in more housekeepers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-day strike in comes after months of contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lin said going on strike is a huge sacrifice, but she has to do it to provide for her family in the long run. “The hotel only respects power, so it’s time to show them our strength,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hotel workers are fighting for their economic lives,” said Liz Tapia, President of Unite Here Local 2 in a press release. “The hotel industry is making massive profits, but wages just aren’t enough to support our families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hotel workers are also on strike in Boston, Mass. and Greenwich, Conn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionized housekeepers have waged a fierce fight to restore \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-travel-united-states-b629be28a45ed4243ea9ee73439ad827\">automatic daily room cleaning\u003c/a> at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute over daily housekeeping has become emblematic of the frustration over \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-d3d00dd0adaf4d0192f97851538494f3\">working conditions\u003c/a> among hotel workers, who were thrown out of their jobs for months during pandemic-era shutdowns and returned to a changed industry grappling with chronic staffing shortages and evolving travel trends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 40,000 workers, represented by the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/harris-trump-union-tips-tax-endorsement-af3d6dc52ba4c407d04a7b9a47f0c46e\">UNITE HERE union\u003c/a>, have been locked in difficult contract negotiations with major hotel chains including Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni over demands for higher wages and a reversal of COVID-19-era service and staffing cuts. At least 15,000 workers have so far voted to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/video/strikes-los-angeles-associated-press-bellen-valle-brenden-gallagher-35b3eee685d54a96a8b6c8edbb6f9eab\">authorize strikes\u003c/a> this fall if no agreements are reached after contracts expire at hotels in 12 cities, from Honolulu to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The labor unrest serves as a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate and lingering toll on low-wage women, especially Black and Hispanic women who are overrepresented in front-facing service jobs. Although women have largely returned to the workforce since bearing the brunt of pandemic-era furloughs — or dropping out to take on caregiving responsibilities — that recovery has masked a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/daycare-child-care-college-degree-moms-ac72f1227844eae0281305835e07273b\">gap in employment rates\u003c/a> between women with college degrees and those without.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, some 196,000 fewer workers than in February 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Hotel And Lodging Association says 80% of its member hotels report staffing shortages, and 50% cite housekeeping as their most critical hiring need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a workforce that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-travel-and-tourism-639f2a593016463a978bdf426f4b8307\">relies overwhelmingly on women of color\u003c/a>, many of them immigrants, and which skews older, according to UNITE HERE. Nearly 90% of building housekeepers are women, according to federal statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills characterizes the contract negotiations as part of \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-fd02cf167dc6a400a026bf4a72036b0c\">long-standing battle\u003c/a> to secure family-sustaining compensation for service workers on par with more traditionally male-dominated industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work,” Mills said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is hoping to build on its \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-hotel-strike-contract-ratification-cce82d9fe9b0d2c3137929cc60f4b2f1\">recent success in southern California\u003c/a>, where it won significant wage hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions, and fair workload guarantees in a new contract with 34 hotels after engaging in repeated strikes. Under that contract, housekeepers at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Carey, the interim president and CEO of the hotel association, says hotels are doing all they can to attract workers. According to the association’s surveys, 86% of hoteliers have increased wages over the past six months and many have offered more flexibility with hours or expanded benefits. The association says wages for hotel workers have risen 26% since the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now is a fantastic time to be a hotel employee,” Carey said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hotel workers say the reality on the ground is more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Mata, 61, a housekeeper at the W Hotel in San Francisco, said she earns $2,190 every two weeks if she gets to work full time. But some weeks, she only gets called in one or two days, forcing her to max out her credit card to pay for food and other expenses for her household, which includes her granddaughter and elderly mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to look for a new job a my age. I just have to keep the faith that we will work this out,” said Mata, whose hotel has so far not voted to authorized a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Nely Reinante said guests often tell her they don’t need their rooms cleaned because they don’t want her to work too hard. She said she seizes every opportunity to explain that turning down her services only makes more work for housekeepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes if a guest refuses, she’ll suggest just taking out their trash or cleaning the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 5,000 workers at seven hotels in Honolulu, including the Hilton Hawaiian Village, have voted to authorize strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic, UNITE HERE has won back automatic daily room cleaning in Honolulu and other cities, either through contract negotiations, grievance filings or local government ordinances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the issue is back on the table at many hotels where contracts are expiring. Mills said UNITE HERE is striving for tighter language to make it difficult for hotels to quietly encourage guests to opt out of daily cleaning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Hilton said it was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Hyatt said it was “optimistic that mutually beneficial agreements can be reached without strikes.” Marriott and Omni did not return requests for comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. hotel industry has rebounded from \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-d50b3f672e8522b7518b1b36f9e0eaa8\">the pandemic\u003c/a> despite average occupancy rates that remain shy of 2019 levels, largely due to higher room rates and record guest spending per room. Average revenue per available room, a key metric, is expected to reach a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according the hotel association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Sherwyn, the director of the Cornell University Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor & Employment Relations, said UNITE HERE is a strong union but faces a tough fight over daily room cleaning because hotels consider reducing services part of a long-term strategy to cope with rising costs and the persistent labor shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hotels are saying the guests don’t want it, I can’t find the people and it’s a huge expense,” Sherwyn said. “That’s the battle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers bristle at what they consider a strategy that squeezes more out of them as they cope with erratic schedules and low pay. While unionized housekeepers tend to make higher wages, pay varies widely between cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chandra Anderson, 53, makes $16.20 an hour as a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, where workers have not yet voted to strike. She is hoping for a contract that will raise her hourly pay to $20 but says that the company came back with a counter offer that “felt like a slap in the face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson, who has been the sole breadwinner in her household since her husband went on dialysis, said they had to move to a smaller and more affordable house a year ago in part because she wasn’t able to get enough hours at her job. Things have improved since the hotel reinstated daily room cleaning earlier this year, but she still struggles to afford basics like groceries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said the Baltimore members are seeking pensions for the first time but the biggest priority is bringing hourly wages closer to those in other cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how far behind we are,” Lingo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>______\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Associated Press Writer Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Strikes Start at Top Hotel Chains as Housekeepers Seek Higher Wages and Daily Room Cleaning Work",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Over 2,000 hotel workers in San Francisco and San Mateo are striking today, calling for higher wages and fair workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the UNITE HERE Local 2 union, including cooks, housekeepers and dishwashers at Grand Hyatt SF, Grand Hyatt SFO, Hilton Union Square, Palace Hotel, and the Westin St. Francis walked off the job today. They are protesting against workloads and wages they say aren’t enough to afford the cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m on strike because I struggle to pay my bills,” said Hannah Lin, a housekeeper at Hilton Union Square who has worked there for 10 years. “I used to work full-time every week, but now some weeks I get only two days or even no days. Even when it’s busy I might not work, because after COVID the hotel started ‘holding’ checkout rooms, which is when they wait to clean these dirty rooms instead of calling in more housekeepers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-day strike in comes after months of contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lin said going on strike is a huge sacrifice, but she has to do it to provide for her family in the long run. “The hotel only respects power, so it’s time to show them our strength,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hotel workers are fighting for their economic lives,” said Liz Tapia, President of Unite Here Local 2 in a press release. “The hotel industry is making massive profits, but wages just aren’t enough to support our families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hotel workers are also on strike in Boston, Mass. and Greenwich, Conn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionized housekeepers have waged a fierce fight to restore \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-travel-united-states-b629be28a45ed4243ea9ee73439ad827\">automatic daily room cleaning\u003c/a> at major hotel chains, saying they have been saddled with unmanageable workloads, or in many cases, fewer hours and a decline in income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute over daily housekeeping has become emblematic of the frustration over \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-d3d00dd0adaf4d0192f97851538494f3\">working conditions\u003c/a> among hotel workers, who were thrown out of their jobs for months during pandemic-era shutdowns and returned to a changed industry grappling with chronic staffing shortages and evolving travel trends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 40,000 workers, represented by the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/harris-trump-union-tips-tax-endorsement-af3d6dc52ba4c407d04a7b9a47f0c46e\">UNITE HERE union\u003c/a>, have been locked in difficult contract negotiations with major hotel chains including Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni over demands for higher wages and a reversal of COVID-19-era service and staffing cuts. At least 15,000 workers have so far voted to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/video/strikes-los-angeles-associated-press-bellen-valle-brenden-gallagher-35b3eee685d54a96a8b6c8edbb6f9eab\">authorize strikes\u003c/a> this fall if no agreements are reached after contracts expire at hotels in 12 cities, from Honolulu to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The labor unrest serves as a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate and lingering toll on low-wage women, especially Black and Hispanic women who are overrepresented in front-facing service jobs. Although women have largely returned to the workforce since bearing the brunt of pandemic-era furloughs — or dropping out to take on caregiving responsibilities — that recovery has masked a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/daycare-child-care-college-degree-moms-ac72f1227844eae0281305835e07273b\">gap in employment rates\u003c/a> between women with college degrees and those without.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. hotel industry employs about 1.9 million people, some 196,000 fewer workers than in February 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Hotel And Lodging Association says 80% of its member hotels report staffing shortages, and 50% cite housekeeping as their most critical hiring need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a workforce that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-travel-and-tourism-639f2a593016463a978bdf426f4b8307\">relies overwhelmingly on women of color\u003c/a>, many of them immigrants, and which skews older, according to UNITE HERE. Nearly 90% of building housekeepers are women, according to federal statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills characterizes the contract negotiations as part of \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-fd02cf167dc6a400a026bf4a72036b0c\">long-standing battle\u003c/a> to secure family-sustaining compensation for service workers on par with more traditionally male-dominated industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work,” Mills said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is hoping to build on its \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-hotel-strike-contract-ratification-cce82d9fe9b0d2c3137929cc60f4b2f1\">recent success in southern California\u003c/a>, where it won significant wage hikes, increased employer contributions to pensions, and fair workload guarantees in a new contract with 34 hotels after engaging in repeated strikes. Under that contract, housekeepers at most hotels will earn $35 an hour by July 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Carey, the interim president and CEO of the hotel association, says hotels are doing all they can to attract workers. According to the association’s surveys, 86% of hoteliers have increased wages over the past six months and many have offered more flexibility with hours or expanded benefits. The association says wages for hotel workers have risen 26% since the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now is a fantastic time to be a hotel employee,” Carey said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hotel workers say the reality on the ground is more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Mata, 61, a housekeeper at the W Hotel in San Francisco, said she earns $2,190 every two weeks if she gets to work full time. But some weeks, she only gets called in one or two days, forcing her to max out her credit card to pay for food and other expenses for her