United Statesoj America

(NOT PRINTED AT GOVERNMENT EXPENSE) .....

(tongressional RecordPROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 9 I st CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

Vol. 115 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1969

House of Representatives

STATEMENT OF CESAR CHAVEZ

No. 161

STATEMENT OF CESAR CHAVEZ

HON. ALLARD K. LOWENSTEINOF NEW YORK

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. LOWENSTEIN. Mr. Speaker, Mr.Cesar Chavez, one of America's greatestsons and the leader of the United FarmWorkers organizing committee, testifiedMonday, September 29, before the Mi­gratory Labor Subcommittee of the Sen­ate Committee on Labor and Public Wel­fare, on the hazards from economic poi­sons endured by the workers of the grapefields of California. He told about spe­cific incidents of death and injury thathave resulted from virulent poison.."sprayed upon grapes and vines wherework crews performed their labors.

The plight of these grape workers hasbecome a primary concern of all who arem()ved by povf'rty _anlL.in.i.ustice. In thewords of former Secretary of LaborWirtz:

A thoughtful person sitting down to a largemeal would turn away from it if he let him­self think of the circumstances-at t!!athour-if some of those who had, in the full­est sense, worked to bring that meal tohis table.

The California grape worker is poor.His work is exhausting, his income is low.His tenure is uncertain; his job and hisrights unprotected, his conditions oftenincredibly degraded. Law, for him, bothas written and enforced, is all too oftenthe biased instrument of his subjuga­tion. Order, the certain promise of end­less repetition of suffering and decay.Above all, his right to organize, to partici­pate in the decisions which control hislife, still remains to be achieved.

It is that elemental right to organizewhich has been the focus of all the strug­gle-first in the fields, and then in thesupermarkets-of the past 4 years.

What does the farmworker see whenhe surveys the questions of law, order,and Government responsiveness to hisplight? He sees countless examples ofgovernmental unconcern and aJ:roganceand the institutional violence of whichR~bert Kennedy spoke, a violence whichqmetly and undramatically gouges outmen's lives.

* * * * * * * *Most of the violence in the dispute has

been directed against those who seek toorganize. Strikers have been harassed;they have been physically attacked; theyhave been shot at, and kidnaped. Theyhave been rammed by trucks. Their of­fices have been looted or destroyed. M.oreoften than protecting the rights ofstrikers, local police have condoned andeven aided those who· would destroythem. Officers of the law have looked onwhile pickets have been kicked, beaten,cursed, and spat upon. These same of­ficers have proceeded personally to escortstrikebreakers across the picket line.

Even the courts too often play a dis­mal and biased role in these affairs. Anti­picketing injunctions have unfairly in­hibited activities at the labor site.

When the Guimarra Vineyards, after abitter struggle, was tried and CQnvictedon nearly 40 violations of child laborand health laws, it was fined a total of$1,000 by the Kern County SuperiorCourt--and the fine was suspended. Thissame Guimarra Vineyards has receivedhundreds of thousands ordollars in sub­sidies from the U.S. Department of Agri­culture. And one of its best customers,perhaps the only one not subject to th'egrape boycott, is the U.S. Department ofDefense.

********

. With respect to other laws, the storyIS much the same. The laws governingwo..~i~g conditions, and particularlypestiCides, are not adequate but thegreater outrage is that even these in­a~equa.te laws are not enforced, so pesti­Cides kill or make seriously ill an alarm­ing number of farmworkers each year.Yet, when the union became concernedthe Kern -County authorities refused t~release the information they had aboutthis situation.

A survey of 946 employers by the de­paltment of industrial welfare in Cali­fornia showed over 90 percent in viola­tion of existing laws about drinkingwater and washing facilities. For fieldworkers the open fields often provide the.only available latrine, and often thereare no facilities for washing. Then weeat the grapes grown and picked in suchcircumstances.

Discrimination problems in the fieldsare also cop..siderable. Chicanos are oftenbarr~d from the good jobs. blacks from~ny J.o~ at all. And once again, the law~s apphed unequally, depending on whosemterests are involved.

