Gov. Newsom Comes To Riverside County, Addresses Inequity

COACHELLA, CA — For the first time in the city’s history, a sitting California governor visited Coachella. Wednesday morning’s news briefing by Gov. Gavin Newsom was set against the backdrop of the SeaView produce packing plant, where the California leader and several Riverside County officials put the spotlight on "equity" amid the pandemic — and improvement moving forward.

COVID-19 has hit the Coachella Valley hard. While its older population has been struck, so has its Hispanic/Latino community, many of whom work in the desert’s crop fields and produce packing plants. Nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths in Riverside County have occurred in the Hispanic/Latino communities, according to Riverside University Health System data.

“Frankly, we haven’t done enough,” Newsom said Wednesday, referring to inequity in protecting those vulnerable to COVID-19’s onslaught.

The governor praised a collaborative effort underway in the Coachella Valley — bringing COVID-19 education, testing, support and vaccines to the desert’s underserved communities, including farmworkers. Businesses like SeaView, along with government, nonprofits and health care, have formed the Coachella Valley Equity Collaborative, which brings teams out into the fields and inside packing plants to offer services, which the governor said is a model for the state and the nation.

“It’s the first of its kind,” according to the governor.

Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez and Congressman Raul Ruiz (D) — both Coachella Valley residents who serve the area — were on hand during Wednesday’s news briefing.

“This is personal,” both said, explaining that their parents worked in local fields as part of the nation’s Bracero program.

“Farmworkers are essential workers,” said Newsom, who called them heroes. Holding up a piece of fruit he snagged from a nearby SeaView crate, the governor said, "these things don’t just magically arrive in your grocery store.”

California is not only the largest producer of agricultural goods by value in the country, but also one of the largest agricultural-producing regions in the world, according to a 2017 report from the National Council of La Raza. About 96 percent of the state’s nearly 1 million farmworkers are Latino; the majority have no health insurance yet work more than 40 hours a week for very low wages, according to the report.

The workers often live in crowded households with no ability to quarantine if someone gets sick, many don’t get sick pay, and conditions at some work facilities are not conducive to the prevention of disease spread, officials said Wednesday.

It’s not immediately clear how many farmworkers have been tested and/or vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Coachella Valley, but Newsom said all services are offered free to documented and undocumented workers alike.

The Coachella Valley Equity Collaborative's efforts to gain the trust of local farmworkers is challenging, Perez explained, but said, "I am proud that farmworkers are a priority now in Riverside County."

Wednesday’s event followed news last week that agricultural, grocery store, restaurant, and retail pharmacy workers in Coachella will see a $4 per hour increase in wages following unanimous approval Feb. 10 of a city ordinance designed to provide economic security during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newsom also used Wednesday’s event to announce an additional $24 million in funding for the state’s Housing for the Harvest program, which the governor announced in July. The program provides temporary hotel housing options for farm and food processing employees to self-isolate if they are COVID-19 positive and do not require hospitalization, or have been exposed and cannot properly self-isolate at home.

“It’s been a struggle, but we also come together to serve our residents,” Perez said of efforts to get agreement in Riverside County on COVID-19 and the plight of Coachella Valley’s underserved communities. The Board of Supervisors is often at odds with each other, with its two Republicans, one Independent, and two Democrats (including Perez), but the members continuously push — in unison — for additional resources in the county.

Perez and the other Democratic leaders expressed optimism Wednesday about the future given the change in Washington D.C. It's expected that anyone who wants COVID-19 vaccination should be able to get it by July, according to Newsom.

Perez circled back to the heart of the inequity issue during Wednesday's briefing and addressed the elephant in the room: “We need comprehensive immigration reform.”