household, which includes her granddaughter and elderly mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to look for a new job a my age. I just have to keep the faith that we will work this out,” said Mata, whose hotel has so far not voted to authorized a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Nely Reinante said guests often tell her they don’t need their rooms cleaned because they don’t want her to work too hard. She said she seizes every opportunity to explain that turning down her services only makes more work for housekeepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes if a guest refuses, she’ll suggest just taking out their trash or cleaning the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 5,000 workers at seven hotels in Honolulu, including the Hilton Hawaiian Village, have voted to authorize strikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic, UNITE HERE has won back automatic daily room cleaning in Honolulu and other cities, either through contract negotiations, grievance filings or local government ordinances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the issue is back on the table at many hotels where contracts are expiring. Mills said UNITE HERE is striving for tighter language to make it difficult for hotels to quietly encourage guests to opt out of daily cleaning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Hilton said it was “committed to negotiating in good faith to reach fair and reasonable agreements.” Hyatt said it was “optimistic that mutually beneficial agreements can be reached without strikes.” Marriott and Omni did not return requests for comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. hotel industry has rebounded from \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-d50b3f672e8522b7518b1b36f9e0eaa8\">the pandemic\u003c/a> despite average occupancy rates that remain shy of 2019 levels, largely due to higher room rates and record guest spending per room. Average revenue per available room, a key metric, is expected to reach a record high of $101.84 in 2024, according the hotel association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Sherwyn, the director of the Cornell University Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor & Employment Relations, said UNITE HERE is a strong union but faces a tough fight over daily room cleaning because hotels consider reducing services part of a long-term strategy to cope with rising costs and the persistent labor shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hotels are saying the guests don’t want it, I can’t find the people and it’s a huge expense,” Sherwyn said. “That’s the battle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers bristle at what they consider a strategy that squeezes more out of them as they cope with erratic schedules and low pay. While unionized housekeepers tend to make higher wages, pay varies widely between cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chandra Anderson, 53, makes $16.20 an hour as a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, where workers have not yet voted to strike. She is hoping for a contract that will raise her hourly pay to $20 but says that the company came back with a counter offer that “felt like a slap in the face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson, who has been the sole breadwinner in her household since her husband went on dialysis, said they had to move to a smaller and more affordable house a year ago in part because she wasn’t able to get enough hours at her job. Things have improved since the hotel reinstated daily room cleaning earlier this year, but she still struggles to afford basics like groceries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Lingo, president of UNITE HERE Local 7, said the Baltimore members are seeking pensions for the first time but the biggest priority is bringing hourly wages closer to those in other cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how far behind we are,” Lingo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>______\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Associated Press Writer Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-wage-theft-victims-miss-out-on-millions-in-collected-funds",
"title": "California Wage Theft Victims Miss Out on Millions in Collected Funds",
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"headTitle": "California Wage Theft Victims Miss Out on Millions in Collected Funds | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Federal labor enforcement officials recover millions of dollars each year from employers who break minimum wage or overtime pay laws, but a significant percentage never makes it to workers who are owed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than $166 million was unclaimed by nearly 200,000 wage theft victims over the last three years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. If workers don’t claim that money within three years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">it’s sent\u003c/a> to the U.S. Treasury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many don’t know they are entitled to compensation. More than 15,000 employees with money waiting for them worked for businesses in California, one of the top states with unclaimed wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating and sad all around,” said Yvonne Medrano, an attorney with Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a Los Angeles nonprofit that represents undocumented immigrants in wage theft cases. “It’s workers’ hard-earned money and yet it’s not getting to where it needs to be, which is into the workers’ pockets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Labor officials acknowledged that the department is more efficient at recovering wages from about nine in 10 employers through investigations than it is in getting the owed wages to the workers whose rights were violated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigations often uncover past abuses in targeted low-wage industries that rely heavily on a transient or immigrant workforce, such as restaurants, agriculture and construction. By the time cases are resolved, people entitled to back pay may have moved on to other jobs or changed home addresses and phone numbers, making it hard to notify them of the resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001955\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alberto Raymond, Assistant District Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, speaks during a workers’ rights event for low-wage and at-risk workers hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Consulates of Mexico at the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another hurdle to receiving remuneration is that many undocumented immigrants may recoil from filing ID verification documents with a federal agency to get a check because they fear that it could lead to deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data/charts/all-acts\">$660 million\u003c/a> in back pay the labor department has recovered from employers from fiscal year 2021 through 2023 was distributed to workers, according to a high-ranking official with the wage and hour division, which investigates alleged violations. The official estimated that, potentially, as much as one-fifth of those funds don’t reach workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department could not immediately provide how much money was transferred to the U.S. Treasury in recent years, a Labor Department spokesperson said. Alberto Raymond, a district director with the wage and hour division in San Francisco, said the agency pursues several avenues to try to get wage theft victims relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want workers to be paid. They are due that money, and we will work very, very, very hard to get them paid,” said Raymond, an investigator with the labor department for 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002502\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of migrant vineyard workers, who were underpaid and retaliated against by a labor contractor in California, were sent checks after the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco located them, according to a labor department spokesperson. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A handful of dedicated staff throughout the country combs public databases to find impacted workers, confirm their identities and disburse their wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department distributed about \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data\">$27 million\u003c/a> to nearly 4,000 workers through its \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">Workers Owed Wages\u003c/a> program in fiscal year 2023. More than 1,600 people claimed $9 million through the program in the previous fiscal year. Community organizations or foreign government authorities, such as Mexican Consulates in the United States, also help find people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of migrant vineyard workers, who were \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230601-0\">underpaid and retaliated against by a labor contractor\u003c/a> in California, were sent checks after the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco located them, according to a labor department spokesperson. Some of the 55 farmworkers were still in the U.S., but others had returned to remote, rural towns in Mexico, said Arturo Zaldivar, the Consulate staffer who tracked the workers. Finding them took weeks, Zaldivar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They weren’t expecting that money. They thought they’d lost it forever,” he said in Spanish, adding that the farmworkers told him the money would cover food and rent for weeks or even months. “I’ve had contact with many workers in Mexico and supporting them in this way is very encouraging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Consulate General of Mexico, Consulado General de Mexico, in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zaldivar said he is scouring social media accounts and calling current and former employees of a business to find dozens of additional impacted workers. Once he gets in touch with one, that person can help find former co-workers who can also claim wages, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our compatriots trust us, the Consulate,” he said. “If you say wage and hour division, they are like, ‘What’s that?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, labor enforcement agencies were hesitant to collaborate with community groups out of fear that they’d appear biased, though that has been changing, according to advocates and academics who study wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To increase remuneration, the labor department should partner with more churches, immigrant rights organizations and others who can knock on doors and help find workers because they are trusted messengers, Medrano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign during a workers’ rights event hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Consulates of Mexico at the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024, for low-wage and at-risk workers. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The disconnect and the lack of local relationships is clear in moments like this,” she said, referring to the $166 million in unclaimed wages. “I see the DOL moving towards a more community-oriented role, but we’re not there yet. And I think this is very much a symptom of that issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, a top priority of the department is not distributing all uncollected wages but increasing businesses’ compliance with the rules, said Paul DeCamp, an attorney who ran the wage and hour division during the George W. Bush administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11999978 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/10Sandra-fields9_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, I think the bigger priority for the department is stopping the violations and getting the back wages disgorged” from employers, said DeCamp, who represents and advises businesses at Epstein Becker Green, a law firm. “And if we can get the wages into the hands of the workers, all the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department officials said there are roughly 700 wage and hour investigators nationwide, with just a handful of staffers dedicated to getting money into the hands of the workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, workers don’t have a time limit to claim wages recovered by the state’s labor enforcement agency, the California Labor Commissioner, according to a spokesperson who said California’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=96.7.&lawCode=LAB\">Unpaid Wage Fund\u003c/a> had a balance of $18.3 million as of Aug. 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also takes money from that fund for other expenditures. From fiscal years 2020 through 2022, nearly $17 million due to workers who weren’t found was transferred to the state’s general fund, according to the Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Know someone who might need to claim owed wages? Workers should call 877-552-9832 for help in Spanish or search the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">\u003cem>Workers Owed Wages\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> website to find out if they are due money and apply for compensation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Nearly 200,000 wage theft victims have left millions unclaimed over the past three years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.",
