>> 31 employees of a local farm company have been infected by the coronirus. >> i think the average americana no concept of how food reaches our table. disconnect with those us with shelter in place.ro >> narrator: fm the farms... >> i started getting lightheaded. my chest starting to hurt. i couldn't really breathe. >> narrator: to the factories. >> they don't showp back to work they would be getting fired. >> narrator: correspondent daffodil altan investigates the risk essential workers take to provide america's food supply. >> how big is this problem?>> ust in meat packing alone, over 14,000 of our members have been expos or contracted covid-19. 14,000 people. n

rator: and what can be done to minimize their risk? >> the trump administratd n co this now. under the osha law the federal government canssue an emergency regulation. they can do that tomorrow, saying employers must protect workers from covid-19. >> narrator: now on >> it doesn't feel like we're essential, it feels like we're slaves. >> narrator: "covid's hidden toll". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by theorporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by th john d. therine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdann peaceful world. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation,de awareness of critical issues. the john a helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and

inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund,po with major s from jon and jo ann hagler. support for "covid'sidden toll" is provided by wnet's chasing the dream initiative on poverty and opportunity in america.jp with funding by th foundation. ♪ >> sinthia (in spanish):

>> sinthia: (phone dialing out) >> sinthia:

: man (on phone in spanis >> sinthia: >> man:: >> sinth >> man (on phone): (sthia speaking spanish) >> sinthia (person whistling) >> sinthia: (sinthia speaking spanish)

>> sinthia: ♪ >> millionof farm workers now still in the fields across the nation. >> ...agricultural workersov testing positive for-19 is on the rise. >> at least 10,000 meatpacking workers across the country haven infected. >> often facing crowded and unsanitary conditions. >> with little or no protective gear, their lives, and thepp nation's food , are at risk. ♪ daffodil altan: as millions of americans were shelteri in place over the past months, weat began lookinhe toll the coronavirus was taking on those

who cannot stay home. agricultural workers-- many of them undocumented-- who were deemed essential to the nation's food supply. in i've been reportin this community for years, and as the annual harvest was starting in, california this spriwas hearing from workers who were daily having to choose between a their jo their health. >> sinthia: >> alt: sinthia hernandez is one of the few workers out of dozens we spoke to who agreed to gon camera. she's a broccoli picker in the salinas valley, a region in california that produces most of the untry's leafy greens. in addition to having ncer,

sinthia has diabetes-- both of which put her at high risk for complications if she contracts covid-19. >> sinthia: (calls out in spanish) >> aan: she works for a contractor that supplies workers to farms in the area. she told me she's expected tobr. >> sinthia: >> altan: when we met sinthia ii there were no required covid protections for farm workers beyond general ou rules abt masks and social distancing. even now, companies don't have to tell workers about outbreaks. >> sinthia:

>> if one farmworker gets sick, you're going to get a crew, which is typically 30 people, sick. and each of those people go out, ty're going to get three to four other people, because i that's tection rate. and so the thing snowballs. (birds chirping) >> good morning. >> good morning! >> altan: dr. max cuevas runs a network of clinics in thell salinas that primary serves farm workers. >> and so with my staff, i told them we need to plan. have, we need to plan toses make sure that thoesources are in fact available. so we thought, "let's jump in m and let's begin makiks." ♪ >> altan: just before dawn, dr. cuevas' team w meeting workers as they caught rides to the fields. >> social worker (in spanish):

>> man: social worker: okay. >> woman: >> socl worker: ra when our state and fedel governments announced that thet farmworker was a par thel essentiarkforce, included with healthcare, first otsponders, police, that's your middle-ass essential worker that people are talkingab t. this essential worker, a lot of them do in fact live in fear.ey thon't want people to know that they're here undocumented. there's that fear of, "i couldbe one tomorrow if i'm taken away.oi and whatng to happen to my family?"e it's a horrind of fear that people learn to live with. you try to assure them that,

