#ExtremeHeat Is Endangering America's Workers—and Its Economy
"Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., based consumer rights advocacy group, estimates that extreme heat contributes to between 600 and 2,000 deaths a year, along with 170,000 injuries, making heat one of the three main causes of death and injury in the American #workplace.
In most American states, you can be fined for leaving a dog outside without water or shade."
[Workers don't have such protection].
"Protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat is easy, and in most cases, inexpensive. Requiring employers to provide workers with cool #water and periodic shaded #rest breaks could prevent at least 50,000 injuries and illnesses a year."
“There’s often a perception that people from hot countries are able to deal with hot temperatures. It’s just simply untrue. It’s a racist belief that underpinned slavery that we still see in our agricultural system now.”
"California regulations call for high-heat procedures to kick in once temperatures reach 95°F. Washington State was the next to adopt #HeatProtection standards in 2008, followed by Colorado and Oregon in May 2022. Since then, efforts to protect workers elsewhere have been largely stalled.
A federal standard would, of course, apply nationwide. The prospect galvanizes the opposition. "
The truth is, lost productivity from heat is expensive too.
In #Japan, where the work force is aging (and where older people are held in high regard), employers' attitude is very different:
"In a prefab building adjacent to the construction site, an air-conditioned room was cooled to around 18 C, and the workers were free to drop in and take a rest whenever they needed. A water cooler and a freezer full of ice cubes were available nearby, along with other drinks to keep workers hydrated."
In employer-speak: protecting workers from #ExtremeHeat increases their productivity. It's doing nothing that's expensive.
"As temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit, overall #productivity decreases by about a quarter, and when temperatures top 100 degrees, productivity drops off a cliff, plummeting by an incredible 70 percent."
"Delivery workers are the canaries in the coal mine on the intertwined issues of #ExtremeHeat and #AirPollution. In the coming years, many other sectors—construction, fishing, roofing, farming, landscaping, professional sports, and so on—will be affected by workers’ struggle to stay safe in extremely hot weather and toxic air."
The workers must organise.
The pandemic has shown what we really think of "essential workers"
A package of measures to protect workers from #heat:
– make drinking #water more accessible.
– increased #inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces such as farms and construction sites
– heightened #enforcement of #HeatSafety violations.
– hazard alert notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from #ExtremeHeat
Plus OSHA is working on workplace heat protection.
"Why breaks, #water, and #shade for a sea of #US workers could trigger the next big labor battle.
...
It goes to show how heat isn’t necessarily what’s making workers sick, Barab says. “It’s really more employers’ refusal to implement measures to protect workers. That’s killing workers.”"
"Business groups and lobbyists have aggressively opposed efforts at state and federal levels to enact #HeaProtection standards for #workers.
#FarmWorkers and advocacy groups are also pushing to include heat protections for farm workers in the 2023 farm bill currently being considered by Congress. But with Republicans in control of Congress, such a measure is unlikely to pass."
"As temperatures rise further, pay and performance practices currently favoured in some sectors - for example piece work and output targets that discourage workers from taking rest breaks - may prove indefensible. And if an extreme weather event like a tornado destroys a factory, should workers still get paid?"
Workers are dying from #ExtremeHeat. Why aren’t there laws to protect them?
Spoiler: because employers put profit before the people who bring in the profit.
"The campaign was straight from a playbook that industry groups across the country have deployed to fight worker #HeatProtections in recent years: claiming that regulations already address heat illness, businesses already protect workers, and that a one-size-fits-all approach will be costly and ineffective. "
"As the climate warms and the threat of #ExtremeHeat spreads, #California is poised to protect people who work in poorly ventilated warehouses, steamy restaurant kitchens, and other indoor job sites where temperatures can soar to potentially dangerous levels. The state has had heat standards on the books for outdoor workers since 2005, and indoor workplaces are next."
A 10-minute break every two hours during the hottest part of the year.
The right to cool down in the shade at signs of heat illness.
The farm must provide clean water, shaded rest areas and nearby bathrooms for all of its workers.
"These are the strongest set of workplace #heat protections in the United States. They were not put in place by local, state or federal regulators, but by the workers who spent years organizing to push companies to adopt them."
The crucial ingredient:
"The buyers agree to pay a small premium for produce from farms where workers are protected and blacklist farms that get kicked out of the program. In exchange, they can tout their ethical practices, a selling point with a growing number of consumers worried about who produces their food."
#Florida Legislators Ban Local Heat Protections for Millions of Outdoor Workers
"The measure prohibits local governments from establishing heat protections for outdoor workers. It comes after Miami-Dade County considered a proposal last year that would have compelled construction and agriculture companies to provide water and rest breaks when the #HeatIndex there rises to 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
The new state legislation preempts any such local provisions."
You know how they say, "The cruelty is the point"?
Yeah. That.
If you look upthread there are two posts about how a workers' collective is pushing back, and how farm owners start to realise that better treated workers are better workers. (duh).
"In a bill #DeSantis signed Thursday, #Florida, one of the hottest states in the country, local governments will be banned from requiring heat and water breaks for #OutdoorWorkers.
It was a direct response to Miami-Dade County's effort to require shade and water for construction, farm and other outdoor workers."
"More than 70% of workers around the world face #ClimateChange-related health risks."
• 18,970 lives are lost each year due to occupational injuries attributable to excessive heat;
• 26.2 million people with chronic kidney disease related to workplace heat stress;
• 860,000 outdoor workers a year die from exposure to air pollution;
• 19,000 people die each year from non-melanoma skin cancer from exposure to solar UV radiation.
Plus:
• more than 300,000 deaths attributed to pesticide poisoning annually
• 15,000 work-related deaths every year due to exposure to parasitic and vector-borne diseases
All this is why the International Labour Organization calls for occupational safety and health considerations to be become part of our climate-change responses
The world’s #GarmentWorkers are on the frontlines of climate impacts
To expose how #ClimateChange is impacting workers throughout #fashion’s supply chain, The Fuller Project tracked products from several brands — including Walmart, Primark, H&M, Gap, and Old Navy — across several countries. At each stage, women play a vital role in the global business of fashion yet their livelihoods — and lives — are being increasingly threatened by #ExtremeWeather."
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