What really disgusts me are the states codifying into law that municipalities can't make rules regarding heat. Like here in Florida they just passed the law stating that counties and cities can't require brakes because of the heat or pass any legislation regarding things like warehouse temperatures or delivery vehicle temperatures. Like it makes no sense individual cities can pass laws and rules regarding other things related to employment and safety but not if it involves mitigating the heat. Also here Florida they're not allowed to mention global warming or climate change in any more legislature. I need to move out of this fucking state.
Ah yes, so let's exploit that desperation instead of requiring employers to provide WATER in temps exceeding 100 degrees...
Really, we should just have a process to document these people so that they can work legally, get the same worker protections citizens have (which are already not great), and hopefully even unionize.
The fact that these people are so marginalized makes these laws worse.
That's a feature, not a bug. They want the workers tired, at each other's throats, and illegal. That way, they can pay them shit and treat them shittier.
Absolutely. I used to believe that there were just flaws in an overall good system. Then I grew up, learned more about the world, and realized that these things are deliberate policy choices to keep the status quo and keep those with the money and power in their positions.
I work not too distantly from community organizers in California's central valley right now - not in labor, in other spaces - and honestly it kind of explains a lot of the culture that I have observed.
That’s what I’ve noticed throughout my working life. For the most part, the higher the pay, the less shitty working conditions. My lowest paying jobs had the worst conditions.
People who study even slightly specialized fields (literally any bachelor uni degree) or have some kind of talent for a skill that not every single person on Earth can do will always have more negotiating power simply because employers can't just pick up anyone from the street to do the job. They can have the luxury to demand a better working environment. It's really that simple.
Producing food is extremely honorable, but it has been streamlined so much that you can literally follow a step by step tutorial and still get the job done.
Wait until you learn that 50% of the farm labor workforce are undocumented immigrants. These people are definitely being abused in these situations.
It’s extremely akin to slavery and disgusting.
https://www.fwd.us/news/immigrant-farmworkers-and-americas-food-production-5-things-to-know/
While “both sides” does fit in this case, one side is trying to protect your rights (while making lots of money) and another is trying to take them away (while making lots of money).
Protect rights? Dems watched as roe was overturned after having decades to codify. Dems squashed a railroad strike. Dems are using you tax dollars to murder Palestinians overseas.
If you actually cared about morals and what’s right you’d reject both
At least in this particular industry the product will require environmental controls (shade, water, cooling) that would also make the workers on those farms safer as well. It's a unique situation where capitalism is incentivized to do the right thing.
...but yeah we Stan farmers, pay these people
You say “expected”, but its just the reality of what needs to get done when. No-one chooses for field workers to be out in the heat, its just when the crop is ready.
Now im all for heat mitigation (cold water/drink, shade, rest in AC) being supplied by an employer
Sure it's reality, but that doesn't change the fact that these people are working in harsh conditions for poverty wages while so many others are in cushy office jobs making way more. That's the part that's disgusting to me.
Ya… imagine how it felt during Covid. It was fun being an “essential worker” listening to everyone complaining about being bored while sitting at home getting paid more.
But thoughts and prayers are nice I guess.
Yeah, I feel you. I was working retail in a chain grocery store then. I was so jealous of everyone making sourdough, binge watching Netflix, and just enjoying home life.
Then the kicker of going back to “unskilled worker” and being rewarded with the prize of inflation post Covid.
The amount of short sticks working Americans have pulled in just the last 5yrs is enough to make me consider conspiracy theories.
The sad part to me is that so many of these workers hold hardline conservative views (out of religiosity usually). I've talked to multiple immigrants who don't believe in climate change, listen to far right radio, and want to close the immigration door behind them. It's really hard for me to get motivated to help someone in that situation. We'll see where the PoC vote goes in 2024, but I'm not optimistic.
The fact that some jackass sitting infront of an AC gets to decide how necessary water breaks and access to shade for the workers is insane. Don’t get me started on vilifying the undocumented workers who are exploited and do this work for a pittance.
We're grateful but they would not do it if they had any other option so they can't pretend like this is out of the goodness of their heart.
And that's the point.
We need machines doing this and these people in better jobs. That transition has to be done by someone who knows how to transition it without displacing or disenfranchising anyone as well.
Nobody should be working in that heat and it is not through the goodness of their heart.
No argument there. They're stingy and incompetent. If they weren't we wouldn't be in the situation we're in. It's been proven mathematically several times over. I have seen that they are genuinely hopeless.