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"headline": "California Wage Theft Victims Miss Out on Millions in Collected Funds",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Federal labor enforcement officials recover millions of dollars each year from employers who break minimum wage or overtime pay laws, but a significant percentage never makes it to workers who are owed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than $166 million was unclaimed by nearly 200,000 wage theft victims over the last three years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. If workers don’t claim that money within three years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">it’s sent\u003c/a> to the U.S. Treasury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many don’t know they are entitled to compensation. More than 15,000 employees with money waiting for them worked for businesses in California, one of the top states with unclaimed wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating and sad all around,” said Yvonne Medrano, an attorney with Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a Los Angeles nonprofit that represents undocumented immigrants in wage theft cases. “It’s workers’ hard-earned money and yet it’s not getting to where it needs to be, which is into the workers’ pockets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Labor officials acknowledged that the department is more efficient at recovering wages from about nine in 10 employers through investigations than it is in getting the owed wages to the workers whose rights were violated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigations often uncover past abuses in targeted low-wage industries that rely heavily on a transient or immigrant workforce, such as restaurants, agriculture and construction. By the time cases are resolved, people entitled to back pay may have moved on to other jobs or changed home addresses and phone numbers, making it hard to notify them of the resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001955\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-20-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alberto Raymond, Assistant District Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, speaks during a workers’ rights event for low-wage and at-risk workers hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Consulates of Mexico at the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another hurdle to receiving remuneration is that many undocumented immigrants may recoil from filing ID verification documents with a federal agency to get a check because they fear that it could lead to deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data/charts/all-acts\">$660 million\u003c/a> in back pay the labor department has recovered from employers from fiscal year 2021 through 2023 was distributed to workers, according to a high-ranking official with the wage and hour division, which investigates alleged violations. The official estimated that, potentially, as much as one-fifth of those funds don’t reach workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department could not immediately provide how much money was transferred to the U.S. Treasury in recent years, a Labor Department spokesperson said. Alberto Raymond, a district director with the wage and hour division in San Francisco, said the agency pursues several avenues to try to get wage theft victims relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want workers to be paid. They are due that money, and we will work very, very, very hard to get them paid,” said Raymond, an investigator with the labor department for 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002502\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/017_KQED_Napa_VineyardFarmWorkers_09302020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of migrant vineyard workers, who were underpaid and retaliated against by a labor contractor in California, were sent checks after the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco located them, according to a labor department spokesperson. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A handful of dedicated staff throughout the country combs public databases to find impacted workers, confirm their identities and disburse their wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department distributed about \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data\">$27 million\u003c/a> to nearly 4,000 workers through its \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">Workers Owed Wages\u003c/a> program in fiscal year 2023. More than 1,600 people claimed $9 million through the program in the previous fiscal year. Community organizations or foreign government authorities, such as Mexican Consulates in the United States, also help find people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of migrant vineyard workers, who were \u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230601-0\">underpaid and retaliated against by a labor contractor\u003c/a> in California, were sent checks after the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco located them, according to a labor department spokesperson. Some of the 55 farmworkers were still in the U.S., but others had returned to remote, rural towns in Mexico, said Arturo Zaldivar, the Consulate staffer who tracked the workers. Finding them took weeks, Zaldivar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They weren’t expecting that money. They thought they’d lost it forever,” he said in Spanish, adding that the farmworkers told him the money would cover food and rent for weeks or even months. “I’ve had contact with many workers in Mexico and supporting them in this way is very encouraging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-IMMIGRANTWORKERSRIGHTS-77-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Consulate General of Mexico, Consulado General de Mexico, in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zaldivar said he is scouring social media accounts and calling current and former employees of a business to find dozens of additional impacted workers. Once he gets in touch with one, that person can help find former co-workers who can also claim wages, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our compatriots trust us, the Consulate,” he said. “If you say wage and hour division, they are like, ‘What’s that?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, labor enforcement agencies were hesitant to collaborate with community groups out of fear that they’d appear biased, though that has been changing, according to advocates and academics who study wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To increase remuneration, the labor department should partner with more churches, immigrant rights organizations and others who can knock on doors and help find workers because they are trusted messengers, Medrano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-ImmigrantWorkersRights-72-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign during a workers’ rights event hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Consulates of Mexico at the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2024, for low-wage and at-risk workers. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The disconnect and the lack of local relationships is clear in moments like this,” she said, referring to the $166 million in unclaimed wages. “I see the DOL moving towards a more community-oriented role, but we’re not there yet. And I think this is very much a symptom of that issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, a top priority of the department is not distributing all uncollected wages but increasing businesses’ compliance with the rules, said Paul DeCamp, an attorney who ran the wage and hour division during the George W. Bush administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, I think the bigger priority for the department is stopping the violations and getting the back wages disgorged” from employers, said DeCamp, who represents and advises businesses at Epstein Becker Green, a law firm. “And if we can get the wages into the hands of the workers, all the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department officials said there are roughly 700 wage and hour investigators nationwide, with just a handful of staffers dedicated to getting money into the hands of the workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, workers don’t have a time limit to claim wages recovered by the state’s labor enforcement agency, the California Labor Commissioner, according to a spokesperson who said California’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=96.7.&lawCode=LAB\">Unpaid Wage Fund\u003c/a> had a balance of $18.3 million as of Aug. 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also takes money from that fund for other expenditures. From fiscal years 2020 through 2022, nearly $17 million due to workers who weren’t found was transferred to the state’s general fund, according to the Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Know someone who might need to claim owed wages? Workers should call 877-552-9832 for help in Spanish or search the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow\">\u003cem>Workers Owed Wages\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> website to find out if they are due money and apply for compensation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "stanford-sparks-literary-backlash-by-phasing-out-creative-writing-lecturers-jobs",
"title": "Stanford Sparks Literary Backlash by Phasing Out Creative Writing Lecturers’ Jobs",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sarah Frisch starts each of her creative writing courses at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford\">Stanford\u003c/a> University by letting her students know the classroom is a working community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford can be a difficult, high-pressure space, and Frisch said creative writing courses can be a respite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students read this incredible literature, and they meet people they ordinarily just read about,” Frisch said. “But I think the part that’s really powerful is to see that writers are ordinary people. Writers write within friendships, and they get plugged into that community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Frisch and other lecturers worry that the job security and lecturer longevity that make those relationships possible will disappear. During a video meeting last week, Frisch and her colleagues learned the Stanford Creative Writing Program’s nearly two dozen lecturers would lose their current positions over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, a faculty working group recommended the program’s lectureships consist of one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for a limited period of up to five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the current lecturers have taught at the university for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like our students were betrayed,” said Frisch, who has been a Stanford lecturer since 2009. “The whole program is going to be based on temporary labor, and that is a sea change from the program that we have. And that means that the program we have no longer exists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Transitioning to short-term futures\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://creativewriting.stanford.edu/news/stanford-creative-writing-program\">statement\u003c/a> posted on the university’s website on Wednesday, the School of Humanities and Sciences and Creative Writing Program leadership defended the changes, arguing that the lectureship program, known as Jones lectureships, was originally intended for limited-term appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11951849 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS65953_003_KQED_StanfordGradUnion_05302023-qut-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We plan for there to be as many lecturers in the Program in five years as there are today, and we expect to offer more classes then than now,” the statement reads. “The university, school, and numerous generous donors are committed to not only the excellence of the program but also its growth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleagues credit the Creative Writing Program’s success and popularity to support for lecturers from the late Eavan Boland, a distinguished poet and former director of the program. Boland, who died in 2020, encouraged lecturers to develop their own ambitious classes and foster deep mentoring relationships with undergraduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She empowered lecturers not only to have job longevity but to use that time to innovate in the classroom,” said Nina Schloesser Tárano, who has been teaching in the Creative Writing Program since 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is being treated as a luxury — my ability to be there for the entirety of somebody’s career as an undergraduate. But it’s my job, and it should be,” Schloesser Tárano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students, alums and writers sound off\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The changes to Stanford’s Creative Writing Program quickly generated widespread outrage online. In a \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@tom.kealey/more-details-in-the-stanford-creative-writing-scandal-5a91193a4ab6\">Medium post\u003c/a>, lecturer Tom Kealey noted that the changes come a year after lecturers, who made around $52,000, asked for a pay increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JoyceCarolOates/status/1828529858923606156\">Writer Joyce Carol Oates wrote on X\u003c/a>, “I am puzzled most by the lack of simple collegiality & generosity at one of the most wealthy universities in the world. Stanford’s endowment could support an entire nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11989520 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-14-1-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyle Wang, who graduated from Stanford in 2023 with a master’s in the modern thought and literature program, started a \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/10PoTTX9UtWr9-fCm6Rk-JyBl2tmwpInAyaFEyTSp_B8/mobilebasic\">petition\u003c/a> calling on the university to change course and reinstate the lecturers whose contracts will be phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wang said the lecturers in the Creative Writing Program changed his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Wang first came to Stanford, he was unsure what to study. He had grown up in Silicon Valley, “where everyone and their mother” worked in tech or tech-adjacent fields. He took computer science class after computer science class. Then, in January 2019, he took his first creative writing class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A couple of weeks later, I think I knew deep down that I was going to be studying English,” Wang said. “Every single class that I’ve taken with a Jones lecturer has, in some new way, shape, or form, not only pushed me as a writer and thinker — it showed me a different way of imagining that a life in writing and a life in the arts could be possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worries for future generations of students who may not be able to build those same life-changing relationships with lecturers and about the institutional knowledge that could be lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Frisch is not sure what’s next when her lectureship ends. Classes start again next month, and she said in the meantime, she will focus on her students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want them to know those of us who are in this crappy position see and hear them,” Frisch said. “We’re willing to fight for their experience and their futures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sarah Frisch starts each of her creative writing courses at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford\">Stanford\u003c/a> University by letting her students know the classroom is a working community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford can be a difficult, high-pressure space, and Frisch said creative writing courses can be a respite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students read this incredible literature, and they meet people they ordinarily just read about,” Frisch said. “But I think the part that’s really powerful is to see that writers are ordinary people. Writers write within friendships, and they get plugged into that community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Frisch and other lecturers worry that the job security and lecturer longevity that make those relationships possible will disappear. During a video meeting last week, Frisch and her colleagues learned the Stanford Creative Writing Program’s nearly two dozen lecturers would lose their current positions over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, a faculty working group recommended the program’s lectureships consist of one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for a limited period of up to five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the current lecturers have taught at the university for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like our students were betrayed,” said Frisch, who has been a Stanford lecturer since 2009. “The whole program is going to be based on temporary labor, and that is a sea change from the program that we have. And that means that the program we have no longer exists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Transitioning to short-term futures\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://creativewriting.stanford.edu/news/stanford-creative-writing-program\">statement\u003c/a> posted on the university’s website on Wednesday, the School of Humanities and Sciences and Creative Writing Program leadership defended the changes, arguing that the lectureship program, known as Jones lectureships, was originally intended for limited-term appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We plan for there to be as many lecturers in the Program in five years as there are today, and we expect to offer more classes then than now,” the statement reads. “The university, school, and numerous