IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i23p7138-d1293152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Organizational Aspects of the U.S. Agricultural Industry and Socioeconomic and Political Conditions on Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Workplace Safety

Author

Listed:
  • Fabiola M. Perez-Lua

    (Department of Public Health, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA)

  • Alec M. Chan-Golston

    (Department of Public Health, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA)

  • Nancy J. Burke

    (Department of Public Health, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA)

  • Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young

    (Department of Public Health, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA)

Abstract

Farmworkers in the U.S. experienced high rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their workplace may have been a significant place of exposure to the novel coronavirus. Using political economy of health theory, this study sought to understand how organizational aspects of the agricultural industry and broader socioeconomic and political conditions shaped farmworkers’ COVID-19 workplace safety during the pandemic. Between July 2020 and April 2021, we conducted and analyzed fourteen in-depth, semi-structured phone interviews with Latinx farmworkers in California. Findings show that regulatory oversight reinforced COVID-19 workplace safety. In the absence of regulatory oversight, the organization of the agricultural industry produced COVID-19 workplace risks for farmworkers; it normalized unsafe working conditions and the worker—rather than employer—responsibility for workplace safety. Under these conditions, farmworkers enacted personal COVID-19 preventative practices but were limited by financial hardships that were exacerbated by the precarious nature of agricultural employment and legal status exclusions from pandemic-related aid. Unsafe workplace conditions negatively impacted workplace camaraderie. Study findings have implications for farmworkers’ individual and collective agency to achieve safe working conditions. Occupational safety interventions must address the organizational aspects that produce workplace health and safety inequities and disempower farmworkers in the workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabiola M. Perez-Lua & Alec M. Chan-Golston & Nancy J. Burke & Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young, 2023. "The Influence of Organizational Aspects of the U.S. Agricultural Industry and Socioeconomic and Political Conditions on Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Workplace Safety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(23), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:23:p:7138-:d:1293152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/23/7138/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/23/7138/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan K. Sell & Owain D. Williams, 2020. "Health under capitalism: a global political economy of structural pathogenesis," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 1-25, January.
    2. Samples, J. & Bergstad, E.A. & Ventura, S. & Sanchez, V. & Farquhar, S.A. & Shadbeh, N., 2009. "Pesticide exposure and occupational safety training of indigenous farmworkers in Oregon," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(S3), pages 581-584.
    3. C. Susana Caxaj & Amy Cohen, 2019. "“I Will Not Leave My Body Here”: Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Safety Amidst a Climate of Coercion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Kindig, D.A. & Stoddart, G., 2003. "What is population health?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(3), pages 380-383.
    5. Thomas A. Arcury & Sydney A. Smith & Jennifer W. Talton & Sara A. Quandt, 2022. "The Abysmal Organization of Work and Work Safety Culture Experienced by North Carolina Latinx Women in Farmworker Families," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Solava Ibrahim, 2006. "From Individual to Collective Capabilities: The Capability Approach as a Conceptual Framework for Self-help," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 397-416.
    7. Mariano Kanamori & Daniel Castaneda & Kyle J. Self & Lucy Sanchez & Yesenia Rosas & Edda Rodriguez & Cho-Hee Shrader & Juan Arroyo-Flores & Ariana Johnson & John Skvoretz & Daniel Gomez & Mark William, 2021. "Why Re-Invent the Wheel? Social Network Approaches Can Be Used to Mitigate SARS-CoV-2 Related Disparities in Latinx Seasonal Farmworkers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Wilson, Fernando & Stimpson, Jim P, 2020. "US Policies Increase Vulnerability of Immigrant Communities to the COVID-19 Pandemic," SocArXiv fmz8e, Center for Open Science.