The strike itself could not be resistedwere there not a law permitting the im­portation of impoverished Mexicans whoc:oss the border to provide union lab.or.Smce one Federal law bars such laborersfrom areas in which labor disputes arecertified to exist, strike centers often aren~t c~rtified. Meanwhile, illegal im­migratIOn across the border continues inresp.onse to the demand for strike­breakers.

In this connection, the zeal of the De­?ar~ment of Immigration and Natural­l~atIOn has been called into serious ques­tIOn. A law suit against the Departmentwill be filed this week demanding thatthe Department enforce its regulationsto detect and apprehend persons workingillegally in strike areas.

And similar governm~nt inaction ex­tends in all directions. When some grow­ers substituted im.\lroper labels on con­tainers of grapes to deceive the public,the responses of the Food and Drug Ad­ministration have been mere mild atbest. Appeals for help against various

other injustices have received half­hearted, reluctant, and sometimes per­functory responses from the Depart­ments of Labor and Justice.

On top of all this, the Department ofDefense has increased its purchase oftable grapes 40, percent since last year,and is now buying more table gr'apesthan at any time in its history. All thisin spite of theextensive violations of thelaw among those from whom the grapesare bought, in spite ,of the prohibitionagainst dealings with firms practicingdiscrimination, and in spite of the lownutritional value of the grape. There isa standing order in the Defense Depart­ment that requires that the domesticimplications of all policies be consideredwhen decisions are made. But when aDepartment representative came beforea Senate committee to testify on the pro­curement of grapes, not only did heaf­firm that the Department is 1J.ot follow­ing this order; he was not even awareit existed.

* * * * * * * *So now our forces in Vietnam-dis­

proportionately composed as they are ofmen from disadvantaged backgrounds­are being served almost 1% times asmany grapes as they were a year ago.

Farm laborers are excluded from min­imum wage legislation and from unem­ployment insurance, and are at a disad­vantage where social security is con­cerned. They are denied the collectivebargaining rights guaranteed to non­farm workers, and are effectively cut offfrom every benefit of a negotiated con­tract. So the vast majority of Californiafarmworkers have no contract, get noovertime, and may not even know theirrate of pay.

They are often victims of deceptionand graft. They get no time off with pay,no health or pension 'plans, no regularrest periods. Speedups and abusive su­pervision. are common. Workers may belaid off at any time and for any reason,as for objecting to being assaulted by anowner, or for displaying a Kennedybumper sticker. Safety provisions areminimal. Exempted from almost everykind of effective protection, the farm­worker sees his employers-usually largecorpOrations-lavished with many of thetax-supported aids provided by the Agri­culture Department, as well as Federalsubsidies of hundreds of thousands,sometimes millions of dollars per farm.

All this has suggested to millions ofconcerned Americans that the weak can­not succeed th1"Ough established institu­tions, and that government is only toprotect the powerful, to subsidize therich, to legitimize the iniquitous. Almostthe whole weight of government, whichshould vrotect the rights of the disad­vantaged, has ,gone to frustrate theirsimplest aspirations.

* * * * * * * *Mr. Speaker, this whole situati,6n is a

scandal. For the human beings inVOlved,it is a catastrophe--and the human

beings involved include all Americans.How much longer can we ask pOwerlessand despairing people to keep the faithas their lives continue to be passed in afutility and decay for which they are notrespOnsible and from which there is noescape? How can we enoourage them totry to right wrongs through the estab­lished process of law when nearly everyimpact of these processes frustrates theirhopes and adds to the blight of the con­ditions under which they must live? Afterdecades of tolerating silent misery andcreeping disaster, how long can we go oncounseling moderation and patience,while indifference and imrnobilism markthe behavior of the government?

Young people are now demanding rel­evance and concern. They are tired ofpious rhetoric that conceals indifferenceand seeks to conceal inaction. But we goon recklessly, blindly, assuring not onlythe continued sufferings of those af­fected, but escalating alienation, despair,and hatred in the broader life of theNation.

Many of our national problems areformidable, many of their solutions dis­tant and difficult to bring about. Here,surely, is one about which everyone couldagree. With a little comprehension andcompassion we could set out to ease andthen erase, this problem from ,the na­tional scene. If we tried hard enough, wecould achieve both social justice andharmony for the grape pickers ratherquickly. Think how great an incentivewould be provided by success in this rela­tively simple and most pressing field ofhuman misery.

