Farmworker transportation safety

[Guest guest]

Here's an update on transportation safety and migrants in Florida,

courtesy of Greg Schell and Adolfo Mata.

Mimi

From: Greg Schell [mailto:greg@...]

Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 11:07 AM

Mata, Adolfo

Subject: Transportation safety

I had a copy of your recent e-mails regarding farmworker transportation

sent to me.

My name is Greg Schell. I am the managing attorney of the Migrant

farmworker

Justcie Project. We are a non-profit public interest law firm that

provides free

representation to migrant workers on employment matters. We have

handled a

number of cases for workers injured while riding to or from work in

unsafe and/or

uninsured vehicles.

We have been involved in legislative efforts to strengthen vehicle

safety laws. However,

the biggest problem is not the laws themselves. There are already state

and federal

laws on the books requiring that farm labor vehicles be insured at very

high levels,

meet strict safety standards and be operated only by properly-licensed

drivers. The

problem, as you might imagine, is with enforcement, or lack thereof.

We believe that one of the important steps toward meaningful

transportation

protections is clearly establishing that farmers are ultimately

responsible for the

transportation of their workers, even if the workers are actually driven

to and from the

jobsite by labor contractors or " raiteros. " We have enjoyed some

substantial success

in the courts in winning these arguments and believe that if farmers are

forced to bear

the cost of horrific vehicle accidents, they will become actively

involved in either

providing safe vehicles themselves for the workers' transportation or,

alternatively, will

much more closely monitor the vehicles used by their labor contractors.

I would be happy to talk with you further on these issues and to share

with you the

materials we've developed over the years.

Greg Schell, Belle Glade, Florida, 1-800-227-7447.

--

Mimi ez McKay

Director of Library and Information Resources

National Center for Farmworker Health

512.312.5462 (direct)

800.531.5120

512.312.2600 (fax)

http://www.ncfh.org