An unprecedent heat wave continues to scorch the West Coast, and employers in the agricultural industry have been scrambling to harvest their fields before crops wither in the blistering heat. As a result, the region’s agricultural laborers­—who already find themselves subjected to highly exploitative conditions—have been pushed even harder in recent days. Thousands of fruit pickers have reportedly been working up to twelve hours a day, and many of them are deprived of access to breaks, shade, or water and pressured to continue toiling even when they are feeling sick, overheated, or dehydrated. In recent days, many farmworkers have contracted heat-related illnesses—and some, tragically, have died.

Labor groups in California have attempted to take advantage of the terrible conditions existing in the Golden State’s agricultural fields to galvanize public support for the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, a bill introduced in the California legislature earlier this year which, animated in large measure by the exploitation of “essential workers” so vividly displayed during the Covid pandemic, would empower a fast food sector council to establish industry-wide standards for wages and working conditions. On Tuesday, for instance, labor groups in the state coordinated a demonstration at a fast food franchise at which workers had walked off the job to protest triple digit temperatures in the facility.

This morning, President Biden nominated Jennifer Sung, a former labor lawyer and union organizer, to the Ninth Circuit. The news is timely, given Jon’s recent observation on this blog that Biden has faced criticism from some progressives for nominating management-side lawyers, prosecutors, and corporate attorneys to the federal bench. Although the president has so far appointed several former public defenders and civil rights lawyers, Sung’s nomination constitutes his first of a union-side labor lawyer.