generous donors are committed to not only the excellence of the program but also its growth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleagues credit the Creative Writing Program’s success and popularity to support for lecturers from the late Eavan Boland, a distinguished poet and former director of the program. Boland, who died in 2020, encouraged lecturers to develop their own ambitious classes and foster deep mentoring relationships with undergraduates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She empowered lecturers not only to have job longevity but to use that time to innovate in the classroom,” said Nina Schloesser Tárano, who has been teaching in the Creative Writing Program since 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is being treated as a luxury — my ability to be there for the entirety of somebody’s career as an undergraduate. But it’s my job, and it should be,” Schloesser Tárano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students, alums and writers sound off\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The changes to Stanford’s Creative Writing Program quickly generated widespread outrage online. In a \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@tom.kealey/more-details-in-the-stanford-creative-writing-scandal-5a91193a4ab6\">Medium post\u003c/a>, lecturer Tom Kealey noted that the changes come a year after lecturers, who made around $52,000, asked for a pay increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JoyceCarolOates/status/1828529858923606156\">Writer Joyce Carol Oates wrote on X\u003c/a>, “I am puzzled most by the lack of simple collegiality & generosity at one of the most wealthy universities in the world. Stanford’s endowment could support an entire nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyle Wang, who graduated from Stanford in 2023 with a master’s in the modern thought and literature program, started a \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/10PoTTX9UtWr9-fCm6Rk-JyBl2tmwpInAyaFEyTSp_B8/mobilebasic\">petition\u003c/a> calling on the university to change course and reinstate the lecturers whose contracts will be phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wang said the lecturers in the Creative Writing Program changed his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Wang first came to Stanford, he was unsure what to study. He had grown up in Silicon Valley, “where everyone and their mother” worked in tech or tech-adjacent fields. He took computer science class after computer science class. Then, in January 2019, he took his first creative writing class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A couple of weeks later, I think I knew deep down that I was going to be studying English,” Wang said. “Every single class that I’ve taken with a Jones lecturer has, in some new way, shape, or form, not only pushed me as a writer and thinker — it showed me a different way of imagining that a life in writing and a life in the arts could be possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worries for future generations of students who may not be able to build those same life-changing relationships with lecturers and about the institutional knowledge that could be lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Frisch is not sure what’s next when her lectureship ends. Classes start again next month, and she said in the meantime, she will focus on her students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want them to know those of us who are in this crappy position see and hear them,” Frisch said. “We’re willing to fight for their experience and their futures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As California considered and then mandated a minimum wage raise at most fast-food restaurants, opponents warned the controversial legislation could be a job killer. On Tuesday, before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001032/at-dnc-roll-call-california-shines-as-harris-seals-nomination\">appearing at the Democratic National Convention\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted new employment data pointing to a different picture: a growing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quick-service restaurants have consistently added thousands of jobs every month this year in California, reaching a record employment total of 750,500 in July, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25054159-seriesreport-20240820150338_c0f56c\">preliminary data\u003c/a> released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures show 11,000 additional fast-food jobs since April, when the wages were hiked to at least $20 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s good for workers is good for business, and as California’s fast food industry continues booming every single month, our workers are finally getting the pay they deserve,” Newsom said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/20/icymi-after-raising-minimum-wage-california-has-more-fast-food-jobs-than-ever-before/\">a statement\u003c/a>. “Despite those who pedaled lies about how this would doom the industry, California’s economy and workers are again proving them wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s comments are the latest salvo in the closely watched \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Fast-Food-Minimum-Wage-FAQ.htm\">wage bump\u003c/a> for hundreds of thousands of fast-food employees. Newsom signed the increase into law last September. The legislation also created a first-of-its-kind Fast Food Council that allows workers to participate in the development of job standards. The council’s nine voting members can increase the hourly minimum wage by up to 3.5% annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the state law, which only applies to chains with more than 60 stores nationwide, argue that employers have cut employee hours and jobs to cope with more expensive payroll costs. They argue that a separate BLS jobs data set is more reliable because it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/topic/seasonal-adjustment.htm\">adjusted for seasonal\u003c/a> economic influences, and it shows gains of just hundreds of jobs in the industry since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of California’s fast-food employees are adult women of color who previously made close to $16 an hour, the state’s general minimum wage, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Increasing their ability to afford food, rent and other basics will improve their family’s lives and decrease reliance on taxpayer-funded aid programs, the law’s proponents argued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Economists contacted by KQED agreed that more evidence is needed to assess the full impact of the wage increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Reich, who chairs the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley, said that higher wages could attract more workers to fast-food jobs, which traditionally have high turnover rates. He believes the job figures celebrated by the governor represent the best evidence yet that the industry is growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11991314 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240509-MENUDO-KING-MD-13-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think minimum wage (increases) kill jobs; I think they kill job vacancies,” Reich said. “When the minimum wage goes up, more workers are attracted to those jobs and they are more likely to stay in them. The numbers do show that wages can be much higher, and yet the business can do well, and workers can do well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reich’s preliminary \u003ca href=\"https://irle.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CAs-fast-food-MW-early-evidence.pdf\">research\u003c/a> suggests that McDonald’s restaurants increased hamburger prices by less than 2% in California after the minimum wage increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most fast-food restaurant owners are franchisees who pay large corporations such as Wendy’s or Taco Bell to represent their brand. A spokesperson with the International Franchise Association, a trade group representing fast-food franchisees and franchisors, said the net job data is misleading. The organization, which fought the raise, has warned that it would hurt small business owners, workers and consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day you see headlines of restaurant closures, employee job losses and hours cut, and rising food prices for consumers,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Local restaurant owners in California are already struggling to cope with the $20/hour wage, as the Fast Food Council considers additional wage increases. All the while, workers and consumers are feeling the pinch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Paxton, research director for the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization funded partly by the restaurant industry, said seasonally adjusted employment bureau figures reflect a more reliable picture. According to that \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU06000007072259001SA\">BLS data\u003c/a>, fast-food jobs decreased statewide by 2,700 between January and July but increased by about 400 since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paxton pointed to her organization’s \u003ca href=\"https://epionline.org/studies/crisis-in-california/#:~:text=A%20majority%20of%20restaurants%20say,or%20consolidated%20positions%20(70%25).\">recent survey\u003c/a> of more than 180 fast-food operators in California, which found most have trimmed staff and cut employee hours while raising consumer prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is certainly not the rosy picture that the governor is portraying,” Paxton said. “Fast-food restaurant employment is stagnating and even going down. There’s a trend that is getting worse as this minimum wage policy continues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with some job losses, the new minimum wage has not materialized the catastrophic impacts on employment opponents predicted so far, said John Logan, the director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the most part, it’s good news for supporters of the legislation. There’s no evidence of a disastrous impact on jobs,” Logan said. “In fact, the signs seem to be that the California fast food sector is continuing to grow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As California considered and then mandated a minimum wage raise at most fast-food restaurants, opponents warned the controversial legislation could be a job killer. On Tuesday, before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001032/at-dnc-roll-call-california-shines-as-harris-seals-nomination\">appearing at the Democratic National Convention\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted new employment data pointing to a different picture: a growing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quick-service restaurants have consistently added thousands of jobs every month this year in California, reaching a record employment total of 750,500 in July, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25054159-seriesreport-20240820150338_c0f56c\">preliminary data\u003c/a> released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures show 11,000 additional fast-food jobs since April, when the wages were hiked to at least $20 per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s good for workers is good for business, and as California’s fast food industry continues booming every single month, our workers are finally getting the pay they deserve,” Newsom said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/20/icymi-after-raising-minimum-wage-california-has-more-fast-food-jobs-than-ever-before/\">a statement\u003c/a>. “Despite those who pedaled lies about how this would doom the industry, California’s economy and workers are again proving them wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s comments are the latest salvo in the closely watched \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Fast-Food-Minimum-Wage-FAQ.htm\">wage bump\u003c/a> for hundreds of thousands of fast-food employees. Newsom signed the increase into law last September. The legislation also created a first-of-its-kind Fast Food Council that allows workers to participate in the development of job standards. The council’s nine voting members can increase the hourly minimum wage by up to 3.5% annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the state law, which only applies to chains with more than 60 stores nationwide, argue that employers have cut employee hours and jobs to cope with more expensive payroll costs. They argue that a separate BLS jobs data set is more reliable because it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/topic/seasonal-adjustment.htm\">adjusted for seasonal\u003c/a> economic influences, and it shows gains of just hundreds of jobs in the industry since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of California’s fast-food employees are adult women of color who previously made close to $16 an hour, the state’s general minimum wage, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Increasing their ability to afford food, rent and other basics will improve their family’s lives and decrease reliance on taxpayer-funded aid programs, the law’s proponents argued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Economists contacted by KQED agreed that more evidence is needed to assess the full impact of the wage increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Reich, who chairs the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley, said that higher wages could attract more workers to fast-food jobs, which traditionally have high turnover rates. He believes the job figures celebrated by the governor represent the best evidence yet that the industry is growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think minimum wage (increases) kill jobs; I think they kill job vacancies,” Reich said. “When the minimum wage goes up, more workers are attracted to those jobs and they are more likely to stay in them. The numbers do show that wages can be much higher, and yet the business can do well, and workers can do well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reich’s preliminary \u003ca href=\"https://irle.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CAs-fast-food-MW-early-evidence.pdf\">research\u003c/a> suggests that McDonald’s restaurants increased hamburger prices by less than 2% in California after the minimum wage increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most fast-food restaurant owners are franchisees who pay large corporations such as Wendy’s or Taco Bell to represent their brand. A spokesperson with the International Franchise Association, a trade group representing fast-food franchisees and franchisors, said the net job data is misleading. The organization, which fought the raise, has warned that it would hurt small business owners, workers and consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day you see headlines of restaurant closures, employee job losses and hours cut, and rising food prices for consumers,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Local restaurant owners in California are already struggling to cope with the $20/hour wage, as the Fast Food Council considers additional wage increases. All the while, workers and consumers are feeling the pinch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Paxton, research director for the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization funded partly by the restaurant industry, said seasonally adjusted employment bureau figures reflect a more reliable picture. According to that \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU06000007072259001SA\">BLS data\u003c/a>, fast-food jobs decreased statewide by 2,700 between January and July but increased by about 400 since April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paxton pointed to her organization’s \u003ca href=\"https://epionline.org/studies/crisis-in-california/#:~:text=A%20majority%20of%20restaurants%20say,or%20consolidated%20positions%20(70%25).