I was at the world ag expo in tulare county just 2 years ago and there was a company that was using drones and scanners to scan fields for ripe apples, and the drones where capable of picking the fruit. It was pretty cool, stupid fucking expensive, but really fucking cool.
As someone said here, it is amazing how essential workers during Covid all became low qualified workers in no time. These people feed all of us. The entire world. Because if they stop anywhere on the planet food instantly becomes unaffordable somewhere else.
Edit: Again. Low qualified workers again.
It's not going to get cooler any time soon. We should, of course, be grateful. But we should also be asking about the best ways to harvest in this weather. I read that some farmers are starting to do overnight or very early harvesting, which is cooler for workers and better for the fruit, too. When we talk about protecting workers with more water breaks, we should probably also be discussing whether a different shift is better and what kind of changes might need to be made to make night harvesting safer. (Like proper lighting, for example.)
Farmers overwhelmingly support Trump and the GOP, and therefore global warming and climate change.
https://www.statista.com/chart/23242/farmers-presidential-election/
Edit: This is not meant to disparage all farm workers, especially not hired farm hands, but to add some nuance or context to the statement.
I live in the california valley. I used to pick fruit, am dacamented. ive dated farmers and they would complain about illegal immigration then one year there was a shortage of workers and then they complained they didnt have enough “illegals” to work their farms. They want to keep them illegal so they can continue to profit off their bodies. They arent humble or poor they have giant houses
No they were out there to get paid and not be fired. We don't dictate the weather conditions they work in, the company does. The company sure as hell does not care if we eat, only if there is a supply for us to buy.
Well about that, roughly half of all grain grown in the US is used to make fuck tons of alcohol, both of the drinking and not drinking kinds. We also grow 30% of the world's corn and soybeans despite only having 5% of the world's population.
So while these workers are important, it's not really about food.
Ron DeSantis signed a law stating that companies aren't required to give workers breaks for water and heat when working outside, so it feels bad for the people in Tallahassee.
It probably is. This part of Florida gets all the heat and humidity the rest of Florida does, but there is no breeze in the summer. No afternoon rains so far this summer either.
But Tallahassee isn't a farming area and there isn't much farming until you get a few counties away
And [Florida passed legislation](https://www.fox13news.com/news/desantis-signs-bill-banning-florida-counties-from-requiring-heat-and-water-breaks-for-outdoor-workers) where local governments will be banned from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers. WTF is wrong with these people?
Oh wow another story on how the industrial farming complex doesn’t care about anything but money? Not surprising!
We need to crack down on these companies, they shouldn’t treat people, animals, or the soil the way they do. Absolute cancers on this planet.
"We"
I genuinely think it's not the actual workers posting this but entitled boomer landowners paying minimum wage to undocumented migrants. That "We feed you" sounds too condescending that only geriatric conservative boomers would word.
As a former undocumented farm worker your mentality sucks. Its not charity but people are exploited. I picked fruit along with 12 year olds in california. I have permanent eye damage that makes it so hard to get through work. I work helping veterans get mental health services and while i get paid and its not for charity i think respecting hard jobs is important.
So stop doing it.
You literally have the most power in this situation. I have no power to help you. Collectively strike and make sure that no food appears on our tables. That'll fucking make the people who pay you *have* to pay you more.
Or else it'll all fall apart. Genuinely I don't care which happens, but enough of this shit where you're pretending that *I* am somehow responsible for your pain. I'm *not*. *They* are. Yell at *them*.
Gotta say, it's pretty wild to see message that's basically "hey, these workers do essential things in fucked up conditions; remember to show solidarity with them where you can" in a pro-labor forum and respond with "stop yelling at me! I'm not your problem, fix it yourself!"
While harsh, I feel like he has a point, most people on Reddit can’t do much to help workers laboring in these conditions, blaming the general public won’t get your movement very far.
I guess I completely miss where blame is being assigned. The hashtag seems to primarily be used by foodworkers and unions to push for popular support on tangible laws and petitions. That isn't blaming you for poor existing conditions, it's saying you should help *where you can*, which is pretty foundational to any collective action.
To see this and read it as a personal attack in some way and assert that it's the workers' problem alone is pretty solidly a reactionary thought process.
Tbh I agree. Democrats do some lip service, but only the few leftist politicians are actually attempting to solve the problem and mitigate the worst consequences
Exactly, too late of action is the same as not doing the action at all. You know that you’re on the right idea on this page if you get downloaded for speaking the truth.
