Blowing The Whistle At Cal-OSHA! Newsom, Murder On The Job & Cal-OSHA's Destruction

Blowing The Whistle At Cal-OSHA! Newsom, Cal-OSHA A Ghost Agency, The Pandemic & Murder On The Job

On February 15, 2021 a rally was held at the California State Building where Cal-OSHA has offices to demand that 1,000 Cal-OSHA inspectors be hired by Cal-OSHA to provide health and safety protection.

Governor Newsom early in the year put a hiring freeze in place at the agency in the midst of the worst pandemic in over 100 years. The ghost agency is now unable to make regular physical visits to work sites and has less inspectors per worker than Oregon and the State of Washington.

The Democratic Party which has a super majority in the legislature has gone along with the starving of of Cal-OSHA and the California Federation of Labor AFL-CIO leadership as well as the SEIU with over 750,000 members has been completely silent about the destruction of Cal-OSHA and the large number of deaths at factories like Foster Farms and other facilities because of the failure to enforce health and safety regulations.

Charles Rachlis, an industrial hygienist with Cal-OSHA spoke at the rally about the ongoing collapse of Cal-OSHA and the costs to the 18 million workers of California.

The rally was sponsored by the United Front Committee For A Labor Party UFCLP.

Additional media:
1,000 Cal/OSHA Inspectors NOW! Workers Over Profits Rally At Oakland OSHA Office
https://youtu.be/rqhW5CtxaoE

"Regulations Written In Blood" Charles Rachlis At 2011 Workers Memorial Day In San Francisco
https://youtu.be/eASTs_2ydz8

CAPS, State Workers And How To Fight Back And Defend Labor By Charles Rachlis
https://youtu.be/JnublujbnaA

Cal/OSHA MIA? Jeff Ruch Of PEER & The Crisis In Cal/OSHA
https://youtu.be/ajww73OV4t4

Covid & The Staffing Crisis At Cal/OSHA With Garrett Brown MPH
https://youtu.be/8JBRHGoJSLA

Profit Over Lives At JBS: Covid, OSHA and Life & Death With UFCW 7 President Kim Cordova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhLSqAeFKgQ

The Foster Farms Covid-19 Deaths & The Community With Deep Singh of The Jakara Movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYWZbkdnQds

Covid, Death & Capitalist Crimes In California's Central Valley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdhVkIoRWNo&t=11s
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio

The Covid Pandemic & Central Valley Agricultural Workers
https://youtu.be/wUp42Eqb7R8
Workers, Liability, The Hero's Act and Health and Safety On The Job With UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova
https://youtu.be/ezmEDOiR9s0

Covid, Death & Capitalist Crimes In California's Central Valley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdhVkIoRWNo&t=11s

Investigation: Counties With Meatpacking Plants Report Twice the National Average Rate of COVID-19 Infections
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/05/ewg-map-counties-meatpacking-plants-report-twice-national-average-rate

America’s Largest Food & Retail Union Confirms Growing COVID-19 Impact on Frontline Workers
http://www.ufcw.org/2020/06/25/covidupdate/

Covid & The Staffing Crisis At Cal/OSHA With Garrett Brown MPH, CIH Retired From Cal/OSHA & Researcher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JBRHGoJSLA

Tesla, Covid-19, Elon Musk, Cal-OSHA & Gov. Gavin Newsom-Interview With Tesla Worker Carlos Gabriel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx9fRymBiqk

'We Need A Safe Workplace! Tesla Worker Carlos Gabriel Speaks Out For Safety In Elon Musk's Tesla Plant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGLb61Iy5VQ

Jail Tesla Billionaire Elon Musk & Defend Health & Safety: Workers Speak Out At Tesla Fremont Plant
https://youtu.be/GBB5y5Q6cZI

Elon Musk "He Thinks He Is Above The Law" Rally at Tesla plant
https://youtu.be/rzPl6tm3k7U

Coronavirus: Workers group wants Tesla to give more safety information
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/15/coronavirus-workers-group-to-demand-tesla-give-more-safety-information/

TESLA Employees COVID-Positive, Gov.Newsom Responsible-June 12 Protest In Sacramento
https://patch.com/california/sacramento/calendar/event/20200612/838884/tesla-employees-covid-positive-gov-newsom-responsible

Protesters Outside Fremont Tesla Plant Demand Improved COVID-19 Safety For Workers
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/protesters-fremont-tesla-plant-demand-improved-covid-19-safety-workers/

Protesters Outside Tesla Fremont Factory Demand Improved Safety for Workers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZpnX7bQKk

Labor Video Project
http://www.labormedia.net



For class struggle to force the hiring of 1000 CAL/OSHA inspectors now! speech Charles Rachlis 02152021

Workers, friends and comrades, I am a public worker here at Cal/OSHA. So first I want to make it crystal clear I am not authorized to, nor do I speak for Cal/OSHA, nor am I authorized to speak for the union which purports to represent the safety engineers who do the inspections. The opinions which follow are mine alone and the facts can be checked by those with patience for that sort of thing.

Workers have the right to expect on-site inspections conducted by qualified inspectors when they face hazardous conditions. They should have the right to inspectors who are not overly extended and buried in cases. But the State of California’s government, run by the Democrats and Republicans has presided over decades of under-resourcing and understaffing of Cal/OSHA.This is what happens when the capitalist class controls the state, the government and the political parties and the workers have no fighting party of their own.

Because OSHA has, since its inception, been a compromise, a reform won, but not sustained by class struggle. OSHA is subject to the pressures of politics and class struggle.

I will always speak out for building strong unions to fight for our interests. Unfortunately most workers feel under-represented by union leaders whose strategic orientation is supporting capitalist politicians, rather than building militant unions that prepare for the class struggle and squarely call out the capitalists’ Class War against labor.

To resolve structural problems of state government we must reorganize the power relationships between social classes. The crisis will be resolved either in the interest of the capitalists by crushing the unions and driving down wages and benefits or in the interest of labor by organizing class struggle unions and a workers party based on a revitalized labor movement.