\">recent survey\u003c/a> of more than 180 fast-food operators in California, which found most have trimmed staff and cut employee hours while raising consumer prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is certainly not the rosy picture that the governor is portraying,” Paxton said. “Fast-food restaurant employment is stagnating and even going down. There’s a trend that is getting worse as this minimum wage policy continues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with some job losses, the new minimum wage has not materialized the catastrophic impacts on employment opponents predicted so far, said John Logan, the director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the most part, it’s good news for supporters of the legislation. There’s no evidence of a disastrous impact on jobs,” Logan said. “In fact, the signs seem to be that the California fast food sector is continuing to grow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Hundreds of hotel staffers in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> are prepared to walk off the job over wages and staffing levels as their union negotiates contracts with some of the industry’s largest companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott employees in San José could start picketing as early as this week. The strike authorization vote on Monday passed with 98% support, according to Unite Here Local 19. On Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999702/san-francisco-hotel-workers-vote-yes-to-potential-strike\">thousands of San Francisco hotel workers approved a potential strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contracts covering 650 cooks, room attendants, bartenders, bellmen and other employees at the five San José hotels expired on June 30. The union said it began negotiating with management at the three companies last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of hotel workers in Honolulu, Boston and other cities have also supported potential walkouts, which are part of a Unite Here campaign for substantially higher wages and reversing what they call pandemic-era staffing cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ana Maria Rodriguez, a room attendant at the Hilton San José for 23 years, said she would walk off the job if needed because she doesn’t want her family to keep living paycheck to paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11999978 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/10Sandra-fields9_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After giving the company so many years of my life, I should be able to afford my groceries and my PG&E bills,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “It’s the bare minimum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Last week, a Hyatt executive told KQED that the company offers competitive wages and benefits and considers the well-being of employees a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area hotel industry is still recovering from the pandemic, though there are glimmers of improvement. In San José, demand for hotel rooms is at 95% of pre-pandemic levels, but revenue continues to be lower as some downtown hotels shuttered even as others opened in less expensive areas, according to Team San José, a nonprofit tourism bureau for the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the San José Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, the city estimates it will collect $54.6 million in hotel tax revenue this fiscal year, which is 25% less than in fiscal year 2018-2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Hundreds of hotel staffers in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> are prepared to walk off the job over wages and staffing levels as their union negotiates contracts with some of the industry’s largest companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott employees in San José could start picketing as early as this week. The strike authorization vote on Monday passed with 98% support, according to Unite Here Local 19. On Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999702/san-francisco-hotel-workers-vote-yes-to-potential-strike\">thousands of San Francisco hotel workers approved a potential strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contracts covering 650 cooks, room attendants, bartenders, bellmen and other employees at the five San José hotels expired on June 30. The union said it began negotiating with management at the three companies last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of hotel workers in Honolulu, Boston and other cities have also supported potential walkouts, which are part of a Unite Here campaign for substantially higher wages and reversing what they call pandemic-era staffing cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ana Maria Rodriguez, a room attendant at the Hilton San José for 23 years, said she would walk off the job if needed because she doesn’t want her family to keep living paycheck to paycheck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After giving the company so many years of my life, I should be able to afford my groceries and my PG&E bills,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “It’s the bare minimum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Last week, a Hyatt executive told KQED that the company offers competitive wages and benefits and considers the well-being of employees a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area hotel industry is still recovering from the pandemic, though there are glimmers of improvement. In San José, demand for hotel rooms is at 95% of pre-pandemic levels, but revenue continues to be lower as some downtown hotels shuttered even as others opened in less expensive areas, according to Team San José, a nonprofit tourism bureau for the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the San José Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, the city estimates it will collect $54.6 million in hotel tax revenue this fiscal year, which is 25% less than in fiscal year 2018-2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "californians-will-vote-on-a-18-minimum-wage-workers-already-want-25-and-more",
"title": "Californians Will Vote on $18 Minimum Wage. Workers Say It's Still Not Nearly Livable",
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"content": "\u003cp>California touted a victory for working people in 2016 when it enacted a sweeping series of minimum hikes, making sure the lowest-wage workers would earn at least $15 an hour by 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Gov. Jerry Brown, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-jerry-brown-signs-minimum-wage-20160404-story.html\">signing the law\u003c/a>, spoke of “giving people their due,” then-Senate leader Kevin de León said in Spanish of making it possible to achieve the American dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California voters are being asked to boost the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/minimum_wage.htm\">statewide minimum wage\u003c/a> again, just two years after the landmark $15 wage championed by unions and embraced by Democratic politicians nationwide took effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, when \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/propositions/prop-32-minimum-wage/\">Proposition 32\u003c/a> — the measure to raise the minimum wage to $18 next year — was confirmed for Californians’ ballots in November, it wasn’t with the same fanfare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because a lot has changed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>The current law came with boosts tied to inflation, which has pulled the statewide minimum wage steadily up to $16 this year — and which \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/8.1.2024-Minimum-Wage-Increase-Director-of-Finance-Determination-and-Certification-CC.pdf\">will bump it up to $16.50\u003c/a> in January.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>The skyrocketing cost of living has prompted local officials in more than two dozen cities to enact their own faster-growing minimum wages since 2016. Now, \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/inventory-of-us-city-and-county-minimum-wage-ordinances/#s-2\">40 cities and counties have a higher minimum wage\u003c/a> than the state. Most are in the Bay Area or Los Angeles County, covering an estimated one-third of California’s low-wage workers. Several are already above $18 or just one inflationary bump away.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Unions in California took a different approach. They’ve won industry-specific wage floors for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/09/california-fast-food-deal/\">fast food\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/07/health-care-minimum-wage-raises/\">health care\u003c/a>, and, in some cities, hotels that are well above the statewide minimum. Fast food workers, who got a raise to a minimum of $20 in April, are seeking an inflationary bump for next year. In Los Angeles, hotel and airport workers are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/06/california-minimum-wage-2/\">demanding a $25 minimum wage\u003c/a> and a raise to $30 in time for the 2028 Olympics.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Many low-wage workers received more amid a tight labor market during the pandemic, marking the first economic recovery in two decades in which they got raises \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/what-you-dont-know-about-low-wage-workers-in-california/\">faster than higher-wage workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>This year in the Legislature, business and labor groups focused on other fights, and it was uncertain whether the measure would even stay on the ballot. Some proponents argued it wasn’t nearly ambitious enough to help the working poor afford California, where MIT researchers estimate the average single, childless adult needs $27 an hour to be “self-sufficient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them, the workers’ advocacy group One Fair Wage, asked the sponsor to pull it from the ballot in favor of advocating for a $20 wage; the organization’s president, Saru Jayaraman, said Proposition 32 is needed but only a “first step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though the sponsor, investor-turned-anti-poverty advocate Joe Sanberg, said he believes the measure will make a difference in workers’ lives, even he openly agrees that $18 “is not enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some ways, at the point where this measure is heading to the ballot, it’s kind of underwhelming,” said Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor of urban planning who studies labor markets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg\" alt=\"Several people wearing red shirts hold signs and sit down outside.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hotel workers and Unite Here Local 11 supporters sit in during a protest at one of the main entrances to LAX airport on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Zaydee Sanchez/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not that workers and their advocates are uninterested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign estimates 2 million workers would still get a raise under the ballot measure — but that’s significantly fewer than the \u003ca href=\"https://irle.berkeley.edu/publications/irle-policy-brief/an-18-minimum-wage-for-california/\">4.8 million\u003c/a> calculated by UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich in 2022 when the measure was first proposed \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/07/california-minimum-wage-november-ballot/\">and then delayed\u003c/a> because Sanberg missed an administrative deadline. Under the measure, the minimum wage would be $18 in January, with a delay until 2026 for employers with fewer than 26 workers.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gustavo Miranda is one worker who would benefit. The 32-year-old Pomona resident makes $16.50 an hour sorting packages and loading trailers at an Inland Empire warehouse. Rent — $1,000 a month — swallows nearly 40% of his income, and he said grocery prices have risen. To make ends meet, he spends weekends refereeing youth sports. A raise, he said, would help him with car payments and sending money to support his daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Central Valley, Stockton retail worker Donna Bowman said she’s been left behind by the state’s raising wages for other industries. The 55-year-old works part-time nights at a Dollar General to supplement her Social Security payments and said the price of gas has forced her to cut back visits to her grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how, with the way things are right now and inflation, the government expects you to live on $16 an hour,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents are banking on that simple message to convince voters. “From the standpoint of people who are going to be voting, the question is very clear,” Sanberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Sanberg poured more than $10 million into gathering signatures for the measure in 2022, the proponents have hardly spent anything. They don’t have a campaign account after Sanberg shut it down earlier this year.[aside postID=\"news_11992472,news_11985277,news_11990750\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But organizers, including Ada Briceño, co-president of the Southern California hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 11, said the measure is naturally popular and could turn out votes for other races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most powerful proponent, the California Labor Federation, which represents 2.3 million union members, isn’t yet sure how much effort it’s going to put toward passing the measure. While the federation was not involved in qualifying the measure, it endorsed it in July and plans to include it in other statewide campaign materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t know how much opposition there will be, quite honestly,” Labor Federation president Lorena Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzalez sees the ballot measure as a “way to move things forward” at a time when lawmakers are unlikely to take up the minimum wage. “When we jumped to $15 and did it legislatively, that was really profound,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But $18 today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sure,” it makes a difference, she said, but “it’s not really a living wage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000112\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000112\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt prepares food in a restaurant kitchen with another man using the sink.