TOPICS ON THIS PAGE:
Oregon Farmworkers and Pesticides
Oregon laws and statutes that govern pesticide use and farmworkers
The affect of a union contract on this situation
The ten commitments to protect farmworkers from toxic pesticides

Background: Oregon Farmworkers and Pesticides:

Oregon’s agricultural industry, valued at over $3 billion in 1998, depends not only on the thousands of migrant workers who harvest crops each year, but also on pesticide use. Oregon produces a wide variety of agricultural products, from strawberries, snap peas, cauliflower, and hazelnuts, to hops, grass seed, nursery stock items, and Christmas trees. Some of these crops are hand-harvested, some employ a machine, but all depend on pesticide application to some extent. In 1987, the last year an industry-wide pesticide use survey was conducted, Oregon growers used an estimated 16 million pounds of pesticides.

The increased mechanization of some crops, such as green beans, has also raised demands for increased pesticide use. Although farmworkers manually harvesting green beans could differentiate between healthy and moldy beans, the picking machines that replaced them cannot, thus creating new demand for pesticides. Growers began using the pesticide Benlate to control the molds, but within a decade they became resisten to Benlate, causing growers to turn to the more potent pesticide Ronilan, despite inadequate EPA testing and laboratory findings of sexual organ deformities in animals exposed to the chemical.

Working in the fields, whether it be picking strawberries, hoeing seed grass, or irrigating a field of cauliflower, puts farmworkers at a high risk of pesticide exposure. Workers are often unaware of these risks, yet they may work spraying any number of potent pesticides, often without protective gear or adequate training. In hand-harvested crops, workers are likewise in close proximity to the plants, and therefore to the pesticides. They may work in a field that has been recently sprayed, or their workplace may lack adequate hand-washing facilities, making it difficult to remain free of pesticide contamination.


BACK TO TOP

Oregon laws and statutes that govern pesticide use and farmworkers:

Under current Oregon law, there are few protections for farmworkers. Farmworkers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, which effectively them the right to unionize that is guaranteed to all other sectors of the workforce. This means that farmworkers are at-will employees and can be hired or fired at any time. While it is technically against Oregon law for an employer to retaliate against a worker for requesting adequate protective gear, for demanding medical attention to pesticide exposure symptoms, or for requesting pesticide use information, winning such claims has proven almost impossible. Therefore, many workers may recognize a health or safety hazard but remain silent in fear of reprisals or of getting fired. This situation proves even more serious for seasonal employees living in company-owned housing, since they can not only be fired but also evicted from the labor camp in which they are living.

In 1991 and 1993, PCUN, Oregon's farmworker union, working with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) and the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) supported legislative attempts to allow farmworkers and community members to obtain pesticide use information without farmworkers having to identify themselves to their employer. Neither attempt was successful. In 1999, NCAP, OSPIRG and the Oregon Environmental Council worked to get a much restricted version of previous pesticide use reporting bills passed and were ultimately successful. PCUN opposed the bill, as it did nothing to address the issues facing farmworkers.


BACK TO TOP

The affect of a union contract on this situation:

Negotiated contracts provide the mechanism to regulate the use of pesticides. In 1970, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) negotiated a contract with grape growers that specifically banned the use of six pesticides, including DDT (the EPA finally called for an end to the use of DDT three years later). Pesticide application reports were also to be made available to the union for review. There are many pesticides such as Ronilan that pose a threat to farmworker and consumer well-being. Contracts provide the mechanism to regulate their use without having to wait for the federal government to take action. Another key contractual provision is just-cause firing, which prevents growers from firing farmworkers who speaking out about unsafe or illegal working conditions. These are the same guarantees that we are working to achieve for Oregon’s farmworkers.


BACK TO TOP

Ten Commitments to Protect Farm Workers from Pesticide Exposure
Recommendations of Farm Worker Organizations and Advocates

1. Prohibit the use of any pesticide known or suspected to cause cancer, birth defects, neurological damage, or that are in the highest acute toxicity category. During any phase-out period, require a minimum 14 day quarantine period before workers can reenter a work area in which any such pesticide has been applied.
2. Prohibit all aerial application of pesticides.
3. Guarantee farm workers the right to know what specific pesticides are used in their workplace through crop sheets, posting of warning signs, and training which covers health effects, protective clothing and other safety information in the language the workers understand.
4. Require and enforce a mandatory national pesticide use reporting system for all users to include all active and inert ingredients in all products.
5. Require and enforce a mandatory national reporting system for all potential pesticide-related incidents and illnesses by agricultural employers and health professionals.
6. Guarantee all farm workers the right to bring an action to enforce their rights under the law including employer retaliation, violation of the Worker Protection Standard, and regulation of toxic pesticides.
7. Guarantee all farm workers the right to organize, to union representation, to a living wage, overtime pay, strong child labor provisions, the right to a safe workplace, and workers compensation benefits.
8. Require and fund a continuing program, with the cooperation and approval of farm workers, for both biological and environmental monitoring of pesticides in farm worker families and their communities.
9. Require and fund research, with the cooperation and approval of farm workers, to set up a program to monitor long-term effects of pesticides including cancer, reproductive harm, and neurological damage.
10. Change federal and state agricultural funding to promote and research the transition from toxic pesticides to biorational and sustainable pest control methods.

The Ten commitments are the result of the collaboration of the following farm worker organizations and advocates (in alphabetical order by the name of the organization):

Ralph Lightstone
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc
(916) 446-7904
Email: hn0610@handsnet.org

Shelley Davis
Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.
(202) 776-1757
Email: sdavis@nclr.org

Baldemar Velasquez
Farm Labor Organizing Committee
(419) 243-3456

Rebecca Schleifer
Migrant Farmworker Justice Project
(561) 996-5266
Email: becca@ipc.apc.org

Raul Yzaguirre
National Council of La Raza
(202) 785-1670

Erik Nicholson
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN)
Phone (503) 982-0243, ext. 203.
For information on this issue at PCUN,
contact Ramon Ramirez

Dr. Marion Moses
Pesticide Education Center
Phone (415) 391-8511
Email: pec@pesticides.org

Arturo S. Rodriguez
United Farm Workers of America
Phone (805) 822-6434



BACK TO TOP