Consider how the capitalist state maintains state agencies responsible for health and safety on the job!

Last June the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) reported a 21% vacancy rate at Cal/OSHA.

They reported that California has only one inspector for every 99,000 workers, a fraction of the ratios for Washington which is (1 to 25,000) and for Oregon which is (1 to 22,000);

Now I know for a fact these inspectors are smart and well trained, I know they put in a solid 40hrs every week often missing lunches, breaks and working late because that's the job …. but no one is that good 99,000 workers per inspector! Something has to give.

On top of that PEER reported that:

"In a state where more than a quarter of its 18.5 million workers speak languages other than English, there are only 28 Cal/OSHA field enforcement inspectors (less than 15% of the inspectorate) certified to speak languages other than English."

These numbers may have changed a little since then but not significantly except that when the Division loses employees it loses experience and historic and institutional knowledge and when it hires the onboarding process is fast paced, extensive and long in duration. It takes close to three years to onboard a new inspector, presuming they come with the requisite knowledge and skill set.

For years the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations Christine Baker was making common cause with a corrupt Human Resources Department Janice Yapidainko while the unions and top bureaucrats turned a blind eye. Indeed, managers in the know and rank and file lived in obsequiousness and fear of the corrupt power bloc which poisoned the Department. HR was conniving in its use of inside influence to advance unqualified candidates while stringing along or chasing off qualified candidates.

The dysfunction in the Department was made public in an audit two years ago, there is no need to beat that drum here and now; except, that the repercussions continue to afflict the organization which emerged after the departure of the Director ill prepared and understaffed at the beginning of the pandemic.

Today the Division (Cal/OSHA) is being crushed under the weight of hundreds of serious COVID-19 illnesses and Fatalities and thousands of complaints from across the general industry. The Division is mandated to open inspections for serious occupational accidents, illnesses and fatalities (with certain jurisdictional guidelines) and it must also answer valid and formal complaints so managers triage prioritizing serious illness, accidents and fatalities for on-site inspections. Because of the sheer volume of complaints the field inspectors are stuck for hours at their desks, processing those calls and using letter and phone calls to employers in lieu of on site inspections for the thousands of complaints most of which are about COVID and the fear of potential exposures.

Inspectors in the District Offices are stretched and pushed beyond their limits! They needed additional resources a year ago, six months ago, yesterday would not be too soon!

In the media and among some politicians and public health experts the COVID-19 pandemic has been likened to a war, emergencies have been declared, we get a lot of updates, daily, weekly from the governors, mayors, the CDC, and Public Health.

Yet, throughout the course of the pandemic the Governor never authorized immediate emergency action to cut through the red tape and expedite immediate hiring of the staff needed for the job. If there were a flood there would be thousands mobilized for the filling sandbags and such...this is a flood! Where are the thousands needed to do the work?

The ruling class with their wealth have the privilege of space and money to self isolate, but essential workers are being exposed in work sites and are not being served either by OSHA consultation or enforcement in a timely manner because they do not have the troops to put out in the filed. The good employers struggle to understand and implement the emerging and changing guidelines and standards the problematic employers give employees grief with little fear of oversite from the understaffed Division.

The Governor has not reached out to the universities to provide the Division with, emergency and temporary assignment of the most promising young engineers and scientists to integrate into the Division on an emergency basis!

He has not utilized the resources of the state to immediately bolster Cal/OSHA because he represents the capitalist class not the working class. Only a workers government can ensure a robust health and safety for all workers. That is why we are campaigning for labor to break from the Democrats and build a fighting workers Labor Party.

Who should be enforcing the ATD standard?

The Governor did not mobilize retired medical professionals, have them onboarded, deputized and put in the field to consult and enforce the very complex Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard, in the hospitals, skilled nursing homes, prisons and other congregate settings. Their expertise was left in lockdown

The ATD standard is not only very complex it has very little history of enforcement. In normal times the hazards addressed by this standard present in manageable quantities in the Healthcare setting.

Essential workers want to know why weren’t the experts deputized? The national guard has medical professionals whose knowledge could be put to use at the Division. Where is the national guard?

This is a health standard and most of the inspectors are safety engineers not industrial hygienists. Most of the inspectors who are enforcing it today never read it until their first ATD case!

The history of underfunding science in state service is catching up with us now!

The 20 plus year old disparity between engineers and scientists salaries has not been resolved, hence, on top of being under-resourced, the Division is woefully understaffed on the health side! Meaning the Division hires safety engineers and industrial hygienists but cannot retain the industrial hygienists because they do the same or more complex work for less money!

Let’s face it, the bosses' political machine that created Gavin Newsom never planned for him to be a real innovative leader, they wanted and got a tool! A tool to enforce the will of the billionaire class and never to miss an opportunity to take back from the public workers he sits across from at the bargaining table for state employees.

What did the Governor do in the 2020 contract? With the sad rhetoric of, “Were All in this Together” and with naught an audible peep from the unions, contracts were signed which cut the pay of state workers by ~ 9.4% for two years.

That’s the equivalent of two days a month furlough. Then, faced with the crunch of work, he had to beg hundreds of workers to come back on overtime at the EDD and for COVID-19 case case work!

In 2009 the Schwarzenegger’s response to the recession was to apply 72 days of furlough to state workers. In response, some state workers unions negotiated “no-furlough” clauses into their contracts only to capitulate in 2020 accepting a cut in wages and hours, the equivalent of a furlough. While employees have the right to take those two days off a month the essential workers at Cal/OSHA are under the pressure of their case-lapse-time to work those two days and bank them as CTO. So much for promises from the union leaders to protect the gains of the past.

The 2021 budget provides for close to 180 new inspectors but there are caveats and hoops to be jumped through before they are hired and even with managers working around the clock to evaluate candidates, they will not be hired and onboarded in time to support in the pandemic response. Indeed even with 180 new inspectors the Division will not come close to the ratio of inspector to worker in Oregon and Washington.

