health and safety

By Barbara Barrett - Stateline, June 30, 2023

Nearly 400 U.S. workers died of heat exposure over a decade.

Even as summer temperatures soar and states wrangle with protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat, Texas last week enacted a law that axes city rules mandating water and shade breaks for construction workers.

In state after state, lawmakers and regulators have in recent years declined to require companies to offer their outdoor laborers rest breaks with shade and water. In some cases, legislation failed to gain traction. In others, state regulators decided against action or have taken years to write and release rules.

Heat causes more deaths in the United States each year than any other extreme weather. And in Texas, at least 42 workers died of heat exposure between 2011 and 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, though labor advocates say the number is much higher because other causes are cited in many deaths.

A 2021 investigation by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations found nearly 400 workers had died of environmental heat exposure in the previous decade, with Hispanic workers — who make up much of the nation’s farm and construction workforce — disproportionately affected.

Climate change has brought more days of extreme heat each year on average, and scientists say that number will grow. Yet only three states — California, Oregon and Washington — require heat breaks for outdoor workers. Minnesota has a rule that sets standards for indoor workers, and Colorado’s heat regulations cover only farmworkers.

By Michael Sainato - The Guardian, June 30, 2023

Last week as the heat dome scorched Texas, Gloria Machuca arrived for work at a McDonald’s in Houston to find the air conditioning wasn’t working. The temperature inside the restaurant was similar to the temperature outside – at least 90F. It was 7.30am.

Temperatures would rise another 10 degrees that day but already, Machuca said, the intense heat was making her eyes burn. She and five of her co-workers walked out on their jobs.

A third week of a record-breaking heatwave has placed at least 40 million people in the US under heat alerts, with numerous Texas cities experiencing unprecedented heat.

Many workers in Texas and throughout the southern US currently have no heat protection while working outdoors, exposed to the sun and intense, prolonged heat.

“When I came in, it really was so hot. I decided I need to go on strike. I told my co-workers because it is way too hot here and I knew they were all extremely hot as well,” said Machuca. “If we don’t work, they don’t make money. They’re making money off our sweat and it’s not fair,” she said. “It’s time they truly value us.”

Marsam Management, which operates the McDonald’s store in Houston, said in a statement: “As soon as we learned that one of our three air conditioning units had malfunctioned, we immediately brought portable air coolers and fans into the kitchen while technicians made their repairs, which were completed that same day.”

But workers went on strike again on 27 June to demand a permanent fix to the air conditioning issues and workers walked out at a second McDonald’s location in Houston over the same issues – air conditioning not working properly.

“I couldn’t take the heat any more. It was way too hot inside and I said I have to do something because they’re not listening to us,” said Marina Luria Ramírez, a McDonald’s worker at the second location who walked out. “It’s almost like you’re being choked, it’s such a horrible feeling. And there’s times where I feel like I’m going to faint and I try to drink water but sometimes our mouths are so dry, like even water doesn’t work. We try anything we can to recover but it really is a physically tolling and despairing experience.”

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, June 27, 2023

By Garrett Bradford, Robert J. Meyer, Joanne Buckle, Philip S. Borba, Sheryl Hou, Rong Yi, and Kailey Adams - Millman, June 27, 2023

Extreme heat events are the largest source of weather-related mortality in the United States, with documented impacts on both workers compensation claims, negative health outcomes, and increased emergency department visits. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), approximately 51 million U.S. workers are at high risk to extreme heat based on their occupation, yet only 9 million live in states with permanent workplace heat standards.

NRDC recently engaged Milliman to study the relationship between workers compensation costs, healthcare services utilization, and excessive heat in North Carolina, a state with no workplace heat standards, where an estimated 1.7 million workers (27% of the workforce) are at high risk to extreme heat.

This report summarizes the research methods and findings, which included a strong correlation between indemnity costs and the heat index of annual hours above static threshold (90°F) for the groups of workers that were studied.

This report was commissioned by NRDC.

Download a copy of this publication here (link).

By Jason Cox - Transportation Communications Union, June 23, 2023

By Jordan Barab - Confined Space, June 21, 2023

Less than a week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that will repeal measures in Austin and Dallas to protect workers against heat related illness, a worker has died in Texas from heat stroke.

Utility lineman dies while helping restore power to Texas residents following storms

MARSHALL, Texas (KLTV/Gray News) – Officials say a utility lineman from West Virginia working to restore power in Texas has died.

KLTV reports that the 35-year-old lineman, whose name was not immediately released, was working with Appalachian Power to restore electricity to the Marshall area after last week’s storms.

According to Harrison County Justice of the Peace John Oswalt, the worker’s death has been attributed to heat-related causes.

Oswalt said the man had been working with his crew in the heat on Monday and told the group that he wasn’t feeling well once they returned to their motel.

Austin and Dallas require rest breaks and water for construction workers to protect them against heat illness. The “Death Star” bill will repeal those protections on September 1 because, according to the bill’s sponsors, Texas businesses are unable to deal with a “hodgepodge” of different requirements in different cities.

By staff - Labor Network for Sustainability, June 15, 2023

On June 14, the Teamsters and UPS agreed to tentative language to equip UPS vehicles with air conditioning systems, new heat shields, and additional fans, according to a union statement. The agreement will cover the 340,000 UPS workers who are members of the Teamsters union.

NBC News reports that temperature readings taken by workers in UPS trucks in Arizona and Florida have shown temperatures above 150 degrees. At least 145 UPS employees have been hospitalized for heat illnesses since 2015.

“Folks are super excited” about the heat agreement, said Zakk Luttrell, a UPS driver and union shop steward in Norman, Okla. “It’s not just about what’s cost effective and efficient anymore, it’s about keeping people alive.”

Meanwhile, 97% of UPS employees voting authorized a strike to start August 1. Such a strike would be the largest against a single employer in US history.

By Alicia Race - Union of Concerned Scientists, June 15, 2023

What would be the largest single-employer strike in US history may soon be avoided if UPS and the Teamsters union reach an agreement on adding life-saving cooling equipment in more than 90,000 fleet vehicles. UPS is the largest employer here in Louisville, Kentucky, so a strike would have serious implications for the metro region as well as on the entire US economy. UPS workers are asking for protection just as Danger Season has started and the summer is predicted to be hotter than usual. While the cooling equipment is one piece of the worker negotiations, it’s a crucial piece–worker heat protections save lives and are worth fighting like hell for.

My dad often works outdoors in extreme temperatures, so I feel for every single worker and family whose lives have been or could be devastated by preventable heat illness or fatalities.

By Farah Eltohamy - Crosscut, June 15, 2023

Lorena, a former farmworker from Sunnyside, toiled day and night tending to blueberries in Washington’s Yakima Valley for close to a decade.

By year six, Lorena’s employer had elevated her to a supervisory role – which she said she personally took as an opportunity to better advocate for her fellow farmworkers out in the sweltering summer conditions.

Lorena, who asked to be identified by her first name only to avoid any potential reprisal from her former employer, regularly reported any problems she saw with lack of access to adequate water and shade – and over the years was met with repeated retaliation that she said ultimately drove her out of the career in 2021.

The heat is becoming more extreme each passing year, Lorena told Crosscut, but most changes to working conditions seem for “the benefit of the fruit, not for the benefit of farmworkers.” 

Agricultural workers are among those most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention they’re dying of heatstroke at a rate nearly 20 times greater than all U.S. civilian workers.