Farmworkers struggle to get by amidst wealth
Most Sonoma County farmworkers are permanent county residents and live with their families; they live in unaffordable and overcrowded housing conditions and nearly all farmworker families earn insufficient incomes to meet their family’s basic needs. Due to limited health insurance coverage, farmworkers have restricted access to preventative and medical care and experience significant health disparities. This information was compiled in a study recently released by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS). The data describes the health status of farmworkers and discusses the health inequities among members of the Sonoma County community.
The survey revealed that agriculture is one of the most demanding and high-risk industries for hired workers. Farmworkers experience higher rates of unintentional fatal and occupational injuries and face a higher prevalence of chronic diseases than the general public. Previous research also indicates that many farmworkers lack high-quality, affordable housing options and that housing affects health.
Fourth District Supervisor James Gore said that the survey “sheds light on one of the biggest shadows in our community.” He said that a recent study by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission showed that more than 60 percent of Sonoma County’s economy is derived from the vineyard and wine industry. Most of the farmworkers (92 percent) in the DHS survey reported working with grapes, and wine grapes grossed nearly $600 million in Sonoma County in 2012.
“These people, these farmworkers, are the backbone of the biggest industry in our community and they deserve our respect and our diligent efforts to bring them and their families out of the shadows as full members of our communities,” Gore said.
Gore said that the county and local cities are doing substantial outreach into the farmworking community, especially through health centers.
“In North County, one of the main drivers of the wine industry, we have the Alliance Medical Center clinics in Windsor and Healdsburg and we also have Alexander Valley Healthcare in Cloverdale. The majority of these health clinics’ services go not just to the Latino community, but to supporting farmworkers,” Gore said.
Alliance Medical Center CEO Beatrice Bostick said that she agrees with most of the study’s results, however in regards to the healthcare findings, the data was collected prior to when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went fully into effect.
Bostick said that since the ACA, access to care and getting benefits has changed and the number of low-income people able to get medical benefits and care has increased.
“Sonoma County is second only to Los Angeles in number of enrollments (in ACA) … Sonoma County has done a pretty terrific job of getting people who are eligible benefits,” Bostick said. “A lot of credit goes to the community clinics because we all have bilingual certified enrollment assistants to help people with their applications.”
Bostick said that Alliance has served farmworkers for a very long time. “The clinic was started to serve farmworkers way back in the day. Our patient population is about 65 percent Hispanic,” she said.
Alliance uses a sliding fee scale to determine what uninsured patients will pay. “We can provide primary care and dentistry at a fairly low rate but a lot of our patients wait a really long time to come in for care because of the cost, even though it’s low cost,” she said.
“The cost of just living in Sonoma County and earning that little money means that our farmworkers are really having trouble making ends meet,” Bostick said.
Bostick has hopes for a living-wage ordinance. “This is a step in the right direction for Sonoma County and the people who work here,” she said.
President/Principal of Balletto Vineyards John Balletto was dubious that an accurate sample of farmworkers had been surveyed and said that it’s important to note that there are a lot of grape growers who provide farmworkers with subsidized housing and a fair wage.
Balletto Vineyards grows grapes in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol and has around 20 fulltime year-round farmworkers and 20 seasonal employees. The employees are unionized and are roughly 85 percent male and 15 percent female, Balletto said.
Balletto Vineyards has 10 houses on different locations that are rented at a reduced rate to 10 senior farmworker families. The company’s starting wage is almost 25 percent higher than minimum wage and health care and dental insurance are offered. Balletto Vineyard also has a small pension fund, paid holidays and a cash bonus for finishing through harvest.
“It’s very important (to offer these benefits) because we want to make sure we keep our valuable employees. Our top 20 people have been with us for 10 to 30 years,” Balletto said.
Balletto said that trying to build farmworker housing is costly and next to impossible. “It would be great if Sonoma County would lessen the rules as far as letting us build farmworker housing without all the major costs and restrictions. Between the tiger salamander restrictions and the cost of the permits, it’s almost prohibitive,” Balletto said. “It would help farmworker families across the county and the health of the workers if we could get some help with that.”
Gore said that one of his most important goals as a County Supervisor is to find ways to encourage the integration of the farmworker and Latino communities and the Anglo community. “The best place where that happens is in our schools, but at the same time it’s dependent upon us to bring that integration into our civic organizations, government and businesses,” he said.
293 Sonoma County farmworkers were contacted for the survey between September 2013 and January 2014. Venue-based sampling was conducted at key sites where farmworkers were located, which included day labor centers, community health clinics and farms throughout Sonoma County. The survey can be accessed online at the DHS website: www.sonoma-county.org/health/publications/.
