It's worth remembering the people who can't retreat to their air-conditioned havens on a day like today. In that spirit comes an invitation from United Farm Workers for legal residents and citizens looking for work to apply for agricultural jobs. As Wonk Room points out, there will likely be few takers.
In pointing out how tough a job it is, they point out that agriculture is one of the three most hazardous occupations, and that's in part because of toxic materials and hazardous tools and work under the hot sun for long days. They often live in crowded conditions and earn only about $28,040 a year.
That's also an argument for pulling agricultural workers, many of whom are immigrants or seasonal workers, into an official guest-worker system. Workplace hazards don't clear themselves up, and neither do employee abuses. Construction and agricultural firms benefit from a labor base that's less likely to complain when they're taken advantage of, and that's unfair to every American worker.
-- Monica Potts