Mr. Speaker, I commend to the atten­tion of my colleagues the testimony ofMr. Cesar Chavez before the Senate SUb­committee on Migrat.ory Labor, as fol­lows:

* * * * * * * *STATEMENT OF CESAR CHAVEZ

On August 1st, 1969, after testifying con~

cerning the misuse of economic poisons bytable grape gTowers, our general counsel,Jerry Cohen, submitted to the staff of theSenate Subcommittee on MigTatory Labor aLaboratory test from C. W. England Labora­tories in Washington, D.C. which indicatedthat table grapes which were purchased byManuel Vasquez at a Saieway store in north­east Washington contained an Aldrin r~sidue

of 18 parts per million. Subsequent to thattime Senator George Murphy abused hisprivilege of senatorial immunity by makingfalse accusations regarding the testimony ofthe United Farm Workers OTganizing Com­mittee. The innuendo in Senator Murphy'sremarks in the Congressional 'Record of Au­gust 12, 1969, is that the farm workers tam­pered with the gTapes. I can assure you thatthis is false.

I am confident that our position will bevindicated in this hearing and that the re­ports which have been reqf;)ived concerningthe fact that Safeway conducted its own in­dependent tests which confirmed our testsand subsequently cancelled its contract withBianco are accurate reports.

The real issue involved here is the issueof the health and safety not only of farmworkers but of consumers and how thehealth and safety of consumers and farnlworkers are affected by the gTOSS misuseof economic poisons.

The issue of the health and safety of farm:workers in California and throughout theUnited States is the single most importantissue facing the United Farm Workers Orga­nizing Committee. In California the agri­cultural industry experiences the highest 00-

cupational disease rate. This rate is over 50%higher than the second place industry. It isalso three times as high as the average rateof all industry in California. Growers con­sistently use the wrong kinds 'of economicpoisons in the wrong amounts in the wrongplaces in reckless ,disregard of the health oftheir workers in order to maximize profits.Advancing technological changes in agTicul­ture have left the industry far behind indealing with the occupational hazards ofworkers which arise from the use of economicpoisons. This problem is further compoundedby the fact that commonpiace needs such asclean drinking water and adequate toiletfacilities are rarely available in the fields andare also deficient in many living quarters offarm workers, especially of those workers wholive in la)x>r calnps provided by the em­ployer.

In California an estimated 3,000 childrenreceive medical attention annually afterhaviI:\g injested pesticides. There are over 300cases of serious nonfatal poisonings annual­ly, most of which occur in agriCUlture. Thereare some fatal poisonings which occur an­nually in agriculture. In addition to this,literally thousands of workers ·experienc'e

daily symptoms of chemical poi50nin-g whichinclude derlnatitis, rashes, eye irritation,nausea, vOlniting, fatigue, excess sweating,headaches. double vision. dizziness, skin ir­ritations, diffiCUlty in breathing, loss offingernals, nervousness, insomnia, bleedingnoses, and diarrhea.

The misuse of pesti:;ides is creating gravedangers not only to farmworkers but to theirchildren as well. Dr. Lee Mizrahi at theSalud Clinic in Tulare County has recentlyconducted a stUdy relating to nutrition,parasites and pesticide levels. Dr. Mizrahichose his samples by inviting every fifthfamily who came to his clinic to participatein a free complete stUdy of their children.Sixty families particIpated to date and 170children have been tested, Dr. Mizrahi hasreported to the United Farm Workers Or­ganizing Committee that though the resultsof the test are not complete, based on thefindings already received there are pesticidelevels, v:hich can only be described as epi­demi~. ,

Thus far, on 29 children tested. 32 of the84 reported values have fallen outside nor­mal limits. Dr. Mizrahi has informed me thatas a practicing physician he would be greatlyworriecl if he found 10% of reportedly normalchildren outside normal limits. In this casehe is L-ighiened. These farm worker childrenare suffering from high levels of DDT in theirblood "nd from low cholinesterrrse levels intheir blood plasma.

