Rep. Dr. Raul Ruiz, CA-36, served as commentator on a segment of Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC program Tuesday night June 6 regarding heatwaves and their effect on California’s farmworkers particularly.
Ruiz, who has personally treated over-heated farmworkers in the emergency room, says he has seen farmworkers suffering from renal insufficiencies, diabetic conditions and other serious problems exacerbated by overheated working conditions in the fields. He stated that farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die of heat stroke than other workers.
He further pointed out that a bill is before Congress that would mandate better conditions for farmworkers, including required breaks, available clean drinking water and limitations regarding exposure to extreme heat. The bill would also require growers to monitor their farmworkers and initiate 911 calls themselves for workers in distress.
Appearing with Ruiz in that MSNBC segment was Dolores Huerta, whom Ruiz took the opportunity to thank and praise for her work benefiting farmworkers, which included his own parents. Huerta was co-founder with Cesar Chavez of a workers’ rights organization, the National Farm Workers Association, which later became a national labor union, the United Farm Workers of America labor union.