"don't be afraid of that one right now. be afraid of the virus." ♪ >> altan: by mid-april, the c first cases ofid-19 had been identified in the salinas lley, and there were increasing fears about it spreading among farm workers and their families. >> rosa: >> altan: it was around thisa time that we met rellana, a truck driver who was worried about what might happen in here family of prodrkers. a: >> r

>> altan: rosa's cousins were living with her family and working for a large grower called tanimura & antle. one of her cousins, mar, said that although the company gave em masks and gloves, it waso still difficult to de work and not get close. >> osmar: >> rosa: >> osmar:

>> altan: osmar says he heard through co-workers that someone on his crew had tested positive for covid-19, s suthrvisors were not giving em any information about what was happening. >> osmar: >> altan: without information, his crew collectively decidedk, to stop working.

osmar went home to self-quarantine, but he wasre y coming down with symptoms. ♪ >> rosa: : >> osmar t altan: osmar went to ge tested along with his wife and brother, who also worked at the company. >> osmar:

>> altan: several other co-workers also tested positivey ere among the first farm workers in monterey county to be diagnosed with covid-19. >> rosa: >> altan: during this time, we were hearing that there were dozens of cases at tanimura & antle. so we wanted to talk to the company about the infections and what they were doing to protect rkers.

but they did not respond to r repeated requests for an interview. >> local produce giant tanimura & antle confirmed one their employees have tested positive for covid-19. >> aan: the company publicly confirmed only one covid case, and said they had sent those in home with paid leave.orker when we asked local health officials in monterey county tor confirm the , they said they do not lease information about infections at specific companies. sp we received similar ses from other counties in the state. ndin fact, it was hard to much information at all about the overall number of farm workers getting sick. >> i believe local governments, i believe counties-- especiallyc ag-basnties-- should be releasing any and all data related to infections,au outbreaks, b without that impossible to try to gsy virus under control. >> altan: california assembly member robert rivas grew up in rmworker housing, and his district includes the salinasey

va (children speaking spanish) he told me that en the little data that is available about who is getting sick points to a disproportionateoll in the farmworker community. >> latinos make up 39%, almost 40% of the statewide populatn. >> altan: but th now account for more than half of all covidl cases inornia. >> and so certainly that is well above the representation of latinos statewide. t anrying to understand, you know, how this is impacting our farmworker communities is, is credibly impornt. >> altan: anthat's been a growing concern in agricultural communities experiencing outbreaks across the country. >> 31 employees of a local farm mpany have been infected by the coronavirus. >> southervalley says 100% of the employees at henderson farm have tested positive. >> scott's strawberry & tomato farm shut down after more an two dozen of its emploes

tested positive for covid-19. >> this is a once-in-a-century pandemic. and our rkers, they deserve to have laws in place that are ing to reflect these incredible challenges that we face. our laws need to reflect this new reality. li and somethin disclosing potential outbreaks on the worksite needs to become the standard in our state and really in our country. ♪ >> altan: agricultural workers in the u.s.-- especially the undocumented-- have long beenmo among th eloited and the lowest-paid. in our years of reporting on farm workers, we've found abuses involving children w have been forced to work against their sexually assaulted on the job. as the pandemic was taking hold, we heard from one of ourlo time sources, maricruz ladino, a farmworker in salinas

who we first met seven years ago, when she shared her story of being sexually assaulted by a supervisor. (in spanish): >> maricruz: >> altan: she's now a dispatcher for a large lettuce grower, and has become an advocate for farm workers by volunteering atn a legal aid organiza an (in sph): >> maricruz:

♪ : >> sinth (dishware clinking)as >> altannfections were

climbing imonterey county, sinthia hernandez told me she was worried about family members who, like her, also ve underlying conditions. >> inthia: >> sinthia's mother: >> sinthia: >> sinthia'sother: >> sinthia:

>> sinthia:

♪ >> altan: while the coronavirusf was taking hold in tlds, it was already racing through food processg plants acrs the nation.an >> the coronavirus pmic is closg down meatpacking facilities across the country. >> at least 22 meat processing plants already shut down in this country. >> altan: we heard about agr ing outbreak a few hours from salinas at one of the biggest meat processors in the u.s. >> the central valley meatco any in hanford, that's about 30 miles... >> altan: central valley meat employs around 700 people at its plant in kings county.y the cohas a history of violing health and safety codes and has been cited for animal abuses, as seen in this undercover footage. in the last decade, it's had a two beef recallsnd been shut down threeimes.

when the virus appeared at the plant in april, workers to us nothing to protect them.y did >> when it started, they denied everything. there was people getting suspended for showing up with a face mask. a couple of people were actually coughing, and they wore the mask just because they were coughing, and they got sent home. they used e phrase, "ye scaring the employees. your co-workers." >> management will say that it's just rumors thasomeone had posted on social media. >> a lot of peopletarted missing and then they started calling them and threatening them about their jobs. if they don't show up to go baco to work, they d be getting fired. >> altan: these two employees t spoke to us on condition that we not disclose their identities, because they were afraid of losingheir jobs. >> in the central valley, at least 138 employees tested positive for covid9 at a... >> altan: they said it wn't until the outbreak made the local news that the company began to implement safety

measures. >> after everything came out on the news, everybody was, like, kind of panicking. >> aer the outbreak, they started separating us in, um, fferent tables, apart. and then they were providing us with facmasks because most of us were complaining. we were, like, "we need to protecourselves." >> altan: according to the workers, more people keptev showing up sicy day. >> people were going in sick, fever, throwing up, coughing. they asked you at the gate, "do you have anythese symptoms?" you tell him, "yes," okay, you can go right down and go ahead and work. home?"like, "shouldn't i go "nah, just go ahead and go and work." >> altan: they worked inside a l plant th sayooked similar to this one, and that even as the virus spread, the pressure to keep up production continued. >> we still see people who had came back who are coughing and sneezing. they don't even cover their mouths, because, you know, they're moving constantly,

because thline's, you know, running fast. and some of them, when theywe sneeze, the papels areaw kind of far from them, so some of thir off on tace mask or on their smock. >> altan: central valley meat declined our repeated requests to discuss the outbreak. but the companhas publicly denied threatening to fire workers or punishi them for being out sick in late april, the company sent a note to employees comparing the outbreak to a norm flu season, and saying that "the coronavirus is not se cloud floating around waiting to infect someo," and assured employees that nightly cleaning was killing any potential virus residue. >> ely on in the pandemic outbreak inside plants, it was chaos, it was fear, it was anxiety. >> altan: i reached out to union leader mark lauritsen, who'd been monitoring outbreaks in plants around the country. >> nobody knew exactly what they were dealing with, and that just

a meatpacking plant loforker in answers, those answers we hard to come by early on in this pandem. >> altan: so how, how big is this problem? >> just in meatpacking alone in the united states, over 14,000 of our members have been exposed or contracted covid-19 because of their proximity to work-- 14,000 people. and thosare just our members. so you have to, if you look across the entire industry, you're probably looking at a t numbt's substantially higher than that. and when you have 14,000 of our members that are, are exposed and sick, that's a tremendousst ss on the efficiency of the whole food supply chain in this country. and quite honestly, if we want to protect our food supply chain in this country, let's protect those workers. >> mr. president, on the food supply chain... >> altan: in late april, large outbreaks were forcing plants around the country to close down, until the president signed an executive order that prompted companies to stay open. >> we're going to sign an