Recently the st?te director of publichealth. Dr. Thomas Milby, said that there isample evidence of many unreported poison­ings in agriCUlture. Dr. Milby is currentlyconducting an investigation in an attemptto get an accurate picture of pesticide pOi­sonings among the workers. The state ofCalifornia is not releasing the data fromthis investigation. As an article in the FresnoBee by Ron Taylor claims this study isheaded by Mr. Henry Anderson who wouldnot answer questions concerning the factualfindings of the stUdy to date because "theSUbject is too controversial." According toMr. Taylor's article an undisclosed numberof farm workers are reporting symptoms ofpesticide poisoning. Many of these workersdo not go to the doctors ordinarily but sufferin silence what they feel is an occupationalhazard. The adverse effects of chemical poi­sons are so pervasive that they are consideredby farm workers to be part of their way oflife. They are accepted, One of the inter­viewers who is nelping the state to conductthis investigation has informed the UnitedFarm Workers OrganiZing Committee that ofthe 774 workers who filled out questionnaireswhich are now in the pO"ssession of the sta te,469 of the workers had worked in the grapesand 295 had not worked in the grapes. Amongthe 774 farm workers. the following symp­toms caused by pesticide poisonings werereported:

Eye irritation 548Nausea or vomiting 141Unusual fatigue 145Unusuai persplration -' 159lIeadaches 309Dizziness 115Skin irritation 249Difficulty in breathing 188Pain in the fingernails (some workers

lost their fingernails) 52Nervousness and/or insomnia 122Itching in the ears____________________ 12Nose bleeds___________________________ 26Burning and sorethroats______________ 51Swollen hands and feeL_______________ 7Loss of haiL__________________________ 4Diarrhea 2

One hundred and fifty-four of the workersreported l1aving one of the above symptoms,144 reported two of the syrruptoms, 109 re­POI'ted three, 83 reported foUl", and 163 re­ported five or more symptoms. Only 12.1 ofthe 774 workers studied reported none of theabove symptoms. This study was liInd,ted to,arelatively snlall county, Tulare, which is im­mediately north of Delano.

Dr. Irma West who """Orks in the SltaJte De­partment of Public lIealth has written manyarticles concerning the occupa,tionaJ hazardsof fann wOTkers. Some of the examples ofinjuries are as follows:

On a large Oalifornia ranch in the fall of1965 a group of Mexican-Am.erican wOTkersand their families were picking berries. Nonecould understand or read EngUsh. A thl"ee­year-Old girl and her four-year-old brotherwere playing around an unattended spray ngnext to where their mmher was working. Thefour-year-old apparently took the cap off agallon can of 40% tetraethyl phyrophosphate(TEPP, a phosphate ester cholinesterase In­hibitor) pesticide left on the rig. The three­year-Old put her finger in it and sucked It.She vomited immediately, beoame uncon­scious, and was dead on arrival at the hospi­t.al where she was promptly taken. TEPP Ist.he most hazardous of all pesticides in com­mon use In agriculture In California. Theestimated fatal dose of pure TEPP for anadult is one drop orally and one drop der­mally. This child weighed about 30 pounds.

Because of engine troul>loe, an agricultu~al

aircraft pilot attempted a forced landing inan unplanted field. The plane rolled into afence and turned over. The hoppoc of theairplane contained a dust fonnula of TEPP,another of the phosphate ester pestiClides.The estimated adult fatai dose for TEPPconcentrate is one drop orally or dermally.The pilot was not injured but was coveredwith dust. He walked a distance of 50 feetto a field worku, -stated-he felt fine, and­asked for a drink of water. After drinking thewater, he began to vomit and almost imme­diately became unconscious. By the time theambulance an-,ved, the pilot was dead andthe ambulance driver, the pathOlogist, andthe mortician became HI from handl<ing thebody.

During this past summer in the grapesalone and largely in the Delano area thefollowing incidents have been brought to theattention of our legal department.

On May 16th, 1969, Mrs. Dolores Lorro wasworking for labor contraotor Manuel Armen­dariz in a table grape vineyard owned byAgri-Business Investment Company. WlJthoutwarning, an Agri-Business spray rig sprayedthe row she was working on, and Mrs. Lortawas sprayed all over her body with an un­known mixtur-e of chemicals. Shortly there­after, she experienced difficulty in breaJ1ihing.Sh'e told her forelady, who responded thatthe spraying had nothdng to do with that;that she must have had that difficulty before.