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cook Tony Peña prepares food at El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Opposition is still organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A legislative deal and a state Supreme Court ruling resolved what would have been the biggest ballot fights between business and labor — a law allowing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/06/california-workers-labor-violations-deal/\">workers to sue their bosses \u003c/a>and a ballot initiative that would have asked voters to make it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/06/california-taxes-supreme-court-ballot/\">more difficult to raise taxes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So business groups say they’re now turning their sights toward Proposition 32. Three major employers’ groups with deep pockets — the Chamber of Commerce, the California Grocers Association and the California Restaurant Association — are leading the opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chamber CEO Jennifer Barrera said employers will also focus on a simple message: the threat of price hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a heightened sensitivity to the impact of increasing these labor costs on businesses and what that ultimately does for the cost of living,” she said. “Our belief is that the cost of living is directly impacted when you raise these costs on businesses. There’s only so many places where they can make adjustments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That warning could resonate with voters pessimistic about an uncertain economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents point out Gov. Gavin Newsom this year, facing lower-than-expected tax revenues and a yawning budget deficit, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/07/health-care-minimum-wage-raises/\">delayed the state’s new $25 minimum wage\u003c/a> for health care workers until the fall out of concern the state could not yet afford it. Private employers, they said, should be given the same time to adjust. Newsom has not taken a position on Proposition 32, and several spokespeople did not respond to inquiries from CalMatters in the last two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment in California is 5.2%, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm\">higher than the national 4.1%\u003c/a>, and youth unemployment is worse. Business groups contend that increases in the minimum wage cause employers to offer fewer opportunities to less-experienced workers, though many economists disagree wage hikes directly lead to unemployment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reich, of UC Berkeley, last fall \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/04/fast-food-minimum-wage-research/\">published a study\u003c/a> with other academics finding the ramp-up to a $15 minimum wage in California and New York had little effect on employment in fast food and among youth — and in the post-pandemic years that industry even added jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, employers point to recent local minimum wage hikes as test cases — particularly the small, relatively wealthy community of West Hollywood, which last year set what was the nation’s highest wage floor of $19.08 and required generous paid sick leave. (This year, Emeryville surpassed that with an inflation-induced $19.36, in another display of cities leaving $18 in the rearview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Hollywood officials this year \u003ca href=\"https://weho.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=&event_id=1526&meta_id=271843\">commissioned surveys\u003c/a> in which 42% of business owners said they laid off staff or cut workers’ hours, and city council members agreed to pause the next wage increase until January. Part of the city’s challenge was that business owners had to compete with employers just down the street in Los Angeles, where the minimum wage is $17.28, and Beverly Hills, which uses the state minimum of $16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walter Schild, owner of a West Hollywood restaurant, said the policy forced him to raise the wages of servers who were making the minimum wage but received substantial extra income in tips, leaving little room to also give raises to back-of-house staff who were making about $19 to $21. He said he eliminated three jobs, including a baker and a barista, and cut a third of the restaurant’s hours, but the business is “barely surviving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schild called minimum wage hikes a “misguided” decision that makes little dent in the cost of living. A wage of $18 or $19 hardly makes rent affordable in West Hollywood anyway, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think the minimum wage is supposed to make sure everyone can afford rent in their area,” he said. “This is not supposed to support a family … We ought to have an environment where people can gain skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant industry, still recovering from pandemic-induced losses and food price inflation, is likely to make up the bulk of the pushback to the measure. Many were already shaken up by the $20 minimum wage for fast food workers that started in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It may be too soon to tell the actual effects of the fast food increase, though proponents and opponents have both touted monthly jobs figures at convenient times. The \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU06000007072259001SA\">latest seasonally adjusted federal employment numbers\u003c/a> — recommended by experts because the restaurant workforce typically peaks in the summer and shrinks in the winter — show California fast food jobs have dipped since a high point in January but remain close to last summer’s levels. Overall, the industry has about 20,000 more jobs than before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, stories of job cuts have spread, and some workers report having hours cut after receiving the raises. Some chains have hiked prices, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Freeman, CEO of the Sacramento-based 40-restaurant chain Jimboy’s Tacos, said he’s worried restaurants are reaching a tipping point where increasing labor costs will force them to raise prices to a level consumers can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the chain’s nearly 500 workers make $16 to $20, Freeman said. Because of its relatively smaller number of stores, Jimboy’s was not subject to the fast food wage hike. However, the restaurants still saw decreased sales, and Freeman suspects it’s because price hikes at other chains changed consumers’ habits. He estimated in his restaurants, there’s a 3% decrease in sales for every 5% increase in prices, which he said may have to happen if wages are raised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any price increase that we do at this point, we’re concerned about pricing ourselves out of the market,” he said. “There’s never been a time that (restaurant owners are) as worried about it as they are now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other business owners say they’re more or less prepared for a rising minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been on this path for the last several years,” said Katya Christian, co-owner of her family’s cabin-leasing resort in the Sierra Nevada. “We try to anticipate it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seasonal business hires a handful of college students during the summers to maintain the property and accommodate guests. Christian pays most of them the minimum wage, and this year raised the cabin’s rates to make up for the past few years of wage hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she’ll likely vote for the ballot measure, acknowledging that if it passes, her business is more able to absorb such increases because her customers can typically afford higher prices. Then, perhaps a year after a new wage kicks in, she said, she would likely raise the cabins’ rates.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Proposition 32 to increase the minimum wage from $16 isn’t as far-reaching as when it was first proposed. Worker groups are already pushing for more.",
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"title": "Californians Will Vote on $18 Minimum Wage. Workers Say It's Still Not Nearly Livable | KQED",
"description": "Proposition 32 to increase the minimum wage from $16 isn’t as far-reaching as when it was first proposed. Worker groups are already pushing for more.",
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"headline": "Californians Will Vote on $18 Minimum Wage. Workers Say It's Still Not Nearly Livable",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California touted a victory for working people in 2016 when it enacted a sweeping series of minimum hikes, making sure the lowest-wage workers would earn at least $15 an hour by 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Gov. Jerry Brown, while \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-jerry-brown-signs-minimum-wage-20160404-story.html\">signing the law\u003c/a>, spoke of “giving people their due,” then-Senate leader Kevin de León said in Spanish of making it possible to achieve the American dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California voters are being asked to boost the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/minimum_wage.htm\">statewide minimum wage\u003c/a> again, just two years after the landmark $15 wage championed by unions and embraced by Democratic politicians nationwide took effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, when \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/propositions/prop-32-minimum-wage/\">Proposition 32\u003c/a> — the measure to raise the minimum wage to $18 next year — was confirmed for Californians’ ballots in November, it wasn’t with the same fanfare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because a lot has changed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>The current law came with boosts tied to inflation, which has pulled the statewide minimum wage steadily up to $16 this year — and which \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/8.1.2024-Minimum-Wage-Increase-Director-of-Finance-Determination-and-Certification-CC.pdf\">will bump it up to $16.50\u003c/a> in January.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>The skyrocketing cost of living has prompted local officials in more than two dozen cities to enact their own faster-growing minimum wages since 2016. Now, \u003ca href=\"https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/inventory-of-us-city-and-county-minimum-wage-ordinances/#s-2\">40 cities and counties have a higher minimum wage\u003c/a> than the state. Most are in the Bay Area or Los Angeles County, covering an estimated one-third of California’s low-wage workers. Several are already above $18 or just one inflationary bump away.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Unions in California took a different approach. They’ve won industry-specific wage floors for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/09/california-fast-food-deal/\">fast food\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/07/health-care-minimum-wage-raises/\">health care\u003c/a>, and, in some cities, hotels that are well above the statewide minimum. Fast food workers, who got a raise to a minimum of $20 in April, are seeking an inflationary bump for next year. In Los Angeles, hotel and airport workers are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/06/california-minimum-wage-2/\">demanding a $25 minimum wage\u003c/a> and a raise to $30 in time for the 2028 Olympics.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Many low-wage workers received more amid a tight labor market during the pandemic, marking the first economic recovery in two decades in which they got raises \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/what-you-dont-know-about-low-wage-workers-in-california/\">faster than higher-wage workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>This year in the Legislature, business and labor groups focused on other fights, and it was uncertain whether the measure would even stay on the ballot. Some proponents argued it wasn’t nearly ambitious enough to help the working poor afford California, where MIT researchers estimate the average single, childless adult needs $27 an hour to be “self-sufficient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them, the workers’ advocacy group One Fair Wage, asked the sponsor to pull it from the ballot in favor of advocating for a $20 wage; the organization’s president, Saru Jayaraman, said Proposition 32 is needed but only a “first step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though the sponsor, investor-turned-anti-poverty advocate Joe Sanberg, said he believes the measure will make a difference in workers’ lives, even he openly agrees that $18 “is not enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some ways, at the point where this measure is heading to the ballot, it’s kind of underwhelming,” said Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor of urban planning who studies labor markets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg\" alt=\"Several people wearing red shirts hold signs and sit down outside.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/062223-Hotel-Workers-Strike-ZS-CM-22-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hotel workers and Unite Here Local 11 supporters sit in during a protest at one of the main entrances to LAX airport on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Zaydee Sanchez/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not that workers and their advocates are uninterested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign estimates 2 million workers would still get a raise under the ballot measure — but that’s significantly fewer than the \u003ca href=\"https://irle.berkeley.edu/publications/irle-policy-brief/an-18-minimum-wage-for-california/\">4.8 million\u003c/a> calculated by UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich in 2022 when the measure was first proposed \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/07/california-minimum-wage-november-ballot/\">and then delayed\u003c/a> because Sanberg missed an administrative deadline. Under the measure, the minimum wage would be $18 in January, with a delay until 2026 for employers with fewer than 26 workers.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gustavo Miranda is one worker who would benefit. The 32-year-old Pomona resident makes $16.50 an hour sorting packages and loading trailers at an Inland Empire warehouse. Rent — $1,000 a month — swallows nearly 40% of his income, and he said grocery prices have risen. To make ends meet, he spends weekends refereeing youth sports. A raise, he said, would help him with car payments and sending money to support his daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Central Valley, Stockton retail worker Donna Bowman said she’s been left behind by the state’s raising wages for other industries. The 55-year-old works part-time nights at a Dollar General to supplement her Social Security payments and said the price of gas has forced her to cut back visits to her grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how, with the way things are right now and inflation, the government expects you to live on $16 an hour,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents are banking on that simple message to convince voters. “From the standpoint of people who are going to be voting, the question is very clear,” Sanberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Sanberg poured more than $10 million into gathering signatures for the measure in 2022, the proponents have hardly spent anything. They don’t have a campaign account after Sanberg shut it down earlier this year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But organizers, including Ada Briceño, co-president of the Southern California hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 11, said the measure is naturally popular and could turn out votes for other races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most powerful proponent, the California Labor Federation, which represents 2.3 million union members, isn’t yet sure how much effort it’s going to put toward passing the measure. While the federation was not involved in qualifying the measure, it endorsed it in July and plans to include it in other statewide campaign materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t know how much opposition there will be, quite honestly,” Labor Federation president Lorena Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzalez sees the ballot measure as a “way to move things forward” at a time when lawmakers are unlikely to take up the minimum wage. “When we jumped to $15 and did it legislatively, that was really profound,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But $18 today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sure,” it makes a difference, she said, but “it’s not really a living wage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000112\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000112\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt prepares food in a restaurant kitchen with another man using the sink.