A Myriad of Problems:

The corruption at HR itself was a symptom of the problem but not the source.
The decades old chronic understaffing is a symptom of the problem but not the source.
The understaffing that precipitated a culture of inspections driven more by pressure to satisfy observable metrics than what lay beneath the surface at the inspection sites, is a consequence but not the source of the problem.
And The 20 year old disparity between Industrial Hygienists salary and the salary of the Safety Engineers still undercutting the Divisions ability to recruit and retain Industrial Hygienists, is a consequence not the source.

Indeed, it is essential to understand that OSHA, as an organization, was a historic gain of the working class in the struggle for health and safety in the workplace. But OSHA is not controlled by or run by workers or their representatives. OSHA functions under pressures from all organized stakeholders.

The state, we are taught in 10th grade civics class, is obliged to act as a neutral supra-class arbiter standing above all interest groups and ensuring equal justice for all. That is all well and good as far as civics class goes, but in the real world all states have a class nature. Every state defends the interest of its ruling class and in a capitalist society the state enforces the collective will of the capitalist class behind the veil of constitutional democracy.

Capital (the employing class) mobilizes its legislators, its lawyers and spares no expense to stand in check against organized labor and workers advocates. At every step the employer class challenges health and safety regulations as they are proposed, written, legislated, promulgated, enforced and adjudicated. They do this not out of malaise or hatred of their workers they do it under pressure of shareholders for tangible regular predictable profits. Any animosity, intimidation, alienation of social relations between management and labor are the result of management's obligation to suck labor dry as it confronts each worker's obligation to go home safe and healthy to their families after a day's work.

How does the ruling capitalist class collude with the leaders of the labor movement against the interest of the workers?

Consider Blanning and Baker LLC., which runs two company unions, CAPS (for the Scientists) and PECG (for the Engineers). A company union is a union which cuts its deals with the management against the interest of the rank and file and in the interests of the employer.

Blanning and Baker organized CAPS and PECG and for decades Blanning and Baker have led them while also acting as the executive director for the Young Democrats of California, a political arm of California’s political machine. While Blanning and Baker was able to deliver on bread and butter issues for PECG its faustian deal was to sacrifice the smaller bargaining unit of scientists in CAPS and to use PECG and CAPS contracts as a battering ram against SEIU and the other unions. PECG and CAPS, representing a relatively uninterested layer of a labor aristocracy which does not take much interest in their union. Kept in the blind the membership accepted takeaways which former Governor Brown wanted to enforce on all 250,000 state workers during the 2015 bargaining period.

Ultimately the 16,000 scientists and engineers, mostly without evening knowing it, signed off on take-backs in the form of a payroll checkoff contribution to pension medical insurance fund. Why? Because the capitalist politicians and Governor Brown wanted to ensure the for profit medical and insurance companies can raise premiums annually. Instead of looking to the 120 plus billionaires in California the governor went after the workers requiring a check off which Blanning and Baker pushed through. SEIU then followed suit and the check off was enforced.

So we need more inspectors, do we need the same ratio as Washington and Oregon? Do we need a 1000 inspectors? Is 1000 inspectors even enough? I do not know but I do know that if I had ten new hires, in my office tomorrow I could keep them all very busy fulfilling the mandate of the Division.

If the capitalist politicians had intended Cal OSHA to be fully staffed and capable of meeting its mandate, it would have been by now! So the Governor assigned new chiefs and directors with impeccable credentials and resumes after the debacle was exposed in the audit may have the best intentions but even they are constrained by the class nature of the state which is far from a neutral arbiter.

So opposed to a capitalist state government which pretends it is class neutral but underserves the people we need a workers government which makes no claim to class neutrality.

To enforce health and safety in the workplace to build robust health and safety enforcement workers need their own fighting workers party.

Such a party can only be built by the ranks of labor taking up class struggle tactics of strikes and direct action to build workers power in the work places and streets and with a strategy of political independence expressed by breaking from the Democratic Party and running labor candidates.

Our labor candidates must run campaigns are used to organize and mobilize the labor movement and movements of specially oppressed peoples to fight for Transitional Demands that chart a path from basic needs such as safe and healthy Jobs for All, through massive public works programs, to 30 hours work for 40 hours pay, housing for the unhoused, healthcare for the people not for profit, free quality education from pre-school to graduate school, and pensions straight through class struggle and political independence to the nationalization under workers control of the commanding heights of the economy, and the democratic planning of production need to build a healthy future.

Newsom’s Ghost Agency: Massive Shortage of OSHA Inspectors At Cal-OSHA Exacerbated By Newsom's DIR -CA Workers On The Job At Risk In Covid Pandemic With Almost No Physical Inspections Of Workplaces


http://www.cal-osha.com

January 29, 2021
Vol. 48 No. 4

Cal/OSHA Seeking Industrial Hygienists

Cal/OSHA has submitted a budget proposal for the coming fiscal year that would add 70 new positions now and more in coming years. The proposal notes there is an acute need for new industrial hygienists.

The budget change proposal (BCP) requests $14.4 million from the Occupational Safety and Health Fund for the 2021-22 fiscal year and $13.3 million per year ongoing “to address a crit- ical staff shortage of industrial hygienists and safety engineers,” according to DIR.

“It is clear from the budget change proposal analysis that DIR/DOSH is in dire need of IH’s.” – Pamela Murcell, CIHC President

“The need to address health hazards has grown beyond DOSH’s current capacity to address and will continue to grow,” DIR says in its proposal to the Legislature. Recent events, in- cluding the COVID-19 pandemic, silica exposures in the kitchen countertop fabrication industry, heat waves, and wildfire smoke, “have highlighted a serious deficiency in DOSH’s capacity that is putting California workers at risk of occupational illness and death. That deficiency is DOSH’s lack of staff with sufficient expertise to address health hazards in California workplaces, including hazards that are becoming increasingly prevalent.”