The next day she felt quite sick and largered blotches l1ad appear.ed on her skin. Shewent to work that day but was unable tocontinue and hasn't been well enough towork slnct:'. She has suffered from oollitinu­ing sores and rashes all over her body, head~adhes. d!izziness, loss of .weight, s,nd her con-

dltil.Qn stll:l coIlltlnue6. She has received nocompensation from her employer as yet, andshe has had to pay for her medical care her­self.

Mr. and Mrs. Abelardo de Leon, and theirteenage children, Juan and Maria, workedpicking grapes for labor con'tratcor ManuelArmendariz in vineyards owned by Agri­Business Investment Company during Ju!lyand August of 1969. From the start of theirwork there, Mr. de Leon suffered rashes allover his body, which Lasted until they quit.Mrs. de Leon began to suffer extremely ir­ritated and swollen eyes as soon as theystarted working there and one eye Is stillsomewhat swollen. The irritation ceased whenshe quit, and has not reoccurred though shehas returned to work in a different cropsince then. Both the de Leon ohildren, alongwith their mother, suffered eye irritationwhile working for Armendariz, and oftentheir eyes would water profusely throughoutthe working day. When this was brought tothe attention of Armendariz, he laughed andcalled them cry babies. He did not .suggestthat medical help was available for the familyunder the workman's compensation program.,and as a result they had to make do withdrugs and home remedies. Though the deLeons were not sprayed on directly, therewas a heavy white dust on the vines andgrapes which they picked. They saw no sig'nswarning of the ill effects of thLs chemicalspray, nor did they receive any warning oradvice about it whatsoever. The de Leonfamily eventually. stopped working forArmendariz because of the ill effects theywere suffering from the chemical poisons onthe grapevines.

Mr. Gregorio Sisneros was engaged in spray­ing a vineyard in the Selmp. area in 1968.According to directions which came with it,he mixed one quart of economic poison wi·tha large quantity of water. But tis employertold him t.Q add in another quart of polson,and so he did. After spraying this mixturefor a short while he became til and had tobe taken to a doctor immediately. Afterreceiving medical treatment he was confinedto his home and unal>le to work for somedays. Since then he has been sensitive tochemical spray and has become ill severaltimes.

While working the Vineyards of George A.Lucas & Sons this summer, Mrs. BeatriceRoman developed trouble breathing, sorethI'oat, difficulty in speaking, and stomachpain. Each day her condition would improveas she left the vineyards, and it would worsenas she began work th,e follOWing morning.There was a heavy white powder on th.e vineswhich she was working among. Mrs. Romanhas worked in other crops without experi­encing such illness. She has been Informedby her physician that it Is due to the sprayresidues on the vines. She stopped workingfor Lucas, because of the illness caused by thesprays, on_August 4, 1969. She has been un.,-..able to work more than very little since thenbecause of the continuing effects of theillness.

Mr. Mauro Roman (Beatrice's husband),along with his son, Jose, and a neighboringfamily all worked picking grapes in the vine­yards of Lamanuzzi and Pantaleo in August1969. All suffered severe skin rashes over theirbodies, wi th cracked and peeling skin. Allieft this work after several weeks, and im­proved sharply as soon as they left. Therewas a very heavy white powder on the vinesand grapes they were picking there.

After working in the vineyards of D. M.Steele for several cklys, Mr.. Juan Q. Lopez

developed trouble breathing, rashes on hisneck and face, ll'1.unbness in his left arm andupper left chest, headache and irritated eyes.There was a white powder on the vines. Mr.Lopez's conditidn began to I.m.prove when hestopped working in these fields.

While working picking grapes in a Caricvineyard 8Joout 10 days ago, Mr. AbelardolIernandez ate som.e grapes :from the vine.Shortly thereafter, he began to vomit and tobleed from the nose.. Hl.s foreman refused totake him to a doctor until other worken;finally convinced his to do so. The doctor

who treated him said his illness was due tothe grapes and the chemicals on them. Hehas suffered from this illness on and off sincethen.