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/041624_San-Ysidro-Border-Economy_AH_CM-11-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cook Tony Peña prepares food at El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Opposition is still organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A legislative deal and a state Supreme Court ruling resolved what would have been the biggest ballot fights between business and labor — a law allowing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/06/california-workers-labor-violations-deal/\">workers to sue their bosses \u003c/a>and a ballot initiative that would have asked voters to make it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/06/california-taxes-supreme-court-ballot/\">more difficult to raise taxes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So business groups say they’re now turning their sights toward Proposition 32. Three major employers’ groups with deep pockets — the Chamber of Commerce, the California Grocers Association and the California Restaurant Association — are leading the opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chamber CEO Jennifer Barrera said employers will also focus on a simple message: the threat of price hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a heightened sensitivity to the impact of increasing these labor costs on businesses and what that ultimately does for the cost of living,” she said. “Our belief is that the cost of living is directly impacted when you raise these costs on businesses. There’s only so many places where they can make adjustments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That warning could resonate with voters pessimistic about an uncertain economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents point out Gov. Gavin Newsom this year, facing lower-than-expected tax revenues and a yawning budget deficit, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2024/07/health-care-minimum-wage-raises/\">delayed the state’s new $25 minimum wage\u003c/a> for health care workers until the fall out of concern the state could not yet afford it. Private employers, they said, should be given the same time to adjust. Newsom has not taken a position on Proposition 32, and several spokespeople did not respond to inquiries from CalMatters in the last two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment in California is 5.2%, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm\">higher than the national 4.1%\u003c/a>, and youth unemployment is worse. Business groups contend that increases in the minimum wage cause employers to offer fewer opportunities to less-experienced workers, though many economists disagree wage hikes directly lead to unemployment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reich, of UC Berkeley, last fall \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/04/fast-food-minimum-wage-research/\">published a study\u003c/a> with other academics finding the ramp-up to a $15 minimum wage in California and New York had little effect on employment in fast food and among youth — and in the post-pandemic years that industry even added jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, employers point to recent local minimum wage hikes as test cases — particularly the small, relatively wealthy community of West Hollywood, which last year set what was the nation’s highest wage floor of $19.08 and required generous paid sick leave. (This year, Emeryville surpassed that with an inflation-induced $19.36, in another display of cities leaving $18 in the rearview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Hollywood officials this year \u003ca href=\"https://weho.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=&event_id=1526&meta_id=271843\">commissioned surveys\u003c/a> in which 42% of business owners said they laid off staff or cut workers’ hours, and city council members agreed to pause the next wage increase until January. Part of the city’s challenge was that business owners had to compete with employers just down the street in Los Angeles, where the minimum wage is $17.28, and Beverly Hills, which uses the state minimum of $16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walter Schild, owner of a West Hollywood restaurant, said the policy forced him to raise the wages of servers who were making the minimum wage but received substantial extra income in tips, leaving little room to also give raises to back-of-house staff who were making about $19 to $21. He said he eliminated three jobs, including a baker and a barista, and cut a third of the restaurant’s hours, but the business is “barely surviving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schild called minimum wage hikes a “misguided” decision that makes little dent in the cost of living. A wage of $18 or $19 hardly makes rent affordable in West Hollywood anyway, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think the minimum wage is supposed to make sure everyone can afford rent in their area,” he said. “This is not supposed to support a family … We ought to have an environment where people can gain skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restaurant industry, still recovering from pandemic-induced losses and food price inflation, is likely to make up the bulk of the pushback to the measure. Many were already shaken up by the $20 minimum wage for fast food workers that started in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It may be too soon to tell the actual effects of the fast food increase, though proponents and opponents have both touted monthly jobs figures at convenient times. The \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU06000007072259001SA\">latest seasonally adjusted federal employment numbers\u003c/a> — recommended by experts because the restaurant workforce typically peaks in the summer and shrinks in the winter — show California fast food jobs have dipped since a high point in January but remain close to last summer’s levels. Overall, the industry has about 20,000 more jobs than before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, stories of job cuts have spread, and some workers report having hours cut after receiving the raises. Some chains have hiked prices, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Freeman, CEO of the Sacramento-based 40-restaurant chain Jimboy’s Tacos, said he’s worried restaurants are reaching a tipping point where increasing labor costs will force them to raise prices to a level consumers can’t afford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the chain’s nearly 500 workers make $16 to $20, Freeman said. Because of its relatively smaller number of stores, Jimboy’s was not subject to the fast food wage hike. However, the restaurants still saw decreased sales, and Freeman suspects it’s because price hikes at other chains changed consumers’ habits. He estimated in his restaurants, there’s a 3% decrease in sales for every 5% increase in prices, which he said may have to happen if wages are raised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any price increase that we do at this point, we’re concerned about pricing ourselves out of the market,” he said. “There’s never been a time that (restaurant owners are) as worried about it as they are now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other business owners say they’re more or less prepared for a rising minimum wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been on this path for the last several years,” said Katya Christian, co-owner of her family’s cabin-leasing resort in the Sierra Nevada. “We try to anticipate it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seasonal business hires a handful of college students during the summers to maintain the property and accommodate guests. Christian pays most of them the minimum wage, and this year raised the cabin’s rates to make up for the past few years of wage hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she’ll likely vote for the ballot measure, acknowledging that if it passes, her business is more able to absorb such increases because her customers can typically afford higher prices. Then, perhaps a year after a new wage kicks in, she said, she would likely raise the cabins’ rates.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Farmworkers Call For More Employers to Comply with Heat-Illness Prevention",
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"content": "\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/farmworkers\">farmworkers\u003c/a> who say they’ve faced dangerously hot worksites spoke Monday in support of a bill that seeks to protect them from extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed legislation, SB 1299, would make it easier for agricultural laborers to win workers’ compensation claims for heat-related illnesses or deaths. Opponents of the bill, which faces a legislative deadline this week, said it could lead to unfair costs for employers even if they comply with existing worker protections. But supporters hope it will save lives by boosting compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many farmworkers are low-wage immigrants who are reluctant to complain to state authorities about problems at their worksites because they fear losing their jobs. Erika Barros, who experienced heat stroke symptoms in June while picking tomatoes on a day when the temperature surpassed triple digits, didn’t know she had the right to rest breaks in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said her employer, Ruiz Farm Labor, did not provide any training on heat illness prevention as required by state state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have rights when it’s hot, but those rights aren’t good for much if bosses don’t respect them,” Barros, 32, said in Spanish at a press conference in Sacramento. “That’s why I’m here today because I want things to actually change. We don’t want to risk our lives when we go to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, workers in agriculture, fast food, airports and other industries across the U.S. kicked off “Heat Week,” a campaign led by the Service Employees International Union. The union is calling on the Biden Administration to implement recently proposed nationwide protections for both indoor and outdoor workers and on employers to voluntarily do more to keep staffers safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 500 workers in the U.S. died from heat-related causes from 2011 to 2022, and almost 34,000 injuries and illnesses resulted in days away from work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers in agriculture are much \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/blog/climate-change-impacts-farmworkers#:~:text=As%20outdoor%20workers%2C%20they%20are,harmful%20exposures%20to%20wildfire%20smoke.\">more likely\u003c/a> to die from heat-related stress than in other industries, according to research, partly because of the strenuous physical work they often do in direct sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lindsay, California, is a town of about 12,000 in the heart of the state’s citrus farming belt in Tulare County. \u003ccite>(Kerry Klein/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After four workers died from heat illnesses in 2005, California became the first state to require employers to offer drinking water, shade and rest breaks at outdoor worksites when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. However, agricultural laborers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31122023/california-farmworkers-dying-in-the-heat/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202022%20annual,exposure%20between%202018%20and%202022.\">still died\u003c/a> or got sick from excessive heat, though how many exactly is hard to pinpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 15% of farmworkers reported employers never provided enough breaks or shade when it was 80 degrees or warmer, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">survey\u003c/a> of 1,200 agricultural workers published by UC Merced researchers in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency tasked with enforcing workplace safety rules, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has struggled for years with severe understaffing. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/DOSH-Recruitment-Hiring.html\">one in three\u003c/a> of the agency’s enforcement positions remained vacant in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The enforcement-only approach is not enough, and we have seen it,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, which is sponsoring SB 1299. “Every year, the UFW receives complaints from workers who are experiencing dangerous, out-of-compliance workplaces during extreme heat. The question has been what to do about it. And we believe that SB 1299 is the best path forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Senate passed SB 1299 in May, and the state Assembly’s Appropriations Committee is expected to decide on Thursday whether to advance the measure to a full floor vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can often be difficult for workers to prove that a heat illness was developed at their job. According to the proposed legislation, authored by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D- San Jose), a farmworkers’ heat-related illness or death would be presumed to have occurred on the job if a worker or a surviving relative proves the employer was not following heat safety regulations. Employers would have an opportunity to rebut claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11999237 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/farmlabor20120427_qed-1020x558.