executive order today, i believe, and that'll solve any liability problems. >> when the president said that the, they weren't gonna be closing the meat plants down, everybody got upset, because we were just gettinready to clthe, at least that's what were telling us. >> altan: both of ese central valley meat employees told us that they tested positive for covid-19. >> i started getting lightheaded, my body juststartel i felt ry hot from inside. my chest starting tourt. i couldn't really breathe. i told my management, i asked them if i could leave. and then, they were not going to let me go. they said that if you want to get tested, you willave too on your own time. company's job to take care of us, you know, the workers. >> altan: by early may, local

health officials began testing workers onsite. >> i know a lot of the people that are sick. some work next to me. some i see at the break room. i'll see them in the restrooms. yesterday, a co-worker showed uw k and she was coughing. she told us that she was threatened with her job if she didn't show up to work. >> altan: production at the plant never stopped, even the community around it developed one of the fastest infectiogrowth rates in the country. >> no, the comny never closed. they didn't even shut down for, not even a day. even though if it was 40 people working, we were still killing cows and still working. >> every day we go to work, we're thinking about the coronavirus, if we're gonna catch it again. who's gonna catch it? is it on the walls? is it on the product? is it on the equipment we use?

>> up till today, i'm still going to work, even though i'm positive right now. >> it doesn't feel like we're essential workers, it feels like we're slaves. >> altan: nearly 200 workers at the company have tested positive for covid-19, makingt one of the largest outbreaks in the state.nt and around the c, it's estimated that at least 35,000 meatpacking workers have been infected, with more than 100 deaths. with a crisis escalating, state and federal agencies began issuing workplace safety guidelines temployers. central valley meat told us in a statement that they'refoow owing that guidance, but the guidelines are all voluntary. >> what that means is, if an employer doesn't want to do it, it's just guidance, you dot have to do it. and that's not fair to those people that work in that industry who need to have a safe workplace.

the ct is, in, in thisdu ry, there are 65 of our brothers and sisters that passed away, and they passed away becausgovernment agencies altan: the federal agency that oversees workplace safety, osha, declined to speak with us, but said in a statement that they're taking steps to address thsafe workplaces, and tha voluntary guidelines were enough to protect workers against covid-19. david michaels, the head of osha under presidentbama, disagrees. >> the evidence is very clear working.n'tend the numbers of cases of covid-19 in factory workers, in the recommendations ars to rise. there, but we know that they're not being followed enough. there are some empyers who are trying to do a good job, but a lot of them, you know, frankly, aren't.er >> altan: what can fsha do right now? >> well, the first thing thatl the fedevernment should do is issue requirements.

eissue a regulation sayinry employer must have a plan to cause if we don't protect workers on the job, we're not going to stop this epidemic. and workers will pay the high price of that. thtrump administration cou do this now. under the osha law, the federal government can issue an emergency regulation-- they can do that tomorrow-- saying employers must protect workers from covid-19. >> altan: early on in the pandemic, maricruz ladino told us that unlike many companies she'd heard about, her employerg was being essive about implementing protections. maricruz:

>> altan: i askeher boss at field fresh farms about the safety measures they were taking. >> we had thatuestion from the get-go, people look back, is it a safe place to be? we sanitize daily, obviously. in just our normal food safety protocol, we're above an beyond all the third-party certifications we have, just on a day-toay basis of what we have to do to produce a food item in a package. so, really, the only step above for us was physically putting face masks on. part of it is, you don't want them going home, getting their family sick, oer members, young kids, elderly at their and we don't want the people in thcrew getting sick, becau we, we need a full crew, and if one person gets sick, maybe the mentality ofhe rest of them are, "maybe it's not a safe place to be"-- all of the above. >> aan: and what about in th fields, what are you doing? >> fields, same thing. splitting times they c. we've had some people, we've offered it, if they wanted to continue to come in or do a shelter at place. we understand if you want to be at home, and there's a few that chose to stay atome, at least for the two-week period that they initially said they thought it would be.

