Republican Party

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, July 5, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, June 26, 2024

By Union Jake, Adam Keller, et. al. - Valley Labor Report, June 17, 2024

By Amy Goodman, Jeff Goodell, and Ruth Cerezo-Mota - Democracy Now!, June 6, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, June 5, 2024

By staff - Labor Network for Sustainability, May 30, 2024

HB433, recently signed into law by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, prohibits any municipality in the state from passing heat protections for workers.

The legislation came in response to efforts by farm workers in Miami-Dade county to legally require heat protections, such as rest breaks and access to water and shade.

Florida is facing record heat. Last August Orlando hit 100F, breaking a record set in 1938. The National Weather Service’s outlook for summer 2024 predicts Florida temperatures will be even warmer than normal.

Governor DeSantis recently signed a bill removing references to climate change from Florida law.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/04/florida-worker-heat-water-protection

By Zachory Phillips - Construction Dive, May 30, 2024

With a state law restricting local governments from mandating heat safety on the horizon, immigrant laborers say bosses refuse their calls for relief.

It was a hot day in Florida and Javier Torres was working in the sun. He began to feel “dizzy and cloudy” when he collapsed. 

He fell from a ladder, dropping two stories to the ground below.

“They said I almost broke my back,” Torres told Construction Dive, communicating in Spanish through a translator. “I felt pain for more than a month, but had to get back to work to provide for myself.”

A Colombian immigrant who does residential roofing, painting and demolition work in the Miami area, Torres said he has been repeatedly denied the chance to take breaks to drink water or rest in the shade while working. He declined to share the name of his employer. 

Torres and other members of Miami-area worker nonprofit WeCount! perform physically demanding jobs in intense heat and say their employers often deny them the protections they need to carry out their work safely. They believe they’re treated this way in part due to their ethnic background.

By Derek Seidman, Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, May 16, 2024

By Alexandra Martinez - Prism, May 14, 2024

Florida farmworkers and workers’ rights advocates refuse to back down in their fight for stronger labor protections despite the governor’s push to block local governments from passing safeguards.

Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433, which prevents local governments from requiring heat exposure protections for workers. Farmworker and labor advocates in Miami spent years advocating for heat protections for outdoor workers and came close to victory before the agricultural industry successfully lobbied against the law. Starting July 1, it will be illegal for local governments in Florida to pass health and safety measures for outdoor workers in extreme heat. The decision comes after Florida experienced its hottest summer on record.

The Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF) targeted DeSantis with a veto campaign against the measure. Representatives from Hope CommUnity Center and the Hispanic Federation also lent their support, amplifying the urgent need for legislative intervention to safeguard the rights and well-being of farmworkers. Despite concerted efforts to advocate for heat protections, including mobilization and community outreach, advocates say HB 433 signifies a disheartening setback for the movement.

“We just want to make that plainly stated out loud and march through the town so that the people can know that we’re not OK with it,” said Ernesto Ruiz, a researcher and advocate from FWAF. “This is unacceptable, and our representatives are failing us.”

Additionally, advocates for farmworkers in Central Florida convened on May 1, with about 100 community members marching through the streets of Apopka to raise awareness about the dire conditions agricultural laborers face. 

“We talked about the importance of voting for those that can, about the importance of organizing our community. We stressed how during COVID and the pandemic, our communities were called essential, and now we’re being treated as criminals,” Ruiz said. “Rather than enacting protections to protect their basic health, just basic labor and decent standards, the state government is doing the exact opposite.” 

Miami-Dade County’s outdoor worker activists with WeCount! have organized for the nation’s first county-wide heat standard since 2017. The coalition of workers officially launched their ¡Que Calor! campaign in 2021 and came close to getting the Board of County Commissioners to approve the proposed heat standard in September, but by November, commissioners buckled under lobbyist pressure. The final vote was postponed until March in an effort to gain more support. 

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, May 8, 2024