Farmworkers return to jobs after Half Moon Bay shootings, and advocates voice concern
- In contrast, stores and schools across the US have shut down for months after such mass shootings
- Employers say the workers want to return, but some support organisations say many are immigrants and may not have a choice
Less than a week after seven people were killed in a mass shooting at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay, agricultural workers returned to work at the sites where their colleagues and neighbours were gunned down.
Workers began going back to Concord Farms last week, said Aaron Tung, whose family owns the farm. At California Terra Garden, operations resumed on Saturday and it was fully staffed by Wednesday, said David Oates, a representative for the company.
“The employees wanted to go back to work,” Oates, a crisis public relations expert hired by California Terra Garden, told the Los Angeles Times. “We said whenever you’re ready to come back to work, as you’re comfortable, we’ll accommodate.”
The reopening of the farms comes as farmworker advocates have raised concerns about employees returning too quickly after the mass shooting, which unfolded January 23 and which officials said was witnessed by staff and some children.
“They don’t want to go back to work, but they have to go back to work,” said Darlene Tenes, founder of Farmworker Caravan, an organisation that supports farmworkers in the region and has also provided meals and services for the people affected. “How would you feel? Their co-workers just got shot.”
Some advocates have stressed that just posing the question to workers of whether they want to return to the job site is unfair. Many of the workers are immigrants and unaware of their rights, Tenes said. More than 40 adults and 19 children were displaced immediately after the shooting, most of them from California Terra Garden, she said.