>> altan: were they paid? were they paid if they sheltered in place? >> those... those are not, right now, the people that chose to stay home. they're laidff and whether they're, you know, it's up to them if they want to seek unemployment or not. and again, whaven't had anybody... to point that's been reported to be sick ywhere at any, in any one of our entities. ♪ >> altan: though there have been no known infections at work, maricruz is worried becausere severatives have already en infected. >> maricruz:

♪ (phone calling out) >> sinthia:on >> man ( phone): >> sinthia: >> manuh-huh. >> sinthia: >> altan: for sinthia hernandez, her worst fears seemed to be coming true. >> sinthia:

>> woman: >> sinthia: >> woman: >> sinthia: >> woman:

>> woman 2: >> oy. >> woman: >> sinthia: (voice trembling):

♪ >> altan: over our months ofpo reing, we heard many storiesut like sinthia's aboorkers feelg essured by their circumstances and by their one of those employers was taylor farms, a multi-billion- dollar company in the salinas valley. it has 20,000 employees across the country and sells lettuce t retailke walmart and whole foods. >> here at taylor farms, the good news is, is food safety has always been a big focus. >> altan: when the pandemic hit, the company said it was taking all appropriate measures to protect its workers. >> so a big part of education for us, with all of our team members, was to help everybody understand that we owe it to each other to keepalach other y. and as a company, we needed to make sure that people felt comfortable staying ho... >> altan: but when an employee tested positive at taylor's flagsh organic packing plant

in early may, workers told us the company se a different message. >> woman: >> altan: we spoke to this taylor farms employee who isy concealing her identcause she's afraid of losing her job. >>oman: >> man: >> aan: she shot this video on her cellphone of an hr manager addressing employees who had refused to work. >> woman:

>> man: >> woman 2: >> man and woman 1: >> man: >> man 2: >> woman 1:ie (in inte: >> man 1: >> woman 1 (in interview):

>> man 1: ♪ >> woman 1: >> man 1: vi

>> woman 1 (in int): >> man 1: >> altan: we talked to the manager in the video. he would not go on camera, but

said he was trying to keep people safe and stay productive. taylor farms also declined to go on camera. in a statement, they saithey'd worked hard to maintain the food supply wle putting in place panded health and safety protocols for their employees. ♪ in the end, all but a handful of the roughly 250 workers returned to their shift that day. >> woman 1:

>> altan: we reached out to the head of the association that well other large gwerms, as california. how familiar are you with what happened at taylor farms, or at tanimu & antle? >> um, you know, taylor, i'mt. not-- i'm tanimura, um, you know, i knowed what they repoo, to the media based on their statement. so i'm not, i don't know, like, what goes on within, you know, a company. weon't have intel in each and every case as to what exactly happened and why and how, or what didn employer do in their reaction. but where these come up and we learn about themand at the end of day, we almost always learn, like, that a company where there is an issue, that an issue ourselves to engage them. >> altan: valadez said his association issued early safety

protols and is part of a unique coalition with local officials, farmworker advocates, and doctors. but he said he's opposed to companies having to blicly disclose their covid cases. >> and i think it's important to see context and significance as important, becau it, it can distract from what the company employees, it can distract from the fact that there's no such thing as zo-risk, and so something may happen, and the company may have taken the best, most appropriate steps they could have communicated as clearly and concisely and as frequently as is humanly possible. the employer could've voluntred to pvide housing to this employee, where there is no requirement to do so. captured.of that would get the only thing that e general public would then know and be able to formulate opinion on is that this employer may have done something wrong, because here wee associated a negative, which is the occurrence of people that are covid-19-

positive to a particular company.w, ere a company... >> altan: so you're saying that putting that information out there woulbe negative press for the company, just... doesn't look good. >> i think in general, yes.ld and we wxpect employers, you know, that, that should have the responsibility to make sure they're clearly communicating with employees to, to ucate and help address any fears that, that may result, because we're all living in a situation of the unknown. ♪ >> altan: as the coronavirus has continued to spread, assemblyman rivas has been pushing for workplace safety measures that companies must follow. >> i expected more from cale osha, i expected mom federal osha, to really intervene and to do more in the way of ensuring that tre is industry-wide regulations to w protect our kers. unfortunately, farm workers isdon't have high-paid lob. which makes the passage of any significant legislation very challenging, you know, to be quite honest. >> altan: in the meantime,'s

