California Sets Weeding Ban to Save Workers' Backs
Date: 27-Sep-04
Country: USA
The new rule, which is expected to take effect in two weeks, was announced by California's Occupational Safety and Health Division.
"We think it's a modest step to ban a practice that should never have existed in the first place," said Giev Kashkooli, political director of the United Farm Workers.
In 1975, California barred farm workers from using a 12-inch hoe known as "el cortito" to weed fields because it forced workers to stoop and led to debilitating back injuries.
The short-handled hoe became a symbol for California's farm workers. One was prominently displayed at the funeral of Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers union.
But the ban proved a hollow victory for field workers as farmers responded by having them weed by hand.
By 1993, state officials found that practice was just as injurious, and farmers, workers and state authorities have been at odds over how to rectify the situation ever since.
California is a major agricultural producer with nearly 80,000 farms having produced roughly $25.7 billion in goods value in 2002, according to state statistics.
Farmers complain the new regulation will make their farms less productive at a time when they face increased competition from less regulated states.
They said field workers would have to use long-handled hoes, a slow way to weed around crops, and that farmers will spray more pesticides to suppress weeds.
"If you're trying to weed between strawberries it's very difficult to use a hoe," said Tom Nassif, president and chief executive of the Western Growers Association. "The alternative is to use more pesticides to kill the weeds ... I don't see that as an advantage to anybody."
The new rule will allow hand-weeding if long-handled tools cannot be used effectively, regulators said.
"There are certain exceptions," said Len Welsh, a spokesman for the state agency that issues safety regulations for work places. "What this is all about is reducing circumstances under which workers must assume stooped or squatting positions."
