Breaking... Farmworkers call for action against 3 heat deaths (and 1 activist Macareno murdered)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/breakingnews/story/413520.html

By Claudia Melendez Salinas
The Monterey County Herald

In the wake of California’s third farmworker death of the year caused by heat, the United Farm Workers union has announced a caravan to Sacramento to demand stronger enforcement of laws aimed at curbing heat-related casualties.

During Greenfield’s third annual Cultural Celebration of Oaxacan Culture, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said the union will bus 700 to 800 farmworkers from all over California to protest lack of shade and drinking water for field harvesters.

In Sacramento, "they are the ones making the decisions ... but there’s not enough money or enough people to do the enforcement," Rodriguez said. "The farmworkers are the forgotten people."

State officials are investigating the death of 42-year-old Abdon Felix, who died Wednesday after laboring in the fields at Sunview Vineyards near Delano. The coroner’s office said his body temperature was 108 degrees when he arrived at the hospital.

Although it’s the third casualty recognized by state officials as caused by heat stroke, the UFW is also saying the death of Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez was caused by heat.

Carrillo Rodriguez, 46, of Selma was driven home from his job at a Reedley packing plant at noon Thursday after he developed a headache, a Fresno County coroner’s spokeswoman said Saturday.

FULL story at link.