californovernor, gavin newsom, has stepped in. he's announced measures togr helpultural workers including enforcing saftey guidelines that until now have been voluntary. this is talking about compliance on health and safety in our meatpacking facilities. one should not have to put their life at risko go to work as an essential worker. >> altan: the governor is creati strike teams that will inspect worksites in 19 targeted counties, and coulds fine compahat are not following the guidelines. >> now that we have statewide guidelines in place, n that the governor has made the commitment to enforce thosees guidelis a step in the right direction. >> altan: but rivas said the state still needs to do more t understand the scope of the outbreak among farm workers. >> carly, when it comes to covid-19, this discussion needs to be driven by data. who's infected? where are they infected? why were they infected? ca need to do everything w to help us make informat's going decisions, but also create and

introduce legislation to address problems. ♪ >> altan: some counties are now providing data on agricultural worker infections. and the numbers are alarming. agricultural workers are threere times ikely to get covid-19 than other workers in monterey county, according to a new analysis by the california institute for rural studies. and research out of u.c. san diego found that in counties across the u.s. where there are, more farm workore people are dying of covid-19. >> i think the average american has no concept of how food reaches our table. we don't know how meat is processed. we have no idea where lettuce comes from. we have no idea how it's

harvested. i think there's a huge whsconnect with those of u have sheltered in place not understanding how the people work and how much they have to work, to make a living and to company that they're w the for. ♪ ♪ >> altan: as for osmar orellana, he ended up spending two weeks in isolation with his wife and brother. >> osmar: >> altan (in spanish): >> osmar: >> altan (inpanish): >> sí. >> osmar:

♪ >> rosa: (water running)

>> (on phone): thank you forca ing optumserve health services. if this is an emergency, please hang uand call 911. >> (in spanish): >> (presses button) (hold music playing) >> all of our agents aress currently busyting other callers. please remain on the line and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received (hold music playing) ng (phone rin >> (on phone): thank you for calling optumserve, this is christy-- how can i help you? d >> buenas...you speak spanish? >> i do not. do you need an interpreter? >> yes, please. >> one minute. >> (on phone, in spanish): >> sinthia (in spanish):

>> germán: >> sinthia:an >> (germán speaking h) >> germán: >> (speaking spanish) >> wow. >> (on phone): thank you so much. (in spanish): >> sinthia: ♪

(car door closes)

♪ >> go to pbs.org/frontli for more on the disproportionate impact ofs. covid-19 on farmwork >> i expected morerom cal osha. i expected more from federal osha to really intervene to protect our farmworkers. >> and listen to our podcast with the producers of this film. >> i'm ran aronson executive producer of frontline, and this is the "frontline dispatch".>> onnect to the frontline community on facebook and twitter, and watch anytime on the pbs video app pbs.org/frontline. >> ...government orchestrated... ...inside job... ...powerful world government... >> he just kept adding more and more outrageous lies to the story. >> roger delivers legitimacy to alex jones and jon delivers

to trump a disaffected voter. >> donald trump is our guest. >> i will not let you down. >> now those ideas, which used to be on the fringe are in the mainstream.on >>iratorial thinking is a feature of this president. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like u. thank you. and by the corporaon for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to buildina more just, verdant and peaceful world. the ford foundation:th working isionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthyin journalism tharms and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and

jo ann hagler. suppt for "covid's hidden toll" is provided by wnet's chasing the dream initiative on poverty and opportunity in america. with funding by the jpb foundation. captioned by media access group at wgbhh. access.wg >> for more on this and other "frontline" programs, vit our website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ frontline's, "covid's hidden toll" is available on amazon prime video. ♪

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