Photo: Jim Watson / Getty Images
The Coachella, California government unanimously approved the so-called “hero pay” for certain essential workers Wednesday night and extended benefits for risk of the coronavirus pandemic to agricultural workers.
The emergency ordinance requires that certain agricultural operations , as well as grocery stores, retail pharmacies, and restaurants, provide an additional $ 4 per hour pay to their employees at Coachella , for at least 120 days. Regulation applies to those who employ 300 or more workers nationwide and more than five employees in the city.
Coachella is the first city in the country in demanding this payment from farm workers, according to city leaders.
Approximately 8, 000 farm workers live in the Coachella Valley, where the celebrated labor and civil rights leader César Chávez organized agricultural workers in the decades of 1960 and 1970. California has almost 800, 000 agricultural workers.
“We know that COVID has been more prominent in these farming communities, and if you look at the death rates, a lot of farm workers have died,” Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez told Los Angeles Times. “You can see the devastation.”
Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley found a positivity rate of 13% for coronavirus between more than 1, 000 agricultural workers assessed in California from mid-July through November of 2020, compared to 5% of the overall state population.
The Coachella government action follows similar ordinances approved by cities like Long Beach, Oakland and Montebello , which have demanded temporary wage increases for essential workers who have risked their health to work during the pandemic and have become ill with COVID – 19 at high rates.