For instance, DOSH says it has responded to complaints at more than 9,000 workplaces and provided compliance assistance the almost 13,000 employers during the COVID crisis as of mid-December 2020. It opened investigations into 600 fatalities and serious illnesses. “DOSH’s lack of technical capacity in the field of industrial hygiene has frustrated the speed and scope of their response to the pandemic,” the Department states.

‘A Robust Industrial Hygiene Program’

To assess the Division’s staffing needs for both IHs and safety engineers, DOSH hired CPS HR Consulting to conduct a workload and staffing analysis. The study identified a need for more than 140 IH positions based on health-related work done in previous years, annual “unmet work requirements,” and additional work based on anticipated trends.

In 2018-19, for instance, the workload demand was for about 99 positions, and by 2022-23, it will be 140.64 – an additional in accident and fatality investigations and an additional 100 complaints per month related to the coronavirus pandemic; an increase in programmed (planned) inspections related to asbestos, lead, and other health issues.

All these numbers were developed despite vaccines creating an expected decline in both frequency and severity of corona- virus cases. Not considered in the study are the record numbers of California businesses failing, decreasing employee count, closing, and leaving California.

The study also identified the need for another 44 safety engineers based on unmet work requirements and anticipated needs. “The study concluded that the total unmet and projected needs for health and safety related work would require an addi- tional 108.66 IH’s and 43.97 SE’s,” DIR says. “DOSH plans to build a robust industrial hygiene program, adding new positions in the IH series as well as necessary operating support and legal staff based on established ratios over the next few years. DOSH plans to submit in phases to allow for the recruitment and hiring, onboarding and training of staff in all these positions.”

DIR also says that DOSH enforcement “has a critical need for analytical work, rather than just administrative support” in district offices. This work would generate reports and provide data analysis “to maximize the impact and efficacy of the type and level of inspections” that the IH’s and SE’s are expected to conduct.

in accident and fatality investigations and an additional 100 complaints per month related to the coronavirus pandemic; an increase in programmed (planned) inspections related to asbes- tos, lead, and other health issues.

All these numbers were developed despite vaccines creating an expected decline in both frequency and severity of corona- virus cases. Not considered in the study are the record numbers of California businesses failing, decreasing employee count, closing, and leaving California.

The study also identified the need for another 44 safety engineers based on unmet work requirements and anticipated needs. “The study concluded that the total unmet and projected needs for health and safety related work would require an addi- tional 108.66 IH’s and 43.97 SE’s,” DIR says. “DOSH plans to build a robust industrial hygiene program, adding new positions in the IH series as well as necessary operating support and legal staff based on established ratios over the next few years. DOSH plans to submit in phases to allow for the recruitment and hiring, onboarding and training of staff in all these positions.”

DIR also says that DOSH enforcement “has a critical need for analytical work, rather than just administrative support” in district offices. This work would generate reports and provide data analysis “to maximize the impact and efficacy of the type and level of inspections” that the IH’s and SE’s are expected to conduct.

The authorization of the first-year 70 positions “will allow for an ongoing evaluation of economic and other conditions before additional phases of the expansion are proposed and funded,” the Department adds.

DIR adds that DOSH’s vacancy rate as of early December 2020 was 21% and 24% in enforcement. The Department says it and DOSH will work with educational institutions to create a future employee pipeline. The proposal also could temporarily redirect existing vacant safety engineer positions to IH positions, “coupled with the authority to increase positions and the eventual ‘right sizing’ of the staff complement of IH’s and SE’s over time.”

The budget change proposal, if approved, would boost Industrial Hygienists in the Division. In 2007, DOSH eliminated IH’s as an official position and made all compliance safety and health officers “safety engineers.” “We had to do that due to pay parity,” explains former DOSH Chief Len Welsh. “To this day, I’m furious that the unions couldn’t work this out themselves. It was idiotic.”

Eliminating the official title “Industrial Hygienist” did not change their duties, although, under the new paradigm, inspec- tors were considered both generalists and specialists. Welsh says CSHOs, whatever their training, have to deal with a myriad of issues at worksites. Some safety engineers confront asbestos hazards, and IH’s visit sites with engineering hazards. But that paradigm was based on the needs of the time. It appears things are shifting for the 2020s.

The California Industrial Hygiene Council applauds the move. “CIHC has been a long-time supporter of additional staffing for the Cal/OSHA program, not just for enforcement, but for all aspects of their program,” says council president Pamela Murcell, CIH. “IH’s need to be added for enforcement, consultation and standards development, just to highlight a few aspects of their program. Some funds should be earmarked for a comprehensive junior industrial hygienist program, such as was run by DOSH in 1980 and 1981, to recruit and develop IH capability internally.”

Murcell says the demise of the industrial hygiene capability within Cal/OSHA was predictable “when the pay disparity between IH’s and safety engineers became untenable and unsustainable for retention of qualified occupational health professionals, and the ‘temporary’ solution was to reclassify the IH’s to SE’s.” The IH positions need to be added as actual industrial hygienist civil service classifications, with pay scales on par with safety engineers. “If the current state service industrial hygienist classification series is used, there needs to be a formal and immediate adjustment of the pay scales to achieve this parity,” according to Murcell.

“It is clear from the budget change proposal analysis that DIR/DOSH is in dire need of IH’s, which is underscored with the analysis that in 2018/2019 the health-related work was completed by ‘mostly non-IH staff.’ They are in need of Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIHs), and whenever appropriate, the CIH credential should be included for recruiting qualified personnel. This is critical, particularly when dealing with complex health issues such as COVID-19 and other transmissible diseases, wildfire smoke, and silica, just to name a few.”