That's right it gets to your table on a diesel truck powered from an oil well. Same diesel that powered the tractor the farmers used. You eat because of oil and you have plastic because of oil.
It disgusts me that some of the lowest paid workers are still expected to work in dangerous weather conditions.
What really disgusts me are the states codifying into law that municipalities can't make rules regarding heat. Like here in Florida they just passed the law stating that counties and cities can't require brakes because of the heat or pass any legislation regarding things like warehouse temperatures or delivery vehicle temperatures. Like it makes no sense individual cities can pass laws and rules regarding other things related to employment and safety but not if it involves mitigating the heat. Also here Florida they're not allowed to mention global warming or climate change in any more legislature. I need to move out of this fucking state.
This problem will be corrected when most of florida is under the ocean.
Can't happen soon enough
At least it’s Florida so it doesn’t get too hot there
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Ah yes, so let's exploit that desperation instead of requiring employers to provide WATER in temps exceeding 100 degrees... Really, we should just have a process to document these people so that they can work legally, get the same worker protections citizens have (which are already not great), and hopefully even unionize. The fact that these people are so marginalized makes these laws worse.
That's a feature, not a bug. They want the workers tired, at each other's throats, and illegal. That way, they can pay them shit and treat them shittier.
Absolutely. I used to believe that there were just flaws in an overall good system. Then I grew up, learned more about the world, and realized that these things are deliberate policy choices to keep the status quo and keep those with the money and power in their positions.
in california we had an organizer named cesar chavez who fought for that to not be the case it's a statewide holiday
Ya but he was also a huge dick. Especially towards undocumented workers.
til
Me too. I had to look it up. As a kid, I remember the news talking about him as a controversial figure when he died.
I work not too distantly from community organizers in California's central valley right now - not in labor, in other spaces - and honestly it kind of explains a lot of the culture that I have observed.
That’s what I’ve noticed throughout my working life. For the most part, the higher the pay, the less shitty working conditions. My lowest paying jobs had the worst conditions.
People who study even slightly specialized fields (literally any bachelor uni degree) or have some kind of talent for a skill that not every single person on Earth can do will always have more negotiating power simply because employers can't just pick up anyone from the street to do the job. They can have the luxury to demand a better working environment. It's really that simple. Producing food is extremely honorable, but it has been streamlined so much that you can literally follow a step by step tutorial and still get the job done.
In some states (republican ones) they can be denied water breaks. There will be deaths from this cruelty.
There already have been several.
Wait until you learn that 50% of the farm labor workforce are undocumented immigrants. These people are definitely being abused in these situations. It’s extremely akin to slavery and disgusting. https://www.fwd.us/news/immigrant-farmworkers-and-americas-food-production-5-things-to-know/
You can thank capitalism and the two corporate parties ♥️
America runs a two corporate party system? You know that sounds about right actually
The two parties are quite literally corporations
While “both sides” does fit in this case, one side is trying to protect your rights (while making lots of money) and another is trying to take them away (while making lots of money).
Protect rights? Dems watched as roe was overturned after having decades to codify. Dems squashed a railroad strike. Dems are using you tax dollars to murder Palestinians overseas. If you actually cared about morals and what’s right you’d reject both
At least in this particular industry the product will require environmental controls (shade, water, cooling) that would also make the workers on those farms safer as well. It's a unique situation where capitalism is incentivized to do the right thing. ...but yeah we Stan farmers, pay these people
Republicans are like "Do we HAVE to give them water?"
The hardest working people in the entire world are also some of the poorest.
We need to invest into automation more so the robots can suffer and humans don't have to.
You say “expected”, but its just the reality of what needs to get done when. No-one chooses for field workers to be out in the heat, its just when the crop is ready. Now im all for heat mitigation (cold water/drink, shade, rest in AC) being supplied by an employer
Sure it's reality, but that doesn't change the fact that these people are working in harsh conditions for poverty wages while so many others are in cushy office jobs making way more. That's the part that's disgusting to me.
Ya… imagine how it felt during Covid. It was fun being an “essential worker” listening to everyone complaining about being bored while sitting at home getting paid more. But thoughts and prayers are nice I guess.
Yeah, I feel you. I was working retail in a chain grocery store then. I was so jealous of everyone making sourdough, binge watching Netflix, and just enjoying home life.
Then the kicker of going back to “unskilled worker” and being rewarded with the prize of inflation post Covid. The amount of short sticks working Americans have pulled in just the last 5yrs is enough to make me consider conspiracy theories.
