By Kim Baca
Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. — Nearly three decades after Cesar Chavez pushed to outlaw the short-handled hoe in the fields, farmworker advocates are trying to end a similar backbreaking practice.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, has introduced a bill that would restrict pulling weeds by hand in an attempt to close a loophole that allows farmers to skirt the 1975 law that made the little hoe history.

"Hand-weeding is even more dangerous," said Mark Schacht, deputy director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, which sponsored the bill. "The worker is 6 to 12 inches to the ground, and it causes more damage to the worker's back."

Amalia Franco, 33, who has picked lettuce, onions and chilies in Monterey County for the past decade, knows first hand the effects of bending over for hours, and she thinks such a bill would improve her job.

"It's hard work no matter what, but the hoe makes it easier," Franco said. "The advantage of the long-handled hoe is that you don't have to bend over, and it doesn't cause as much strain on the back."

The bill passed the Assembly and is being debated in the Senate's labor committee. A similar bill died in the Senate in 1995.

The proposal comes nearly 30 years after the late United Farm Workers co-founder Chavez, who is honored Sunday with a state holiday, successfully pushed for better working conditions in the fields.

The bill would exempt row crops too fragile for hoes, such as strawberries. But farmers fear it will be applied to all crops and that hoes will damage certain plants.

"The concern from growers is you are taking a legal practice and making it illegal," said Mike Webb of the Western Growers Association, which represents the fruit and vegetable industry in California and Arizona.

The legislation is supported by a report from the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health agricultural safety inspection project that found hand weeding may contribute to back, shoulder, wrist and hand injuries.

The division's medical unit issued a memo in 1993 further criticizing the practice because workers are exposed to pesticides and fecal matter in soil tainted by poor hygiene.

Richard Molinar, a farm adviser for the University of California, said he's not sure how lawmakers can prohibit a useful practice without harming the industry.

"If they end up banning hand-pulling of weeds, we have to use the hoe, the hoe will hurt the plant, which means reduced yields and reduced income to the farmer," he said.

The bill's supporters said a number of tools have been invented to keep the worker and the plant safe.

Rodolfo Cisneros, 33, a former Fresno farmworker, said that with a hoe there's no need to pull weeds. But he said a law limiting hand weeding would protect migrants.

"Many Mexicans that come are very brave and willing to do anything," he said. "If they work with their hands, then afterward there might be consequences. So it would be better if there is a law to protect them."

March 27, 2002

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