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Unless you’ve done
the work day after day, you might not know that the use of short-handled
tools or weeding by hand could cripple you. Before 1975, the use of
short-handled tools, or el cortito in spanish, was permitted in
California’s fields. Farm workers throughout the state worked ten or
more hours per day bent-over weeding or thinning plants. Thousands of
workers, over the years, were injured or crippled with severe and
painful back injuries because the human back was not designed to
withstand hours and days of labor in a stooped position.
In 1975, CRLA and other farmworker advocates succeeded in banning the
use of el cortito. CRLA advocates first collected the stories of our
clients which showed that these tools were debilitating workers. Then
CRLA compared tool use in California with that in other states, and
compiled medical information which proved that el cortito was dangerous.
CRLA presented the California Occupational Safety and Health Agency with
this information and when CalOSHA failed to regulate these tools, CRLA
sued the state in court for failing to protect workers. CRLA won that
battle and the tools were banned. While conditions have improved
immensely, AWHP advocates continue to find occasional abuses of the law
and intervene to protect farm workers from these crippling tools.
In 2004, CRLAF and
CRLA led a successful effort, which included the United Farm Workers
(UFW), to prohibit weeding and thinning of plants by hand in most
instances. Hand weeding and thinning presented many of the same risks
and injuries as did the use of short-handled tools. Because this
regulation is fairly new, AWHP advocates are monitoring the
implementation and enforcement of the regulation.
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