Fresno health inspectors tipped off Foster Farms about state inspection amid outbreak
But extensive reporting on Cal/OSHA has shown the state regulatory agency is floundering. Understaffed, the majority of its inspections have been reduced to letters, CalMatters reported. A Sacramento Bee investigation showed that Cal/OSHA has also failed to track workplace inspections and deaths during the pandemic.
https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/03/fresno-health-inspectors-tipped-off-foster-farms-about-state-inspection-amid-outbreak/?fbclid=IwAR02OewmYVRS2siCgdo5niYU_68PATbspV71hYF20XX1OFtwlBr1XhJD8qc
BY MANUELA TOBIAS
MARCH 18, 2021

Vehicles including Foster Farms trucks enter and exit the Foster Farms facility located at 1000 Davis Street in Livingston, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. Photo by Andrew Kuhn, Merced Sun-Star
Vehicles including Foster Farms trucks enter and exit the Foster Farms facility located at 1000 Davis Street in Livingston, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. Photo by Andrew Kuhn, Merced Sun-Star
IN SUMMARY
Emails reveal Fresno County public health officials tipped off Foster Farms executives during the county’s largest-known COVID-19 workplace outbreak.
Last December, during the biggest-known COVID-19 workplace outbreak in Fresno County, public health officials said they were investigating Foster Farms’ chicken processing plant in southeast Fresno.
But dozens of emails obtained by The Fresno Bee through a Public Records Act request show that during the outbreak at the South Cherry Avenue plant that infected hundreds, health officials tipped off company executives about a Cal/OSHA inspection, coordinated media talking points during the crisis, withheld information from the public and issued no corrective actions.
At least five people who worked at the South Cherry Avenue plant have died in connection to the virus, according to data provided by the company and Cal/OSHA. At least 22 people who worked at Foster Farms’ Fresno facilities have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 related complications to date.
Fresno County Public Health officials defended their relationships with local businesses, saying their role is to be “the eyes and ears” of the community and to help companies curb the spread of the virus. Regulation is left to more powerful agencies, like Cal/OSHA.
“What we do is quite different,” said Tom Fuller, an environmental health specialist at the Fresno County Department of Health. “We are a ministerial type of work, is the way that we approached them.”
“What we do is quite different. We are a ministerial type of work, is the way that we approached them.”
TOM FULLER, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SPECIALIST AT FRESNO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Regulatory agencies like Cal/OSHA have been stretched paper-thin during the pandemic, however, and local-level health agencies have sometimes acted as a last line of defense.
In August, Merced County Health Department ordered the Foster Farms plant in Livingston to shut down following a large outbreak. A UFW lawsuit accused the company of ignoring social-distancing protocols and failing to provide workers with masks. At least nine workers have died, the lawsuit alleges. Foster Farms called the lawsuit “without merit.”
“There’s nothing ministerial about the plant shutdown, which they have the power to do,” said Jon Eisenberg, an attorney representing UFW.
City Councilmember Miguel Arias told The Bee the emails between Foster Farms and Fresno County raise serious questions about who the Fresno County Department of Public Health serves.
“I’m disgusted by the level of intentional coordination to limit information on an outbreak by one of the largest employers in our city by the county and the employer,” he said.
Fresno County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau issued a statement to The Bee:
“Since the County of Fresno declared a local emergency due to the COVID-19 virus in March 2020, our Public Health Department has taken a collaborative, not a heavy handed, approach in working with businesses to employ best practices to protect their employees from the virus. Our Public Health team has worked in tandem with our state partners, in particular Cal Osha, to ensure businesses were fully informed of what was required of them under the law.
Further, the statement continued, “Public Health welcomed the testing regimen employed by the local Foster Farms processing plant as a proactive approach in protecting its employees. Any allegation of collusion or abrogation of our duties under the law are absolutely false and grossly misrepresents our heroic efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a written statement, Foster Farms told The Bee that when the county reviewed their COVID-19 mitigation plan, they were found to be “in adherence with county guidance.” With help from the county, Foster Farms has vaccinated 951 full-time employees at the plant to date and has a robust testing strategy, according to the statement.
Foster Farms receives a heads up on Cal/OSHA inspection
Workers arrive at the Foster Poultry Farms site at 900 W. Belgravia Ave., Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 9, 2020 in Fresno. Photo by Eric Zamora, The Fresno Bee
Workers arrive at the Foster Poultry Farms site at 900 W. Belgravia Ave., Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 9, 2020 in Fresno. Photo by Eric Zamora, The Fresno Bee
Foster Farms has two large chicken processing plants in Fresno, located on South Cherry Avenue in southeast Fresno and West Belgravia Avenue in southwest Fresno, at times employing over 1,000 employees each.
On Nov. 22, about 21 of 254 Cherry plant employees tested positive for COVID-19. Nine workers tested positive outside the plant, Foster Farms reported in an internal memo dated Dec. 5.
By Nov. 29, the company began testing all employees. About 220 of 1,000 employees were positive for the virus in one round of testing, and 58 of 652 employees had tested positive in another round, according to the same memo. It is unclear from the document whether anyone tested positive more than once.
In the same memo, the company reported the plant was shut down for a two-day deep cleaning and would continue twice-weekly testing on all employees.
Fuller, from the health department, showed up to Foster Farms’ Cherry plant facility for an unannounced inspection before the November outbreak on an unspecified date. He told The Bee he felt “very uncomfortable” during the visit.
Many of the executives and engineers he needed to talk to, he said, were not present, and those who were were “crowded in a small room.”
So when the county began getting calls about the outbreak in late November, Fuller gave the company a heads-up before conducting another inspection to observe safety precautions and make sure all the relevant people were present, he told The Bee.
In a Dec. 8 email, Fuller also notified Foster Farms that Cal/OSHA would be showing up at the 10 a.m. appointment the following day due to recent hospitalization reports.
Cal/OSHA public information officer Erika Monterroza told The Bee that the state agency was not aware the Fresno County Health Department had given advanced notice to the employer of the inspection.
She said that Cal/OSHA sometimes coordinates with local agencies ahead of inspections and said the cooperation comes “with the expectation that the coordinating agencies will keep that information confidential.”
Ana Padilla, executive director of the University of California, Merced, Community and Labor Center, said giving advance notice of an inspection can jeopardize the integrity of an investigation, as companies have time to prepare and alter normal working conditions.
“They should not be giving them advanced notice,” Padilla said. “I was surprised to see that.”
However, the health department said Cal/OSHA representatives were aware of the advanced notice and said the agency could show up unannounced whenever they pleased. Fuller said the advanced notice was necessary, again, to ensure COVID-19 safety protocols with more visitors.
In his email, Fuller gave the phone number for the Cal/OSHA representative who informed him of their visit in case the company had “concerns” about the inspection.
“He did indicate that you should feel free to contact him if necessary,” Fuller wrote.
County tells Foster Farms they are not Cal/OSHA
In his heads-up, Fuller emphasized the county played a very different role than Cal/OSHA. He was there, he wrote, “to gain an understanding of the situation in the two plants and see if I might help identify any issues that could be contributing to the current outbreak.”
Fresno County Health Department Director David Pomaville told The Bee that Cal/OSHA and the state occupational health branch have more regulatory tools at their disposal. The county sees its own role as observatory, he said, hence the prior notice.
“Those two entities have more authority inside of the work environment,” he said. “There’s a huge resource allocation with regard to staff being able to go into the level of investigation we would like to.”
