Nevada’s top ag official wants state interpreter for migrant workers

Scott Sonner

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Nevada's top agriculture official agreed Friday to help pay for a Spanish interpreter for migrant farm workers and proposed the state hire a translator to safeguard their health and safety in the workplace.

Paul Iverson, director of the Nevada Agriculture Department, signed an agreement to reimburse $3,000 in interpreting costs over the next nine months to a a nonprofit worker advocacy group, the Nevada Alliance for Workers' Rights.

"I am committed to going beyond this contract. I'd like to see us get a full-time translator," Iverson said during a news conference with leaders of the alliance, Hispanic community and two dozen farm workers.

"You, as farm workers, are an essential element of our agricultural industry. We need to provide a safe environment for you to work in," he said.

It marks the first time such an effort has been aimed at the approximately 9,000 farm workers in Nevada, the majority of which are immigrants, leaders of the project said.

"This is a huge day. This is something that needed to be done a long time ago," said Jesse Gutierrez, executive director of Nevada Hispanic Services.

"For so long, these folks haven't had a voice," said Mary Wilson, political action director for the local NAACP.

Although most of the state's migratory farm workers are Hispanic, none of the state Agriculture Department's inspectors speak Spanish, said Tom Stoneburner, director of the Reno-based alliance.

"A translator is critical," Stoneburner said. "How else can an immigrant farm worker tell an inspector whether the worker has been exposed to dangerous pesticides, has operated unsafe equipment or been forced to work after being injured on the job?"

Iverson said a full-time position would cost the state about $75,000 a year. Stoneburner said his group is working with local legislators to introduce a bill that would create a state agricultural ombudsman.

This year's money will come from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to monitor the safety of workers exposed to pesticides, Iverson said.

Ed Foster, a state Agriculture Department officer who enforces the EPA's worker protection standards, said difficulties in interviewing workers has been a problem.

"You can't just talk to the owner or the foreman, because they'll say everything is fine," he said.

In an ironic twist that drew chuckles from the audience, the first half of the news conference was conducted in English before a worker activist interrupted to suggest that a Spanish interpreter translate for the non-English speaking workers present.

Stoneburner said the idea for the interpreter grew out of the group's experience four years ago with a deadly blast at a Sierra Chemical plant east of Reno that killed four Hispanic workers and seriously injured seven. The workers spoke only Spanish but had received training primarily in English, he said.