“我不得不工作”:西部的农业工人冒着浓烟收割庄稼

“我不得不工作”:西部的农业工人冒着浓烟收割庄稼

Rows of pinot noir grapevines sit under a blanket of dense smoke from wildfires last week in Oregon's Arlyn Vineyard.

在俄勒冈州的阿林葡萄园，成排的黑皮诺葡萄藤被上周野火的浓烟笼罩着。

Wildfires are ravaging large swaths of the West in the middle of the wine grape harvest, sending hazardous smoke through picturesque vineyards.

野火正肆虐着西部葡萄产区的大片地区，将有害的烟雾弥漫在风景如画的葡萄园中。

It's forcing many agricultural workers to make a stark choice: Should they prioritize their health or earn badly needed money?

它迫使许多农业工人做出一个严峻的选择:他们应该优先考虑自己的健康还是赚急需的钱?

"The truth is that I have to work," said Maricela, 48, a team leader at a vineyard near Medford in southern Oregon. There are multiple fires blazing close to the town.

“事实是，我必须工作，”48岁的玛丽塞拉说，她是南俄勒冈州梅德福附近一个葡萄园的队长。该镇附近发生了多起火灾。

"It's not easy to work now," she said. "The smoke is so dense. ... I feel dizzy, my throat hurts and my head feels like it's going to explode."

“现在工作不容易，”她说。“烟太浓了……我觉得头晕，喉咙疼，头好像要爆炸了。”

Air quality is ranked as "very unhealthy" in this part of southern Oregon, according to the U.S. government air quality monitoring website Airnow.gov. Many of the agricultural areas in the West have seen plummeting air quality in recent weeks.

根据美国政府空气质量监测网站Airnow.gov，南俄勒冈州这一地区的空气质量被列为“非常不健康”。最近几周，西部许多农业区的空气质量直线下降。

Maricela, who has already been forced to evacuate twice as a result of the fires, said her employer gave her the option to stay home without risking her job. But she said she has no choice. She hasn't been able to pay her electricity bill in three months, partly because she lost work hours due to the pandemic. She asked NPR not to use her last name, because like many agricultural workers, she doesn't have work documents.

玛丽塞拉已经两次因火灾被迫疏散，她说她的雇主给了她选择，即呆在家里而不会危及她的工作。但是她说她别无选择。她已经三个月没能付电费了，部分原因是她因疫情而失去了工作时间。她要求NPR不要透露她的姓氏，因为像许多农业工人一样，她没有工作证。

Her employer told her it will pay her an extra dollar per hour because of the fires.

她的雇主告诉她，由于火灾，每小时将多付给她一美元。

She said she can't think about the long-term health effects of the smoke. "I pray I stay healthy." Maricela said she doesn't have any preexisting health conditions; she doesn't have health insurance, either. "All I have are my hands to work," she said.

她说她不能想象浓烟对健康的长期影响。“我祈祷我能保持健康。” 玛丽塞拉说她之前没有任何健康问题;她也没有医疗保险。“我只有双手可以工作，”她说。

Agricultural workers vulnerable, lack information

农业工人易受伤害，缺乏信息

More than 40 large wildfires are ravaging Oregon, Washington state and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, and have burned almost 4 million acres.

据美国国家消防中心称，超过40场野火正在俄勒冈州、华盛顿州和加利福尼亚州肆虐，烧毁了近400万英亩的土地。

Agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable as the disaster unfolds, said Reyna Lopez Osuna, 33. She works to improve labor conditions for farmworkers in Oregon.

33岁的雷纳·洛佩斯·奥苏纳说，随着灾难的展开，农业工人是最脆弱的群体之一。她的工作是改善俄勒冈州农场工人的劳动条件。

As the fires ramped up last week, "there were rumors and a lot of confusion of what was happening next," Lopez Osuna said. She said her phone was ringing constantly as workers frantically tried to figure out if they were required to come into work, even as evacuation zones shifted quickly.

当上周火势加剧时，洛佩斯·奥苏纳说:“关于接下来会发生什么，有很多谣言和混乱。”她说，她的电话不断响个不停，工人们疯狂地试图弄清楚是否需要他们来上班，尽管疏散区正在迅速转移。

One factor adding to the confusion is the lack of information in Spanish and Indigenous languages from Mexico and Central America, Lopez Osuna said.

洛佩斯·奥苏纳说，增加混乱的一个因素是缺乏来自墨西哥和中美洲的西班牙语和土著语言的信息。

Counties were putting out emergency information on social media, she said, "but a lot of the farmworkers don't have Facebook or access to the best Wi-Fi."

各县在社交媒体上发布了紧急信息，她说，“但很多农场工人没有Facebook或最好的Wi-Fi。”

More broadly, Lopez Osuna is alarmed about the impact of climate change on wildfires. It's causing them to burn more frequently and intensely. After this fire season settles, she said, "The industry needs to work on guidelines and protections for agricultural workers."

更广泛地说，洛佩斯·奥苏纳对气候变化对野火的影响感到担忧。气候使野火更频繁、更强烈地燃烧。在这个火灾季节结束后，她说，“行业需要为农业工人制定指导方针和保护措施。”

Lopez Osuna, the daughter of farmworkers who migrated from Mexico in the 1980s, understands that the wildfires also force employers to make difficult choices.

洛佩兹·奥苏纳是20世纪80年代从墨西哥移民过来的农场工人的女儿，她明白野火也迫使雇主做出艰难的选择。

"There is a short timeline to pick these fruits and vegetables," she said. "It means that people and employers are having to make really tough choices."

“采摘这些水果和蔬菜的时间很短，”她说。“这意味着员工和雇主不得不做出非常艰难的选择。”