But extensive reporting on Cal/OSHA has shown the state regulatory agency is floundering. Understaffed, the majority of its inspections have been reduced to letters, CalMatters reported. A Sacramento Bee investigation showed that Cal/OSHA has also failed to track workplace inspections and deaths during the pandemic.
Cal/OSHA has opened several investigations into the Foster Farms Fresno facilities. The state has issued no fines to date.
Alice Berliner, director of the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health or SoCalCOSH, said while Cal/OSHA has powers beyond local health departments, the reverse is also true.
“The fact that a health department can close down a business is actually a pretty strong tool, and it’s so rarely used,” she said. “They also have the power to cite employers, and I rarely hear about that happening, either.
“If they’re just sitting back and trusting the employers are going to do that when some employers are breaking the law and doing their best to hide cases, my perspective is that they should definitely be using the tools they have,” she added.
Fresno County tracks COVID-19 outbreaks at workplaces. Why keep it secret?
by Manuela Tobias
DECEMBER 11, 2020
California isn’t fully tracking serious workplace COVID-19 cases in Fresno. Here’s why
by Manuela Tobias, Jason Pohl, Dale Kasler and Phillip Reese
FEBRUARY 2, 2021
County trusts data provided by Foster Farms
After his planned visit, Fuller wrote, “Thank you for your continued transparency and for the proactive testing approach that Foster Farms has taken. I have (no) doubt that those measure [sic] have been helpful.”
Not all counties have accepted the data provided by Foster Farms with open arms, however.
The Merced County Health Department, KQED reported in February, “repeatedly expressed skepticism about the outbreak information they were receiving from the poultry company, saying they believed the company hadn’t tested its entire workforce and was not providing reliable data.”
The company failed to notify the county of several hospitalizations and deaths as they occurred, KQED reported.
Pomaville told The Bee that the Fresno Public Health Department had no reason to doubt the data provided by the company because they knew the contractor that had performed the biweekly COVID-19 tests, a company called Color.
He said the county also receives testing data from the state, but the process is lengthy and convoluted and would not have allowed them to step in as quickly as the transparency provided by Foster Farms. Fuller said they fact-checked a portion of the data provided by Foster Farms against the state database.
In fact, Pomaville heralded Foster Farms’ testing strategy as a model for the rest of the county in an interview with The Bee. He said the company was testing and sharing that information at an exemplary clip before it was required.
In another email exchange, county officials asked Foster Farms whether it would be OK to share their testing plan with three smaller employers undergoing similar outbreaks. The identities of those employers were not made public, but Foster Farms executives were invited to participate in the call.
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In their statement, Foster Farms officials said they have “been fully transparent in communicating Cherry testing protocols and positivity results with the Fresno Department of Health and in communicating any fatalities with the Fresno Department of Public Health and Cal OSHA.”
Fresno County keeps workplace outbreaks secret
During the outbreak, employees received little to no information and were forced to rely on media coverage, according to Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit that advocates for the Sikh Punjabi community, many of whom are Foster Farms employees.
Reporting from early December showed at least 193 people had been infected.
Singh said he started receiving calls about positive COVID-19 tests in late November. By early January, he had attended multiple funerals.
“It was total disarray,” he said. “People were scared. People were worried.”
In emails, county officials twice told Foster Farms executives they were getting pressure from media outlets for more data. They asked that they share more information with media about the outbreak.
In response, Foster Farms Vice President of Communications Ira Brill said he wanted to see how events developed further before sharing more information, and would only speak “with members of media that are reasonable in their past coverage.”
“OK,” a public health official wrote back in a Dec. 7 email and asked for contact information to provide media.
In an early December exchange, Brill asked for a call to discuss media protocol. Simranjit Dhillon, a county public information officer, told him they have only been offering media outlets “a generic … type of response to most agencies but we can further discuss on the call.”
Pomaville said the correspondence regarding media coverage with Foster Farms was neither unprofessional nor atypical.
“We’ve done this with other situations where we’re trying to understand what’s going to be communicated, but I don’t view that as cozy,” he said. “We have independent decision-making and discretion.”
Choosing what to disclose and keep private has been one of the toughest parts of workplace outbreaks, Pomaville told The Bee. Ultimately, they have decided to withhold case numbers to build trust with employers, who have the most updated and reliable information on case counts and outbreaks.
“We believe it has allowed us to have better reporting to us by companies and to be able to work in closer partnership with them in investigating outbreaks,” he said.
Another reason they don’t find it necessary to publicize workplace outbreaks, Pomaville said, is an inability to trace contagion back to the job. He said many communities were experiencing high positivity rates during this time, too.
But advocates said they are tired of companies and public officials blaming community spread, especially among communities of color who spend most of their time in the workplace.
“They’ll pathologize low-income communities, they’ll pathologize cultures, but what ties a Punjabi worker in Fresno to a Haitian person infected on the East Coast?” Singh asked. “Oftentimes, it has been working in meat and poultry plants.”
Various studies have found that working in meat and poultry plants increase a person’s risk for COVID-19 exposure, especially among minorities.
WORKPLACE SAFEY
A bus parked in front of El Dorado Motel drops off farmworkers as a van that also transports farmworkers drives right next to it in Salinas on Aug. 1, 2020. Photo by David Rodriguez, The Salinas Californian
State mandates emergency workplace COVID-19 protections, less crowding for guest farmworkers
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Jackie Botts
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Oregon posts workplace outbreaks, California has no such plan
by Laurence Du Sault
NOVEMBER 11, 2020
Workers say they have nowhere to turn
Padilla wondered what the closeness displayed in the emails between a private company and the public health department meant for worker trust.
“We want workers to feel comfortable and safe to report non-compliance with employers, and if there’s a message that the employer is the most important ally, it could be a problem,” she said.
Pomaville said they had received input from workers throughout the outbreak, too, although he did not detail the extent of their role in the investigation.
Berliner, from SoCalCOSH said that workers making complaints have traditionally been excluded from both local and Cal/OSHA investigations. During investigations, for example, inspectors walk around with managers but rarely get a chance to build trust and hear from workers.
“They just are not trained to work collaboratively with workers,” she said. “It’s actually mind-blowing.”
Los Angeles County, on the other hand, has recently committed to working with labor organizations to strengthen workplace enforcement and recently passed an anti-retaliation ordinance.
The LA Department of Public Health is partnering with community-based organizations to train workers in several industries, like meat processing, to form public health councils. The councils then report working conditions inside the workplace to the county to ensure employer compliance with county orders and speed up response times when complaints arise, Berliner said.
In Fresno, Singh said, “most workers don’t even know who they can even turn to, period.”
A Punjabi Fresno resident echoed that sentiment. He asked not to be named because he feared retaliation for his multiple relatives who work at Foster Farms.
He said his relatives and their respective families fell ill during the December outbreak. Securing time off after five sick days for his elderly mother was impossible, he said, and he felt he was her only advocate.
Most frustrating, he said, was how the company made his family feel expendable.
“It felt as if they just wanted people to get sick and recover and come back,” he said. “Like, if 100 people get sick and 95 recover, we’ll just hire five more.”
This article is part of the California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.

