The Virginia Latino Advisory Board (VLAB) is a body of gubernatorial appointees designated by the Code of Virginia to advise Virginia's governors on matters related to the Latino community in the Commonwealth. Numbering 845,000 residents, or 10% of Virginia's population, Latinos are overrepresented in low-wage jobs, especially those which rely on migrant farm labor. Agribusiness as a whole relies on Latino workers for a sizable portion of its workforce.

In 2020 VLAB, myself presiding over the board, saw to it that heat stress provisions were an urgent policy change that Governor Northam should address legislatively or through executive action. We will again be making the same recommendation in 2021 and I encourage any state government agency with authority in the process to recommend the same conclusion and take appropriate action.

Thank you,

Paul Berry

Chair, Virginia Latino Advisory Board