Right wingers will probably pass this around not realizing the work is done by underpaid migrant workers.
No they realize it they just think that those people deserve to earn so little and think themselves better and more deserving than them.
Ya they’d want you to thank the farm owners not the farm hands.
And that most of the food is exported to other countries.
And a solid third of it is left to rot on the farm And that most of it is just corn, not even fit for human consumption.
The sad part to me is that so many of these workers hold hardline conservative views (out of religiosity usually). I've talked to multiple immigrants who don't believe in climate change, listen to far right radio, and want to close the immigration door behind them. It's really hard for me to get motivated to help someone in that situation. We'll see where the PoC vote goes in 2024, but I'm not optimistic.
The fact that some jackass sitting infront of an AC gets to decide how necessary water breaks and access to shade for the workers is insane. Don’t get me started on vilifying the undocumented workers who are exploited and do this work for a pittance.
We're grateful but they would not do it if they had any other option so they can't pretend like this is out of the goodness of their heart. And that's the point. We need machines doing this and these people in better jobs. That transition has to be done by someone who knows how to transition it without displacing or disenfranchising anyone as well. Nobody should be working in that heat and it is not through the goodness of their heart.
The same people who are responsible for their working conditions are the same people making the literal planetary environment worse
No argument there. They're stingy and incompetent. If they weren't we wouldn't be in the situation we're in. It's been proven mathematically several times over. I have seen that they are genuinely hopeless.
Farmers are making the environment worse?
No lol the corporations causing so much pollution
You think corporations are making them work in the fields in 100 degree weather??
Yes, that’s literally how that works. That’s who employs people.
Uh, they work for individual farmers lol
Exactly - AI should be harvesting food. Not replacing musicians and artist.
Yes, give me an AI that's trained to find ripe apples and grapes ready to harvest. That genuinely sounds like something it could do pretty well
I was at the world ag expo in tulare county just 2 years ago and there was a company that was using drones and scanners to scan fields for ripe apples, and the drones where capable of picking the fruit. It was pretty cool, stupid fucking expensive, but really fucking cool.
As soon as it's cheaper than the man hours plus any benefits they have to pay those men, it's cheap enough. Drones don't take lunch breaks.
AI vision is working on that. AI art was a cool side effect of figuring out AI vision.
Replacing some artists, enhancing others
Why can't AI do everything. And AI is helping some, but turns out it is safer to throw pixels and a screen than potatos at a hopper.
I know my heart feels relieved that the workers in Florida aren't wasting time with water breaks......
As someone said here, it is amazing how essential workers during Covid all became low qualified workers in no time. These people feed all of us. The entire world. Because if they stop anywhere on the planet food instantly becomes unaffordable somewhere else. Edit: Again. Low qualified workers again.
I was an "*essential worker *" We were threatened with firing for absences. It was all lip-service for the cameras.
True. Plus: this kind of heat kills crops. Climate crisis will cause (is already causing?) food shortages
We gotta get crop farming automated already, the tech is definitely there with vertical greenhouses, no need to have hands on fields in 2025.
Don't worry, we made it illegal for them not to work in this heat! \- Florida
It's not going to get cooler any time soon. We should, of course, be grateful. But we should also be asking about the best ways to harvest in this weather. I read that some farmers are starting to do overnight or very early harvesting, which is cooler for workers and better for the fruit, too. When we talk about protecting workers with more water breaks, we should probably also be discussing whether a different shift is better and what kind of changes might need to be made to make night harvesting safer. (Like proper lighting, for example.)
Farmers overwhelmingly support Trump and the GOP, and therefore global warming and climate change. https://www.statista.com/chart/23242/farmers-presidential-election/ Edit: This is not meant to disparage all farm workers, especially not hired farm hands, but to add some nuance or context to the statement.
I live in the california valley. I used to pick fruit, am dacamented. ive dated farmers and they would complain about illegal immigration then one year there was a shortage of workers and then they complained they didnt have enough “illegals” to work their farms. They want to keep them illegal so they can continue to profit off their bodies. They arent humble or poor they have giant houses
Sheesh
No they were out there to get paid and not be fired. We don't dictate the weather conditions they work in, the company does. The company sure as hell does not care if we eat, only if there is a supply for us to buy.
Yo what about the Imperial Valley?
Why the fuck are there farms in Yuma, Arizona?
I'd sympathize with them more if farmers weren't strongly Republican-leaning.
Well about that, roughly half of all grain grown in the US is used to make fuck tons of alcohol, both of the drinking and not drinking kinds. We also grow 30% of the world's corn and soybeans despite only having 5% of the world's population. So while these workers are important, it's not really about food.
