野火使得農(nóng)場工人無法呼吸

野火使得農(nóng)場工人無法呼吸

Before massive wildfires broke out in California, farmworkers already had to take extra precautions for COVID-19. Now they must worry about dangerous air from wildfires. In this photo, farmworkers arrive early in the morning to begin harvesting on April 28 in Greenfield, Calif.

在加州發(fā)生大規(guī)模野火之前，農(nóng)場工人已經(jīng)對COVID-19采取了額外的預防措施。現(xiàn)在他們必須擔心來自野火的危險空氣。在這張照片中，4月28日，加利福尼亞州格林菲爾德，農(nóng)場工人一大早就來到這里開始收割。

Farmworkers in California are facing two crises at once: the coronavirus and exposure to dangerous air from wildfires.

加州的農(nóng)場工人同時面臨著兩個危機:冠狀病毒和野火帶來的危險空氣。

Massive fires border large swaths of California's agriculture region, the Central Valley. Monitoring stations report unhealthy air across the interior of the state.

大面積的大火包圍著加州的農(nóng)業(yè)區(qū)，中央山谷。監(jiān)測站報告說整個州的內部空氣不健康。

"To be out in the fields, it's like you can't breathe," says Hernan Hernandez, executive director of the California Farmworker Foundation.

加州農(nóng)場工人基金會執(zhí)行董事赫爾南•赫爾南德斯說:“在地里干活，就好像你無法呼吸。”

California requires employers to provide outdoor workers with respiratory protection such as N95 masks if the air quality reaches a certain threshold. In a statewide survey last month, a labor union found farmworkers mostly weren't getting them. But wearing a mask when it's 110 degrees isn't easy either.

加州要求，如果空氣質量達到一定臨界值，雇主必須為戶外工作人員提供N95口罩等呼吸防護。在上個月進行的一項全州范圍的調查中，一個工會發(fā)現(xiàn)，大多數(shù)農(nóng)場工人都得不到這些防護物品。但在華氏110度(約43.3攝氏度)的情況下戴口罩也不容易。

About half, or more, of farmworkers in the U.S. are in the country illegally. They don't have access to many government benefits, can't afford to miss work and may be hesitant to complain.

在美國，大約一半或更多的農(nóng)場工人是非法移民。他們享受不到很多政府福利，不能失去工作，可能也不愿控訴。

Here are excerpts of Sacha Pfeiffer's interview with Hernandez on All Things Considered about the threats facing farmworkers.

以下是薩沙·法伊弗對赫爾南德斯的采訪節(jié)選，內容包括農(nóng)場工人面臨的各種威脅。

I understand that you're hearing that employers are not always supplying masks.

我知道你聽說雇主并不總是提供口罩。

Yes. There's not enough PPE to sustain the current agriculture workforce in California. So what we're seeing on the ground is that everybody's just trying to get a hold of whatever they can. At a state level, in which PPE distributions have occurred in the past couple of weeks, we're nowhere near meeting the demands to ensure the safety of farmworkers and their families.

是的。沒有足夠的個人防護裝備(簡稱PPE)來維持加州現(xiàn)有的農(nóng)業(yè)勞動力。所以我們在現(xiàn)場看到的是，每個人都在試圖獲得他們所能得到的任何東西。在州一級，在過去的幾周內，PPE已經(jīng)開始發(fā)放，我們離確保農(nóng)場工人及其家庭安全的要求還差得很遠。

What are you hearing from farmworkers about the kinds of dilemmas and choices they're facing, especially in terms of what if they miss work and how do they try to protect their health?

關于農(nóng)場工人面臨的困境和選擇，你從他們那里聽到了什么，特別是如果他們失去工作他們如何保護自己的健康?

When you look at farmworkers and you ask them, "How can the state help you during these difficult times?" the No. 1 thing they will tell you is rent relief. The Central Valley, the coastal areas, everywhere in California, there's a housing crisis. And you're seeing it through farmworkers living in households that have two to three families because they can't afford the rent.

當你看著農(nóng)場工人，問他們:“在這些困難時期，國家怎么能幫助你?”他們會告訴你的第一件事就是減免租金。中央山谷，沿海地區(qū)，加州的每一個地方，都有住房危機。你可以從那些家庭中有兩到三個家庭的農(nóng)場工人身上看到這一點，因為他們付不起房租。

California did supply some pandemic aid to undocumented immigrants — about $125 million in May. Has that money gotten to farmworkers and helped them during this time?

加州確實為非法移民提供了一些流行病援助——大約在5月份提供了1.25億美元。這些錢是不是給了農(nóng)場工人并在這段時間里幫助了他們?

Yes, it was a very minute force that actually received the California aid, because just in the Central Valley alone we have over 500,000 farmworkers. The aid for the Central Valley was capped at 10,000 undocumented workers, so this didn't encompass just farmworkers, it encompassed any type of undocumented worker that works in retail, that works in restaurants, that works in construction, so a very minute force actually had an opportunity to receive those $500.

是的，這是一個非常微小的隊伍，實際上得到了加州的援助，因為僅僅在中央山谷我們就有超過50萬的農(nóng)場工人。對中央山谷的援助上限是1萬名無證工人，所以這不只是包括農(nóng)場工人，它包括在零售業(yè)工作，在餐館工作，在建筑業(yè)工作的任何類型的無證工人，所以非常微小的隊伍實際上有機會得到那500美元。