Farmworkers quite literally put food on our tables, which places them among the most essential workers in our society. Their work is physically strenuous and often downright hazardous, especially with worsening climate impacts and extreme weather events. However, Oregon’s minimum required housing protections are horrendously deficient.
Urge Oregon OSHA to protect farmworkers!
Oregon OSHA has proposed rules for Agricultural Labor Housing which would improve some protections, like requiring a private changing area in or adjacent to shower facilities, locking stalls for shower facilities, additional water testing for arsenic and nitrate, improved toilet-per-person ratios, required cooking/food preparation areas, and hot and cold water near food areas.
To be clear, Oregon state law currently DOES NOT require farm owners to provide their workers the basic living amenities and protections listed above.
Farmworkers absolutely deserve safe, healthy, and respectful living conditions.
Our friends at PCUN are leading an effort to organize public support for these eminently reasonable rules being considered. Please consider joining a virtual public hearing on Friday, October 25 at 10am, or submit your written comments before noon on Sunday, November 3rd.
Here at Climate Solutions, we emphasize the importance of a just transition in the work we do; farmworkers are exactly the people we cannot leave behind. Improving farmworkers’ living conditions is a human rights and climate justice issue. Please join us in voicing your support.