During this season, Mrs. Dominga F. Me­dina has worked in vineyards near Rich­grove. She has seen spray rigs spraying liqUidpreparations on the vineyards. only a shortdistance from where she and the other mem.­bers of her crew were working. She has suf­fered from bloody nose, eye irritation, andheadache while working in these vineyards.

Aurelio de la Cruz worked with GiumarraVineyards in the spring of 1969. O~ m.orethan one occasion he saw spray rigs spraymgright ahead of the crew he was working in;his crew was told to work in the sprayedareas shortly after the spraying was con­cluded. He suffered eye irritation and skinrashes on these occasions.

Mr. Claro Runtal-suffered very severe rashesand dermatitis on his legs and neck whileworking in vineyards of Richard Bagdasarianfrom December 1968 to June 1969. Many ofthe other men in the crew suffered skinirritations during the same period from thechemical dusts which had been applied to thevines.

Juanita Cl1avera was working in the ElmcoVineyards in the spring of 1969 when shedeveloped, as a result of the spray residue onthe vines, skin rash, eye irritation, and handsswollen so badlytnat her ring had to be cutoff. Other women in the crew including Mrs.Chovera's sister, Linda OrtiZ, suffered similarsymptoms.

Marla Serna also working in the ElmcoVineyards in May 1969, where she developedirritated eyes, headaches, and severe dizzi­ness. Her daughter, Alicia Ramona, sufferedrashes and eye irritation.

Frances Barajas also worked in the Elmcovineyards this spring. While she was workingthere, a tractor spraying a liquid econorrncpoison came through the vineyard in whichshe was working. She ran out of the fieldbecause she did not want to get sprayed, buta foreman ordered her to go back in and getback to work. She later talked to the tractordriver, who said he had been ordered to spraythere by one of the ElmcD supervisors. Whileworking there she developed skin rashef; andeye irritations that led to a serious eye in­fection. She has been afraid to complainabout the poisons for fear of being fired.

Rafaela Ay~la woked in the Elmco vine­yards In the same crew as Mrs. Barajas. Whenthe tractor sprayed the field they were work­ing In she immediately began to vomit andher eyes became very irritated; they are stillsore. She stopped working for Elmco as aresult.

Mrs. Celestina Pereales was working in th,eElmco vineyards in May -1968 when a tractorspray rJg approached the row her crew wasworking in. Her supervisor told them tohunch down under the vines while the sprayrig sprayed them. Not knowing better at thetime, she did so. Her eyes became red andwatery right away, and became persistentlyirritated, and she has had eye trouble eversince.

Mrs. Josephine C. Moreno was working in acrew leafing vines in the Elmco vineyards thisspring. A spray rig came through the vine­yard one row away from where the crew wasworking, and she and other women gotsprayed soaking wet, but were put back towork after five minutes.

Petra SisneI'OS was workJing in the Elmcovineyards, tipping grape bunches, in mJay1969, when four tractor driven spray rigscame Into the field. Without any warnJng. oneof them came right over. the spot she wasworking in. spraying her soaking wet andblinding her to the point that she almost fellunder the spI'ay rig. other women workersdragged her away from the danger' of thespray rig. Her supervisor did not take her to adoctor until she became visibly SlIck. Untilthen she had merely been told to sit in theshade under the vine. She was vomiting agreat deal by this tlme. After she W'as takento a doctor, who gave her an injection andbathed her eyes, she. was returned to theVineyards where she had. to walt for a ridehome until her co-workers were ,finishl¥l for'

the day. She was extremely ill for 1lhe next10 days with vomiting, nausea, trembling,dizziness, headache. difllCulty in breathing,tightness of chest, and difllcUlty in sleepdng.To date she has received no compensationfrom her employer. I:)he is still suffering fromthe aftereffects of thds illness. When sheasked her supervisor and foreman what kindof chemical she had been spmyed with, theyclaimed they didn't know and said it was nottheir fault she had been sprayed.

Alfonso Pedraza was also sprayed by anElmco spray rig while working in its vine­yards in the summer of 1969. The spray hithim on his back. When he saw a doctor threedays later, his back was very red and theskin was cracked. The rash spread all over hisbody, and he developed muscle stiffness andeye irritation as well.

