Sign this petition re: farm workers and the coronavirus pandemic

Tell Primex Farms to do right by its workers.

Add your name: Workers must be protected from COVID-19! 

Dear MoveOn member,

When workers at Primex Farms, the major pistachio and almond processing company, started testing positive for COVID-19, the company kept it a secret.¹

When workers asked for safety measures to prevent the spread of the virus, the company failed to act.²

Now, more than a third of the Primex Farms workforce have tested positive for COVID-19.³ One worker has died, and another was removed from life support and sent home for palliative care. She is not expected to survive. Workers' families are getting sick, too.⁴

The way Primex Farms is treating its workforce just to make a buck is appalling! Click here to tell Primex Farms to immediately rehire these workers with back pay for the time that they were either fired or home sick and to institute the protections they've been demanding. 

The situation at Primex Farms in California is dire. A third of the workers there had contracted COVID-19, and now their family members, including children, have tested positive. One worker has died, and another is not expected to survive. 

When a group of brave workers spoke up to protect themselves, their co-workers, and their families, they were fired.

Sign the petition telling Primex Farms to rehire them and to implement appropriate coronavirus protections.

Workers were calling on Primex Farms to put in place safety measures, including social distancing procedures and personal protective equipment such as face masks—safety measures the company promised but never delivered on. 

Not only did the company refuse to provide safe working conditions, it also didn't offer sick leave for infected or exposed workers or allow workers to go home when they felt sick or to take time off to be tested for the coronavirus.⁵ 

And when workers organized a strike to demand safer working conditions and better benefits, Primex Farms illegally retaliated against them and fired them.⁶

These workers want their jobs back, and they want to be protected on the jobsite.

Will you add your signature today to tell Primex Farms to do right by its workers?

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Jocelyn Sherman, United Farm Workers

Sources:

1. "Farmworkers at Central California pistachio farm strike after dozens test positive for the coronavirus," Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/142009?t=11&akid=271900%2E10220574%2E6VST6G

2. "'Everyone tested positive': Covid devastates agriculture workers in California's heartland," The Guardian, August 8, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/142010?t=13&akid=271900%2E10220574%2E6VST6G

3. Ibid.

4. "Protest held after dozens of farmworkers test positive for COVID-19 at Wasco packing house," ABC30, July 16, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/142011?t=15&akid=271900%2E10220574%2E6VST6G

5. "Dozens of pistachio plant workers infected with COVID-19," Cal Matters, July 2, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/142012?t=17&akid=271900%2E10220574%2E6VST6G

6. "UFW files charges against Primex Farms for allegedly firing employees who said company wasn't protecting them from COVID-19," KGET, July 28, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/142013?t=19&akid=271900%2E10220574%2E6VST6G

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