Local organizers visit NC farms to educate migrant workers on heat safety

This weekend, the National Weather Service forecasts temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. For many, this will mean flocking to spraygrounds and pools, or just staying indoors. However, many workers and unhoused people won’t have a choice about braving the high heat.

That includes the over 20,000 migrant workers who form the backbone of North Carolina’s agricultural sector. The H-2A program allows farms to hire seasonal workers from outside the U.S. when other workers aren’t available.

Leticia Zavala is a coordinator with It’s Our Future, or El Futuro Es Nuestro. She’s visiting a farm in Franklin County to educate migrant workers about heat safety. Cucumbers yellow on a wooden picnic table littered with half-flattened beer cans. The workers gathered around Zavala under the shade of a walnut tree.

“We have to work together as a community in order to stop the deaths that have been happening due to heat,” Zavala said.

One such death happened on another farm in 2023. José Arturo Gónzalez Mendoza died in Nash County on Barnes Farm while harvesting sweet potatoes in early September. The heat index was 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Gónzalez Mendoza, a farm worker from Mexico, exhibited signs of heat illness an hour before he collapsed. Management did not intervene. Another employee finally called an ambulance after 50 minutes. Gónzalez Mendoza died, age 29, before it arrived.

The N.C. Department of Labor found that the Barnes Farming Corporation failed to provide a safe working environment to the 32 farmworkers picking sweet potatoes. The workers only received, at most, one 5-minute break during their 6-hour day. They took that break inside their metal bus — the only shade near the field — which was parked in the sun without air conditioning. To rehydrate, they drank from a 10-gallon cooler, but without cups, the workers ducked their heads under the spigot.

“We are talking about what it is that keeps them from speaking up or asking for medical attention,” Zavala said.

For some, it’s fear of retaliation. Others don’t want to lose a day’s paycheck. In North Carolina, there’s no heat standard, so a lot depends on the farm.

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Surviving the dog days of summer

The Spanish word for heatwave is Canícula, which literally means little dog. It refers to the rising of Sirius, or the “dog star,” during the time of year when the star appears to rise with our sun. It is also the origin of the phrase “the dog days of summer.” That period generally begins on July 3.

On Wednesday, June 25, Sirius did not rise with the sun, but the temperatures did. The mercury reached 97 degrees in Franklin County. That day, migrant worker Juvenal picked cucumbers for about $1.30 a bucket. We’re using his first name to protect his identity due to the precarious position H-2A workers often find themselves in. He has worked with the program for about forty years, picking cucumbers and harvesting tobacco in North Carolina and Virginia.

“We’re eating a lot of cucumbers,” Juvenal said. “It’s probably because of this that we’re not having any cramps or dehydration.”

Original text: “Estamos consumiendo mucho pepino. A lo mejor, por eso no … no nos saca calambres todavia … ni dishidration tampoco.” 

At home in Mexico, he works construction jobs six months out of the year. He said the pay is not as good, so he works in North Carolina for the other half of the year, while his wife and two kids stay behind.

While the workers fill their buckets, a tractor carrying a water cooler follows them alongside the rows.

“Because we’re being paid by the bucket, we can drink water whenever we want,” Juvenal said. “No problem.”

Original text: “Tomamos agua … es que andamos por cubetas por contrato, podemos tomar agua la hora que queramos. No hay problema.”

There are pros and cons to getting paid by the bucket. As the harvest goes on, it becomes harder and harder to fill that bucket. There are fewer cucumbers to pick, so a good day goes from 130 buckets to 70 buckets. Still, Zavala said this was one of the better farms.

At the end of the talk, Zavala handed out electrolyte packets for the workers to bring into the field with them.