Apparently these people's existence isn't noticed until enough people are actually killed. Note the concern of the gov't. agencies now. Didn't give sweet F.A. about the "deplorable conditions" after last summer's shooting.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The shooting that left four dead at a California mushroom farm on Monday was at least the second time an employee tried to kill a coworker on the property, records show.Martin Medina, a manager at California Terra Garden, was charged with attempted murder after he threatened to kill another manager and then fired a shot into the man’s trailer. The bullet went through the trailer and into a neighboring one that was home to Yetao Bing, one of the workers killed on Monday, a prosecutor told The Associated Press. No one was injured.
Burn down the plantations.HALF MOON BAY, Calif. —Amid a state investigation into workplace conditions at the San Mateo County farms where seven people were killed this week, the farmworker charged in the massacre said he had experienced “years of bullying” and working long hours before opening fire.
Chunli Zhao, 66, in a jailhouse interview with NBC Bay Area, admitted that he took a semiautomatic handgun and opened fire on his co-workers Monday.
San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Stephen M. Wagstaffe told The Times in an interview that although he could not go into details in the case, the suspect’s comments to the TV station were “consistent with what he told law enforcement.”
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State officials Thursday said they had opened investigations into labor and workplace practices at the two sites of Monday’s fatal shootings, casting a spotlight on the lives of California’s farmworkers, who often live and work in dangerous conditions.
The investigation comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the beachside community Tuesday. Newsom spoke with the victims’ families and co-workers about the deadly shooting and their workplace environment.
Without naming specifics, Newsom said some farmworkers were “living in shipping containers” and working for $9 an hour, well below the state minimum wage of $15.50.
“No healthcare, no support, no services, but [they’re] taking care of our health, providing a service to us each and every day,” he said at the news conference.
A spokesperson for Newsom called the workers’ conditions “simply deplorable” in a statement.
“Our country relies on their back-breaking work, yet Congress cannot even provide them the stability of raising their families and working in this country without fear of deportation, which contributes to their vulnerability in the workplace,” Daniel VillaseƱor, deputy press secretary for Newsom’s office, said in the statement. “California is investigating the farms involved in the Half Moon Bay shooting to ensure workers are treated fairly and with the compassion they deserve.”
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