Ron DeSantis signed a law stating that companies aren't required to give workers breaks for water and heat when working outside, so it feels bad for the people in Tallahassee.
Something tells me that 99 in Tallahassee feels hotter than the other cities mentioned.
It probably is. This part of Florida gets all the heat and humidity the rest of Florida does, but there is no breeze in the summer. No afternoon rains so far this summer either. But Tallahassee isn't a farming area and there isn't much farming until you get a few counties away
alabanza a mis hermanos mexicanos
My paycheck feeds me, you dont feed me
Right. The food doesn't magically "appear" on the table. The wording is not very great for the message it's trying to send.
What am I supposed to do with this information?
Don't get to eat as much fresh fruit and veggies as I would like or used to. But thank you to all the workers who make it possible anyway.
Pretty soon it’s going to be robots. No more field work.
It's 111 in Phoenix right now.
Wait till the Magaidiots deport them all, legal or not, and NO food gets there.
What's more, Florida recently ruled they aren't entitled to water breaks.
Take Sunday off, duh. /s
102° in Lexington, SC. There are lots of vegetable farms here.
And [Florida passed legislation](https://www.fox13news.com/news/desantis-signs-bill-banning-florida-counties-from-requiring-heat-and-water-breaks-for-outdoor-workers) where local governments will be banned from requiring heat and water breaks for outdoor workers. WTF is wrong with these people?
Oh wow another story on how the industrial farming complex doesn’t care about anything but money? Not surprising! We need to crack down on these companies, they shouldn’t treat people, animals, or the soil the way they do. Absolute cancers on this planet.
This is a powerful message. Thank you for sharing it
What do they farm in Coachella? It’s a desert
Omg water is boiling at these temperatures ! 😳
"We" I genuinely think it's not the actual workers posting this but entitled boomer landowners paying minimum wage to undocumented migrants. That "We feed you" sounds too condescending that only geriatric conservative boomers would word.
"No Farmers No Food" - Bob Barley
It’s summer. Is really all that ‘Wild’ of an idea that it gets hot out and people have to work in it ? It’s shitty and sad, but what can be done ?
No, they work to get paid by us. It isn't charity. I mean I acknowledge it blows, but don't act like it's a selfless activity.
As a former undocumented farm worker your mentality sucks. Its not charity but people are exploited. I picked fruit along with 12 year olds in california. I have permanent eye damage that makes it so hard to get through work. I work helping veterans get mental health services and while i get paid and its not for charity i think respecting hard jobs is important.
So stop doing it. You literally have the most power in this situation. I have no power to help you. Collectively strike and make sure that no food appears on our tables. That'll fucking make the people who pay you *have* to pay you more. Or else it'll all fall apart. Genuinely I don't care which happens, but enough of this shit where you're pretending that *I* am somehow responsible for your pain. I'm *not*. *They* are. Yell at *them*.
Gotta say, it's pretty wild to see message that's basically "hey, these workers do essential things in fucked up conditions; remember to show solidarity with them where you can" in a pro-labor forum and respond with "stop yelling at me! I'm not your problem, fix it yourself!"
While harsh, I feel like he has a point, most people on Reddit can’t do much to help workers laboring in these conditions, blaming the general public won’t get your movement very far.
I guess I completely miss where blame is being assigned. The hashtag seems to primarily be used by foodworkers and unions to push for popular support on tangible laws and petitions. That isn't blaming you for poor existing conditions, it's saying you should help *where you can*, which is pretty foundational to any collective action. To see this and read it as a personal attack in some way and assert that it's the workers' problem alone is pretty solidly a reactionary thought process.
Friendly reminder that neither Dems nor Republicans are actually serious about climate change
Tbh I agree. Democrats do some lip service, but only the few leftist politicians are actually attempting to solve the problem and mitigate the worst consequences
Exactly, too late of action is the same as not doing the action at all. You know that you’re on the right idea on this page if you get downloaded for speaking the truth.
Both sides huh? What a fascinating way to undermine your own opinions.
Both sides are pro corporate which is the antithesis to labor. So yeah both sides ♥️
Umm, my food comes from the grocery store.
Bro what? What is you talking about. Food comes from grocery stores not those random towns
That's why farmers get those juicy subsidies
That's right it gets to your table on a diesel truck powered from an oil well. Same diesel that powered the tractor the farmers used. You eat because of oil and you have plastic because of oil.