A Merced farm labor contractor is being investigated by the state's Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the death of an 18-year-old Lodi farm laborer.
Family members and representatives of the United Farm Workers blame the contractor for failing to take appropriate action when Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez exhibited signs of heat-related illness.
Vasquez Jimenez, an undocumented worker, died Friday, May 23, 2008, two days after being hospitalized for heat exhaustion symptoms she exhibited while pruning grape vines in a vineyard in Farmington. Temperatures the day she collapsed peaked at 95 degrees.
Vasquez Jimenez had started her job just three days earlier through Merced Farm Labor, a farm labor contractor. After working for more than eight hours,she complained of dizziness and then collapsed on the job at 3:40 p.m., said her uncle, Doroteo Jimenez, a 44-year-old Lodi resident.
Florentino Bautista, Vasquez Jimenez's boyfriend, described what happened day she collapsed. When she became unconscious, Bautista notified two supervisors on site, one from the contractor and the other from the grape company. He said the supervisors attempted to help by placing a wet handkerchief on Vasquez Jimenez's forehead. He said they didn't call for emergency care and instead released her to him. Bautista said he then drove her to a nearby Farmington market and attempted to revive her.
He purchased a bottle of rubbing alcohol, poured it on a cloth and held the cloth to her nose. When that didn't work, he drove Vasquez Jimenez to a Lodi clinic. She was transported by ambulance to Lodi Memorial Hospital, where she died Friday.
Vasquez Jimenez, who migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, in February, planned to work in the San Joaquin County agriculture fields to help her widowed mother in Mexico. She followed Bautista, who had migrated several months earlier.
"But the sun was very strong that day," her uncle, said. "She died of dehydration before we got to spend any time with her. I feel very badly because she's my family."
Her uncle is waiting for an autopsy by the county coroner before Vasquez Jimenez's body is transported to Mexico. Les Garcia, spokesman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, said the report could take up to two weeks.
California's occupational safety agency had issued a heat-danger warning to employers the same day. This is the first heat-related occupational death of the season in California, said Kate McGuire, an agency spokeswoman based in San Francisco. "It is a very dangerous time for workers right now," McGuire said. McGuire would not disclose any details of the incident because the case is under investigation. She said the investigation could take up to four months.
State law requires employers with outdoor employees to provide training on heat-related illnesses, shaded resting areas, four cups of drinking water per person per hour and paid rest breaks of at least five minutes as needed. Employers must also have an emergency plan in place.
Stockton-based immigrant-rights activist Luis Magaña is helping the family raise money to transport her body. The United Farm Workers also is investigating the contractor and the grape farmer. "Obviously, it's just another tragic death that didn't have to happen," said Armando Elenes, the UFW’s external organizer director.
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