By Rosario Marin*
Governor Gavin Newsom came to office promising to protect the rights of California’s immigrant workforce and to fight for “guaranteed health care for all.” In stark contradiction to that statement, the Governor recently proposed allowing approximately 200,000 undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees to have their access to Medi-Cal removed. Additionally, California is currently struggling to address silicosis, a deadly disease epidemic caused by hazardous working conditions. Hispanic workers are getting sick as California state agencies fail to enforce federal workplace safety standards. And one has to wonder if such noncompliance is being allowed in California because of a lack of commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of our community: immigrants who are exploited because of their status.
As the first foreign-born immigrant to serve as Treasurer of the United States and as Secretary of the California State and Consumer Services Agency (CSCSA), my public policy experience has given me extensive firsthand knowledge of how good government and strong enforcement of important workplace safety laws can uplift and protect immigrant workers, while government failures can open the door to labor exploitation. All workers, regardless of their economic, social or real status deserve to be safe at work. It is unacceptable for our state to tolerate dangerous working conditions for Hispanic workers, and it is alarmingly contrary to everything Governor Newsom claims to stand for.
You do not need to have those positions or experiences to understand that inhaling large volumes of dust in the workplace is harmful. Cutting stone products that contain high levels of silica, such as granite, quartz and quartzite, without basic respiratory protection puts workers at risk of developing silicosis over time as silica dust lodges in their lungs. That is why safe work practices such as wet cutting, ventilation, and personal protective equipment have been developed and are required by current laws. These are widely known and proven methods that many employers of a predominantly Hispanic workforce seem to blatantly ignore.
As cases of silicosis, in California in particular, have skyrocketed in recent years, a solution was finally put on the table and codified into law last year: the Silicosis Training, Outreach and Prevention Act (STOP Act), known in its final form as Senate Bill 20 (SB-20). SB-20 officially banned dry cutting, which generates dangerous stone dust that damages workers’ lungs, and requires “the use of effective wet methods that effectively suppress dust.”
Current Cal/OSHA standards, such as the use of a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR), also provide legal mechanisms to ensure that workers are adequately protected from this disease.
Unfortunately, these common sense solutions have not yet been effectively enforced. No workshop is being fined or closed, and more diagnoses of silicosis appear every day. The California Department of Health has identified hundreds of unsafe workshops, yet they continue to operate with complete impunity. To make matters worse, the limitations of the workers’ compensation system largely prevent affected workers from suing their employers in court. California’s plaintiff-friendly product liability laws also incentivize trial lawyers seeking big payouts to go after manufacturers in other states, rather than the owners of these dangerous manufacturing shops.
And yet, instead of enforcing the law, policymakers are considering banning “reconstituted stone” entirely. This ban represents a disturbing disregard for the predominantly Hispanic and immigrant workforce that sustains the stone manufacturing industry here in California. If a ban were implemented, non-compliant employers who cut granite, quartzite and other stone products would simply switch to cutting other high-silica stones while continuing to violate federal and state laws without consequences. Given the state government’s failure to enforce existing worker safety laws, it is also uncertain whether such a ban would have any impact.
California labor unions have opposed any ban, fearing broader bans that could cause substantial job losses. California lawmakers would pat themselves on the back for “solving” the problem while Hispanic workers continue to get sick. What is certain is that all California workers deserve OSHA protection.
Right now, the sad reality is that there is no accountability on the part of shop owners when workers get sick and die from dust created by the processes used in their facilities.
The path forward is clear: Cal/OSHA must enforce existing laws intended to protect vulnerable workers from predatory working conditions that lead to silicosis. If additional protections are to be considered, we need to promote common sense policies such as silica safety certification requirements, rather than a blanket ban.
While the Trump Administration is destroying the rest of our country, California has the opportunity to set a national standard for workplace safety by requiring all employers to keep all of their workers safe. I urge Governor Newsom to show that he cares about immigrants in California by cracking down on outlaw stone manufacturing shops that are exploiting hard-working Hispanic immigrants who simply want to live the American Dream.
The Hon. Rosario Marín
she previously served as the 41st Treasurer of the United States, Mayor of Huntington Park, and Secretary of the California State and Consumer Services Agency.
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