    9. Kathleen Sexsmith, 2022. "The embodied precarity of year-round agricultural work: health and safety risks among Latino/a immigrant dairy farmworkers in New York," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 357-370, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karen Minyard & Tina A. Smith & Richard Turner & Bobby Milstein & Lori Solomon, 2018. "Community and programmatic factors influencing effective use of system dynamic models," System Dynamics Review, System Dynamics Society, vol. 34(1-2), pages 154-171, January.
    2. Melissa D. Olfert & Rebecca L. Hagedorn & Makenzie L. Barr & Oluremi A. Famodu & Jessica M. Rubino & Jade A. White, 2018. "eB4CAST: An Evidence-Based Tool to Promote Dissemination and Implementation in Community-Based, Public Health Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, September.
    3. Griewald, Yuliana & Rauschmayer, Felix, 2013. "Exploring a nature-related conflict from a capability perspective," UFZ Discussion Papers 7/2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    4. Ben Cave & Ryngan Pyper & Birgitte Fischer-Bonde & Sarah Humboldt-Dachroeden & Piedad Martin-Olmedo, 2021. "Lessons from an International Initiative to Set and Share Good Practice on Human Health in Environmental Impact Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Nicolai Suppa, 2021. "Walls of glass. Measuring deprivation in social participation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(2), pages 385-411, June.
    6. Dorian R. Woods & Yvonne Benschop & Marieke van den Brink, 2022. "What is intersectional equality? A definition and goal of equality for organizations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 92-109, January.
    7. Courtemanche, Charles & Soneji, Samir & Tchernis, Rusty, 2013. "Modeling Area-Level Health Rankings," IZA Discussion Papers 7631, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Mathieu J. P. Poirier & Douglas Barraza & C. Susana Caxaj & Ana María Martínez & Julie Hard & Felipe Montoya, 2022. "Informality, Social Citizenship, and Wellbeing among Migrant Workers in Costa Rica in the Context of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Marco Setti & Matteo Garuti, 2018. "Identity, Commons and Sustainability: An Economic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, February.
    10. Leah F. Vosko & Tanya Basok & Cynthia Spring & Guillermo Candiz & Glynis George, 2022. "Understanding Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Well-Being during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Toward a Transnational Conceptualization of Employment Strain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.
    11. Niyi Awofeso, 2011. "Leprosy: International Public Health Policies and Public Health Eras," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-13, September.
    12. Antonio Sarría-Santamera & Alua Yeskendir & Tilektes Maulenkul & Binur Orazumbekova & Abduzhappar Gaipov & Iñaki Imaz-Iglesia & Lorena Pinilla-Navas & Teresa Moreno-Casbas & Teresa Corral, 2021. "Population Health and Health Services: Old Challenges and New Realities in the COVID-19 Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-5, February.
    13. Phatra Samerwong & Hilde M Toonen & Peter Oosterveer & Simon R Bush, 2020. "A capability approach to assess aquaculture sustainability standard compliance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, January.
    14. Shepherd, Philippa M. & Dissart, Jean-Christophe, 2022. "Reframing vulnerability and resilience to climate change through the lens of capability generation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    15. M Obucina & N Harris & JA Fitzgerald & A Chai & K Radford & A Ross & L Carr & N Vecchio, 2018. "The Triple Aim framework in the context of primary healthcare: A systematic literature review," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201804, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    16. Vivian Louie & Anahí Viladrich, 2021. "“Divide, Divert, & Conquer” Deconstructing the Presidential Framing of White Supremacy in the COVID-19 Era," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-20, July.
    17. Bajmócy, Zoltán & Gébert, Judit, 2014. "The outlines of innovation policy in the capability approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 93-102.
    18. Jackson, William A., 2014. "External Capabilities and the Limits to Social Policy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 125-142.
    19. Nesson, Erik T. & Robinson, Joshua J., 2015. "An information theory based framework for the measurement of population health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 86-103.
    20. Rafael Burgos-Calderón & Santos Ángel Depine & Gustavo Aroca-Martínez, 2021. "Population Kidney Health. A New Paradigm for Chronic Kidney Disease Management," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-14, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:23:p:7138-:d:1293152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.