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A long list of agricultural and business groups, as well as some insurance carriers, oppose the bill. Bryan Little, who directs employment policy at the California Farm Bureau, worries that the Workers Compensation Appeals Board, rather than experienced inspectors at Cal/OSHA, would decide whether an employer violated heat regulations if SB 1299 becomes law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People by and large are in compliance and doing the things that the heat prevention standard requires them to do,” said Little, who has led dozens of employer trainings on the state’s heat rules. “A lot of our employers are not always perfect in their compliance, but they’re working very hard at it and training their employees and training the supervisors, and making sure that everyone understands how we protect ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat illness can develop gradually over days, and workers may get sick due to other activities or pre-existing conditions, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible thing when someone suffers from a heart attack in the months between April and September, but that doesn’t mean that every heart attack that someone suffers from is heat-related,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barros, a mother of three, said she shivered and felt nauseous — both symptoms of the body overheating — while working in a tomato field in Yolo County on June 6. The temperature reached 105 degrees. She and five co-workers ended up leaving the worksite near Winters after checking in with a supervisor. When they returned to work the next day, Barros said they were fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA is \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1755569.015\">investigating\u003c/a> Ruiz Farm Labor over workplace safety. The California Labor Commissioner is also investigating the business for potential retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal/OSHA spokesperson told KQED in a statement that the agency is working to increase hiring and create a new, first-ever agricultural unit to significantly expand enforcement, with new offices planned in Salinas, Bakersfield, Fresno and other communities to better protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat inspections by the agency increased last year, as compared to 2021, according to the spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/farmworkers\">farmworkers\u003c/a> who say they’ve faced dangerously hot worksites spoke Monday in support of a bill that seeks to protect them from extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed legislation, SB 1299, would make it easier for agricultural laborers to win workers’ compensation claims for heat-related illnesses or deaths. Opponents of the bill, which faces a legislative deadline this week, said it could lead to unfair costs for employers even if they comply with existing worker protections. But supporters hope it will save lives by boosting compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many farmworkers are low-wage immigrants who are reluctant to complain to state authorities about problems at their worksites because they fear losing their jobs. Erika Barros, who experienced heat stroke symptoms in June while picking tomatoes on a day when the temperature surpassed triple digits, didn’t know she had the right to rest breaks in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said her employer, Ruiz Farm Labor, did not provide any training on heat illness prevention as required by state state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have rights when it’s hot, but those rights aren’t good for much if bosses don’t respect them,” Barros, 32, said in Spanish at a press conference in Sacramento. “That’s why I’m here today because I want things to actually change. We don’t want to risk our lives when we go to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, workers in agriculture, fast food, airports and other industries across the U.S. kicked off “Heat Week,” a campaign led by the Service Employees International Union. The union is calling on the Biden Administration to implement recently proposed nationwide protections for both indoor and outdoor workers and on employers to voluntarily do more to keep staffers safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 500 workers in the U.S. died from heat-related causes from 2011 to 2022, and almost 34,000 injuries and illnesses resulted in days away from work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers in agriculture are much \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/blog/climate-change-impacts-farmworkers#:~:text=As%20outdoor%20workers%2C%20they%20are,harmful%20exposures%20to%20wildfire%20smoke.\">more likely\u003c/a> to die from heat-related stress than in other industries, according to research, partly because of the strenuous physical work they often do in direct sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12000022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/oranges-lining-road-2_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lindsay, California, is a town of about 12,000 in the heart of the state’s citrus farming belt in Tulare County. \u003ccite>(Kerry Klein/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After four workers died from heat illnesses in 2005, California became the first state to require employers to offer drinking water, shade and rest breaks at outdoor worksites when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. However, agricultural laborers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31122023/california-farmworkers-dying-in-the-heat/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202022%20annual,exposure%20between%202018%20and%202022.\">still died\u003c/a> or got sick from excessive heat, though how many exactly is hard to pinpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 15% of farmworkers reported employers never provided enough breaks or shade when it was 80 degrees or warmer, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">survey\u003c/a> of 1,200 agricultural workers published by UC Merced researchers in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency tasked with enforcing workplace safety rules, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, has struggled for years with severe understaffing. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/DOSH-Recruitment-Hiring.html\">one in three\u003c/a> of the agency’s enforcement positions remained vacant in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The enforcement-only approach is not enough, and we have seen it,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, which is sponsoring SB 1299. “Every year, the UFW receives complaints from workers who are experiencing dangerous, out-of-compliance workplaces during extreme heat. The question has been what to do about it. And we believe that SB 1299 is the best path forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Senate passed SB 1299 in May, and the state Assembly’s Appropriations Committee is expected to decide on Thursday whether to advance the measure to a full floor vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can often be difficult for workers to prove that a heat illness was developed at their job. According to the proposed legislation, authored by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D- San Jose), a farmworkers’ heat-related illness or death would be presumed to have occurred on the job if a worker or a surviving relative proves the employer was not following heat safety regulations. Employers would have an opportunity to rebut claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A long list of agricultural and business groups, as well as some insurance carriers, oppose the bill. Bryan Little, who directs employment policy at the California Farm Bureau, worries that the Workers Compensation Appeals Board, rather than experienced inspectors at Cal/OSHA, would decide whether an employer violated heat regulations if SB 1299 becomes law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People by and large are in compliance and doing the things that the heat prevention standard requires them to do,” said Little, who has led dozens of employer trainings on the state’s heat rules. “A lot of our employers are not always perfect in their compliance, but they’re working very hard at it and training their employees and training the supervisors, and making sure that everyone understands how we protect ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat illness can develop gradually over days, and workers may get sick due to other activities or pre-existing conditions, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a terrible thing when someone suffers from a heart attack in the months between April and September, but that doesn’t mean that every heart attack that someone suffers from is heat-related,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barros, a mother of three, said she shivered and felt nauseous — both symptoms of the body overheating — while working in a tomato field in Yolo County on June 6. The temperature reached 105 degrees. She and five co-workers ended up leaving the worksite near Winters after checking in with a supervisor. When they returned to work the next day, Barros said they were fired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA is \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1755569.015\">investigating\u003c/a> Ruiz Farm Labor over workplace safety. The California Labor Commissioner is also investigating the business for potential retaliation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal/OSHA spokesperson told KQED in a statement that the agency is working to increase hiring and create a new, first-ever agricultural unit to significantly expand enforcement, with new offices planned in Salinas, Bakersfield, Fresno and other communities to better protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat inspections by the agency increased last year, as compared to 2021, according to the spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "californians-say-they-were-fired-for-leaving-their-jobs-in-sweltering-heat-is-the-state-on-their-side",
"title": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side?",
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"headTitle": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11999014,news_11886628,news_11991314\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "While California has rules to protect farmworkers from excessive heat, inspections and citations are significantly down. A bill before the Legislature would make it easier to file workers’ compensation claims for heat illnesses.",
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"title": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side? | KQED",
"description": "While California has rules to protect farmworkers from excessive heat, inspections and citations are significantly down. A bill before the Legislature would make it easier to file workers’ compensation claims for heat illnesses.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jeanne-kuang/\">Jeanne Kuang\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California teachers unions see one of their own in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998972/harris-vp-pick-of-tim-walz-is-a-heartland-of-america-democrat-pelosi-says\">Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota\u003c/a>, a former high school teacher and assistant football coach who is now Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, potentially giving them a solid ally as public districts in the state grapple with budget shortfalls and fears of layoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, several labor leaders pointed to his experience as an educator, his support for unions and his record of passing legislation that bolstered students and working families as governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He very much understands what we do because he did it,” said Jeff Freitas, president of the California Teachers Federation, which represents more than 120,000 educational employees.\u003cbr>\n“This is a great opportunity for education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two-term Minnesota governor has enacted an ambitious Democratic agenda so far, including sending billions of additional dollars to K–12 schools, offering free breakfast and lunch for all students, and requiring employers to provide paid sick leave benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Harris-Walz administration would support increasing federal funding for public schools and bolster the case for raising educators’ salaries in California, where entry-level teachers can earn $58,000 per year — not enough for many to afford to live in the state, Freitas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, where district officials are considering \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978035/sfusd-considers-school-closures-and-mergers-amid-declining-enrollment\">closing schools\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sfusd-s-upcoming-budget-pushes-painful-cuts-19529351.php\">cutting hundreds of positions\u003c/a> to balance the budget, Harris’ choice of Walz was “uplifting,” said Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It signals that our nation’s highest office could reflect the actual values from the classroom, which is to ensure that our students have the most opportunities to learn no matter where they live, no matter their zip code,” said Curiel, whose union represents about 6,000 teachers, counselors, nurses and other certificated school workers. “Classrooms need to be fully funded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walz, 60, represented a conservative-leaning rural district in Congress for a dozen years. Before public office, Walz taught social studies and helped coach the Mankato West High School football team. His wife, Gwen, also worked as a teacher and school administrator. He was a member of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, according to the unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11998991 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TimWalzAP-1020x680.jpg']Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and supporters have sought to brand Walz as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/us/politics/jd-vance-tim-walz.html\">San Francisco-style liberal\u003c/a>” with economic policies that are too radical for the country. Critics also attacked Walz as too slow to stop the looting, arson and violence that left at least two people dead and heavily damaged \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/365535/tim-walz-minneapolis-burning-riot-george-floyd-minnesota-2020-protest\">hundreds of businesses\u003c/a> in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the George Floyd protests of 2020. Democratic allies have defended Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, as having a strong record on public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walz’s working-class background is set to energize more voters who are not fully sold on former President Donald Trump, said Ken Jacobs, who chairs the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, which studies unions and the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with Trump-era corporate tax cuts set to end in 2025, the nation’s next leaders will likely issue high-stakes decisions such as how much to invest in working people and students versus benefits for corporations and wealthy Americans, Jacobs said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freitas, also a vice president at the American Federation of Teachers, believes that if elected to the White House, Trump and Vance would be much less supportive of public schools than Harris and Walz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The gap is like the Grand Canyon,” he said, comparing the two presidential campaigns. “It is just the opposite in terms of their beliefs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and supporters have sought to brand Walz as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/us/politics/jd-vance-tim-walz.html\">San Francisco-style liberal\u003c/a>” with economic policies that are too radical for the country. Critics also attacked Walz as too slow to stop the looting, arson and violence that left at least two people dead and heavily damaged \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/365535/tim-walz-minneapolis-burning-riot-george-floyd-minnesota-2020-protest\">hundreds of businesses\u003c/a> in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the George Floyd protests of 2020. Democratic allies have defended Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, as having a strong record on public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walz’s working-class background is set to energize more voters who are not fully sold on former President Donald Trump, said Ken Jacobs, who chairs the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, which studies unions and the workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with Trump-era corporate tax cuts set to end in 2025, the nation’s next leaders will likely issue high-stakes decisions such as how much to invest in working people and students versus benefits for corporations and wealthy Americans, Jacobs said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freitas, also a vice president at the American Federation of Teachers, believes that if elected to the White House, Trump and Vance would be much less supportive of public schools than Harris and Walz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The gap is like the Grand Canyon,” he said, comparing the two presidential campaigns. “It is just the opposite in terms of their beliefs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
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},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
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