OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - A farm workers union has sued two Washington state agencies over rules that would allow workers to sleep in close quarters on bunk beds during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit filed last week by Familias Unidas por la Justicia seeks to repeal parts of rules adopted by the Department of Labor & Industries and the Department of Health, Tri-City Herald reported Sunday.
Temporary farm workers typically reside in dormitory-style housing with several hundred workers, the lawsuit said.
The state’s emergency heath rules that took effect May 18 allow workers who are not related to sleep on the upper and lower levels of bunk beds if farm operators assign them to groups of up to 15 who remain separate from other workers. The practice is referred to as group shelters or cohorts.
The union said the state regulations are “contrary to scientific evidence.”
“We will keep fighting until the agencies pass rules that actually protect farm workers from COVID-19,” said Ramon Torres, president of Familias Unidas por la Justicia.
Washington agricultural employers plan to bring about 30,000 farm workers from rural areas of Mexico under non-immigrant, temporary H-2A work visas.
Rosalinda Guillen of farm worker support organization Community to Community Development said the rules are offensive.
“What they are saying is that our individual lives are worth sacrificing for industry profits. It’s acceptable to them to lump us together and subject us to the disease because those getting sick, and who may die, are poor brown people,” Guillen said.
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee said May 28 that proper adherence to the cohort model “can tremendously reduce the risk to agricultural workers because they are only exposed to a smaller group of people that can reside and travel and work together.”
Inslee spokesman Mike Faulk said the governor’s office legal counsel is reviewing the lawsuit. State Department of Health spokeswoman Jessica Baggett said the agency could not comment on the lawsuit.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
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