ALBION, N.Y. -- A man whose son died while working as a migrant worker on an Albion farm said he wants to see more training and protection for migrant workers.
On Friday, Daniel Larios Sr. visited the field where his son, Luis Daniel Larios Hernandez Jr., died in Aug. 2014. Hernandez had only been in Western New York for less than a month when he was killed while working on Root Brothers Farms on Desmond Road.
Larios Sr. couldn’t help but sob as he thought back on the life Hernandez had worked so hard to build.
“He had a lot of projects and ideas,” Larios Sr. said. “He wanted to buy and be able to construct a house.”
With dreams of a better life for his wife and four-year-old daughter, Hernandez came to the U.S. when he was 18, first as a student then later as a worker.
“He came three different times, over three years,” Larios Sr. said. “He liked the experience and so he decided to keep coming.”
Under the H2-A guestworker program, Hernandez traveled to Albion. The program allows agricultural employers who believe they won't have enough domestic workers for the season to bring in non-immigrant foreign workers.
“He was here cultivating tomatoes when he was killed and as advocates for workers rights, we really believe it wasn’t an accident, that if there was more systemic training and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) could do its job better than we would have less accidents and less fatalities,” said Center of NY Legal Rights Advocate Carly Fox.
Worker Justice Center of NY said a reported 61 farm workers were killed in New York state from 2006 to 2014. Fox said with all the benefits the agricultural industry brings to our state, she believes the workers should be treated better.
“We should be celebrating the workers that do it,” Fox said. “Instead, the workers are highly invisible. They’re not on the signs in the grocery stores. The workers faces are very much hidden. The housing conditions they work in, a lot of times they aren’t paid minimum wage.”
As Larios Sr. strives to keep his son’s memory alive, he encourages other migrant workers to consider what they could be giving up by coming here.
“Everybody can take this to think more about your life,” Larios Sr. said. “It’s maybe not worth being here. It’s a high price to pay.”
Larios Sr. said when Hernandez wasn’t working in the U.S., he was a boss at a credit union and bank in Mexico, as well as an assistant manager on a farm.
According to the Department of Labor, our state received more than 4,500 workers in 2014 and is the among the top 10 states receiving workers in the United States.