Could a COVID-19 surge lead to shutdowns at L.A. ports? Officials plead for dockworker vaccines-ILWU LA Says "Let us be clear, we will not standby as terminal operators prioritize profits over lives. If the catastrophic infection rates" continue, there may be a need to close the San Pedro Bay Port Complex to protect the health and safety of the workforce.
https://www.latimes.com/.../covid-surge-hits-la-ports...
A backlog of cargo at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach is colliding with a wave of COVID-19 infections among dockworkers.(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
By MARGOT ROOSEVELTSTAFF WRITER
JAN. 20, 20215 AM UPDATED5:11 PM
Nearly 700 dockworkers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have contracted COVID-19 and hundreds more are taking virus-related leaves, raising fears of a severe slowdown in the region’s multibillion-dollar logistics economy.
A growing longshore worker infection rate, which parallels the surge of the virus across California, is exacerbating a massive snarl at the ports due to a pandemic-induced surge in imports. Port executives, union leaders and elected officials are mounting an urgent campaign to initiate dockworker vaccinations, fearing that a labor shortage could force terminal shutdowns.
“We’ve got more cargo than we do skilled labor,” said Eugene Seroka, executive director of the Los Angeles port. “We are told 1,800 workers are not going on the job due to COVID right now. That can [include] those who are isolating through contact tracing or awaiting test results. Or maybe [those who] fear ... going on the job when a lot of people are sick.”
Workplaces across California, from behemoth warehouses to neighborhood businesses, face soaring coronavirus cases while trying to stay afloat amid seesawing restrictions. As the pandemic has worsened, containing the virus has become more difficult, especially among the L.A. region’s essential workers — who include dockworkers as well as grocery store clerks and nurses.
“My heart goes out to the dockworkers,” L.A. County Health Department director Barbara Ferrer said in a news conference Wednesday. “I’ve heard from many of them that there have been a lot of outbreaks. There is a lot of fear.”
The longshore workers are among many essential employees wanting vaccinations soon, she added. “Hundreds and hundreds of outbreaks have been reported with this latest surge. A lot of community transmission. A lot of workplace transmission…. Right now we’re moving fairly slowly because we just don’t have enough vaccine.”
In the first months of the pandemic, container volume at the Port of Los Angeles plunged nearly 19%, but in the second half of 2020 it rose nearly 50%. “We’re not buying airplane tickets or going to ballgames and movies,” Seroka said. “We’re spending money on retail goods.”
A backlog at the ports is now colliding with the COVID crisis. On Tuesday, 45 vessels were anchored outside the twin ports waiting to unload, part of a months-long bottleneck not seen since a work slowdown six years ago.
“Without immediate action, terminals at the largest port complex in America may face the very real danger of terminal shutdowns,” Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-San Pedro) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) wrote to California and Los Angeles County health officials on Jan. 15. “This would be disastrous not only for the communities of the South Bay, but also the entire nation which relies upon the vital flow of goods through these ports.”
The warning from the two members of Congress came days after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and other local officials wrote Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mark Ghaly, California’s health and human services secretary, urging them to speed up the vaccination of Southern California’s 15,000 dockworkers “as soon as possible.”
The ports, they wrote, “are deemed critical infrastructure for national security purposes and medical supplies for the pandemic.” Pandemic equipment imports from Asia, including masks, sanitizer and ventilators for hospitals and other businesses across the nation, flow mostly through the Los Angeles and Long Beach complex.
Seroka said logistics companies, port directors and officials with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union “have worked every angle possible” since December to get help with testing and vaccinating dockworkers. “We haven’t seen a longshore worker get a vaccine yet.”
The state determines vaccine priority, Ferrer said. So far healthcare workers, first responders and residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities are first in line. About 450,000 Los Angeles County healthcare workers still need to be vaccinated and other groups will move up in priority once those workers receive their shots — probably not until early February.
Port executives, union leaders and local elected officials want dockworkers to be eligible for vaccines after medical and other front-line workers.
San Pedro’s Ports O’ Call was torn down. A new waterfront is finally taking shape
Last week, Newsom announced vaccinations would open to Californians 65 years and older and this week the city and county of Los Angeles opened portals to offer appointments to residents 65 and older. But the county has yet to receive enough doses to meet the demand.
Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment on dockworker vaccinations.
Longshore workers report infections through a portal operated jointly by the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents terminal employers. According to the ILWU, of the 694 dockworkers who reported COVID-19 infections as of Jan. 17, 12 have died.
In a letter this week to the maritime association, three presidents of Southern California ILWU locals said a single terminal, Fenix Marine Services, out of the twin ports’ 12 terminals has reported an outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, involving 15 workers.
Under Los Angeles County regulations, if a workplace has three or more confirmed COVID-19 cases in 14 days, the employer must immediately notify the county public health department. “This is not being done by terminal operators at the San Pedro Bay port complex,” the representatives wrote. “The vast majority of terminal operators are failing to report at all.”
James McKenna, president and chief executive of the maritime association, said: “There’s probably a chance that [terminals] have underreported.” After receiving the letter, he added, his group “reiterated with them they need to report on an ongoing basis and a timely basis.”
Asked about enforcement, Ferrer said if workers have concerns about serious violations at their sites, they can report them to the health department anonymously both online and through the department’s call center (888-700-9995). “We investigate all outbreaks,” she said.
The county does not track infections by occupation because the data are limited, she said.
McKenna disputed the number of dockworkers currently idled by the pandemic, saying that the 1,800 cited by the ILWU, port executives and elected officials represents a total for all California ports and includes workers on leave for other illnesses.
According to the longshore union, the positivity rate, which measures the prevalence of infections when compared with the number of tests, is 65% for the Port of Los Angeles and 71% for the Long Beach port. But McKenna said those percentages are unreliable because workers with negative tests may not be entering their information in the portal.
Neither Seroka nor Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said they expect any imminent terminal shutdowns. “But I don’t want to wait until it’s too late and then say, ‘Now we’ve got to shut this thing down,’” Seroka said. “We got to keep it rolling.”
Cordero endorsed the need for immediate dockworker vaccinations. “If we don’t do something fast,” he said, “we are jeopardizing the fluidity of the movement of cargo.

