California farmworkers suffered a wave of job losses during the past few years as work in the state’s winegrape vineyards dried up amid a yearslong market slump. Since 2023, declining wine consumption left growers with an oversupply of grapes, forcing many to sell their fruit at a loss or watch it rot on the vines. To limit their losses, growers cut back on labor and other costs, and vineyard owners removed an estimated one-quarter of the state’s winegrape acreage.