The carelessness with which economic poi­sons are applied in this area is such that farmworkers are endangered outside the fieldsas well as within. About a month ago, whilePetra Ojeda was working in a Tulare Countyorchard, the grower's tractor driven sprayrigs sprayed her car and th.e cars of otherworkers which were parked along the roadnearby. Mrs. Ojeda's young child was in thecar asleep, along with food for lunch for theentire family. The child was covered by ablanket, but her bottle was covered withspray. The entire car was' White with thechemical spray.

The James Morning family didn't evenhave to le9ve their home in order to besprayed witl1<€conomic poisons. In May, 1969,their countl)(. home was sprayed by an air­plane Which \1:(,s applying poison to a nearbyfield. All six members of the family were hitwith the spray, causing rashes, cracked skinand irritated eyes.

The United Farm Workers OrganizingCommittee is attempting to solve this. p~r)'a;.sive problem by the collective bargaini!1iprocess. We have recently attained what. isfQr farm workers an historic breakthr<:mgh

in our negotiations with the Perelll-MinettiCompany. We have completed negotiating acomprehensive health and safety clausewhich covers the SUbject of economic pOi­sons. It includes the following protections:

HEALTH AND SAFETY

A. The Health and Safety Committee shallbe formed consisting of equal numbers ofworker's representatives selected by the bar­gaining unit and P-M representatives. TheHealth and Safety Committee shall be pro­vided with notices on the use of pesticides,insecticides, or herbicides, as outlined in Sec­tion D 1, 2 and 3.

The Health and Safety Committee shalladvise in the formulation of rules and prac­tices relating to the health and safety of theworkers, inclUding, but not limited to, tileuse of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides;the use of garments, materials, tools andequipment as they may affect the health andsafety of the workers and sanitation con­ditions.

B. The following shali not be used: DDT,Aldrin, Dieldrin, and Endrin. other chlori­nated hydrocarbons shall not be appliedwithout the necessary precautions.

C. The Health and Safety Committee shallrecommend the proper and safe use of or­ganic phc.sphates including, but not I1mitedto parathion. The Company s'hall notify theHealth and Safety Committee as soon as pos­sible. before the lIIoolication of organic phOS­pnate ·material. Said notice shall contain theinformation set forth in Section D below.The Health and Safety Committee shall rec­ommend the length of time during Whichfarm work~rs wiU not be permitted to enterthe treated field fQllowing the application oforganic phosphate pesticide. If P-M uses or­ganic phosphates, it shall pay for the ex­pense for all farm workers, applying thephosphates, of one baseline cholinesterasetest and other additional such tests if rec­ommended by a doctor. The results of all saidtests shall be immediately given by P-M tothe Health and Safety Committee.

D. P-M shall keep the following recordsand make them available to each meznher otthe Health and Safety Committee:

(1) A plan shOWing the size and location otfields and a list of the crops or plants beinggrown.

(2) Pesticides, insecticides, and herbicidesused, inclUding brand names plus active in­gredients, registration number on the label,Mld manufacturer's batch or lot number.

(a) Dates and time applied or to be ap­plied.

(b) Location of crops or plants treated orto be treated.

(c) Amount of each application.(d) Formulation.(e) Method of application.(f) Person who applied 'the pesticide(3) Date ot harvest.

SANITATION

A. There shaH he adequate toilet facilitiesseparate for men and women, in the field:readily accessible to worker'S, that will bemaintained in a clean and sanItary manner.These may be portable facilities and shall bemaintained a,t the ratio of one for every35 workers.

B. Each place Where there is work beingperformed Shall he prOVided with SUitable,cool, potable drinking water convenient toworkers. Ind,ividual paper drinking cUI>~shall be provided.

C. Workers will have two (2) relief peri0c!3of fifteen (15) minutes which, insofar aspractical, shall be in the middle of each workperlod.

TOOLS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Tools and eqUipment and protective gar­ments necessary to perform the work and/orto safeguard the health of or to prevent in­jury to a worker's person shall be pro,",de<l,maintained and paid for by P-M.