ILWU LA Concerns with Terminal Operators Underreporting COVID-19 Cases to Health Departments and Terminal Operators Not Providing Adequate PPE


Sent via Electronic Mail

January 18, 2021

Chad Lindsay
Vice President, Southern California, Labor Relations Pacific Maritime Association
One World Trade Center, 17th Floor
Long Beach, California 90831

Re: Concerns with Terminal Operators Underreporting COVID-19 Cases to Health Departments and Terminal Operators Not Providing Adequate PPE

Chad:

We write to share our continued concerns regarding terminal operators at the San Pedro Bay Port Complex underreporting COVID-19 cases to the relevant public health departments.

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, if a workplace has three or more confirmed COVID-19 cases identified within 14 days, the employer must call Public Health immediately. We believe this is not being done by terminal operators at the San Pedro Bay Port Complex.

As of January 16, 2021, at 6:00 p.m., the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Locations and Demographics Data Page shows Fenix Marine Services (Fenix) as the only terminal operator to report as a non-residential setting meeting the criteria of three or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. According to the Data Page, Fenix has reported 15 confirmed COVID-19 cases. We believe this is inaccurate. We also believe the vast majority of terminal operators are failing to report at all.

According to our internal Workplace Illness Report Breakdown by Port Location, as of January 17, 2021 at 07:00 a.m., there have been 694 confirmed COVID-19 cases of ILWU members at the San Pedro Bay Port Complex. There have also been 1,080 exposures. The enormous distinction between our numbers and the numbers reported to the health department is due almost

entirely to terminal operators underreporting and outright failing to report cases at their workplaces.

The failure to report and underreporting of cases to the relevant health departments has drastic consequences. Our members, essential workers who have worked throughout the pandemic, are being exposed and infected with the virus at workplaces that are not following proper infection control protocols. In turn, they are then exposing their families to the virus when they return home from work. Further, without accurate data on our members’ cases, health departments risk not accurately prioritizing our workforce for access to the COVID-19 vaccine. These risks are increased by the inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) supplied by each individual terminal operator. Inadequate PPE is in stark contrast to PMA President James McKenna’s recent news article quote “ILWU members working the ship had complete PPE protection.”

The challenge of COVID-19 comes as the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are experiencing record cargo volume. In November, the Port of Long Beach moved 783,523 TEUs, a 30.6 percent increase from the previous year. During the same period, the Port of Los Angeles moved 889,746 TEUs, a 22 percent increase from the year prior. As you know, the San Pedro Bay Port Complex is an enormous economic engine for California, supporting as many as one in nine jobs in our region and 2.9 million jobs throughout the country. More than $2 billion worth of cargo crosses our docks every day. What would happen to California’s economy if the virus forced a shutdown of the ports?

Let us be clear, we will not standby as terminal operators prioritize profits over lives. If the catastrophic infection rates continue, there may be a need to close the San Pedro Bay Port Complex to protect the health and safety of the workforce.

Therefore, we request that in PMA’s role as an employer association, it mandate terminal operators report to relevant health departments confirmed COVID-19 cases of all ILWU labor, management, vendors, all other workers, and anyone who enters the terminal. If terminal operators fail to comply, we will have no other alternative than to file complaints with all relevant agencies.

Sincerely,

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Enclosures

cc: William Adams, President, ILWU
Bobby Olvera, Jr., Vice President (Mainland), ILWU
Frank Ponce De Leon, Coast Committeeman, ILWU
Cameron Williams, Coast Committeeman, ILWU
James C. McKenna, President and CEO, Pacific Maritime Association
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Kelly Colopy, Director, Long Beach Health and Human Services Department