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asuncion valdivia
Florida GOP Passes 'Vicious' Bill Banning Mandatory Water Breaks for Workers
"We will see fatalities, because of what Florida Republicans chose to do this week," said one workers' rights advocate.
Mar 08, 2024
Displaying "punitive cruelty" toward Florida residents who work outdoors, the Republican-controlled state House on Friday approved a bill that would ban local governments from requiring that workplaces provide water breaks and other cooling measures.
The state Senate passed the measure on Thursday, with Republicans pushing the bill through as Miami-Dade County was scheduled to vote on local water break protections. If signed into law by the Republican governor, the proposal will preempt the county's vote.
Roughly 2 million workers are expected to be affected by the legislation in Florida, where parts of the state experienced record-breaking heat last year. Meteorologists found that last month was the hottest February ever recorded globally, and the ninth straight month to set such a record.
Miami-Dade County officials estimate that 34 people die from heat-related causes each year.
"Every single year, it's going to get hotter and hotter," Oscar Londoño, executive director of worker advocacy group WeCount!, toldThe Guardian. "Many more workers' lives are going to be at risk. We will see fatalities, because of what Florida Republicans chose to do this week."
Londoño called the bill a "cruel... bad faith attempt to keep labor conditions very low for some of the most vulnerable workers."
Under the legislation, cities and counties will be prohibited from setting workplace standards that require drinking water, cooling measures, and recovery periods after grueling work in hot weather. Requiring companies to facilitate emergency responses or to post or distribute materials informing workers about staying safe in sweltering heat would also be prohibited.
"The vicious inhumanity at the heart of this legislation will cost the lives of and impose needless suffering on workers—especially workers of color and immigrant workers, who make up a disproportionate share of agricultural and construction workers—across the state," said Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate with Public Citizen. "Gov. Ron DeSantis should veto this legislation."
There are no federal protections requiring that workplaces protect employees from the dangers of working in hot and humid conditions, even after scientists projected last year that heat-related deaths will continue to rise.
In 2021 the Biden administration called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop workplace heat safety standards, but it has not yet done so.
Republicans in Texas passed a bill last year that would have prevented cities from enacting and passing local ordinances, including those that require water breaks and other worker protections. A district court ruled that the proposal was unconstitutional last August, just before it was set to go into effect.
Fulcher said Congress must pass the Asuncíon Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act, which was named for a worker who became unconscious after picking grapes for 10 hours straight in 105-degree heat in 2004. His employer did not call an ambulance but instead directed Valdivia's son to drive his father home. Valdivia died of heat stroke soon after at the age of 53.
The federal law would direct OSHA to immediately adopt interim heat standards while officials continue the process of adopting a final rule.
"With Florida joining Texas in preempting even the most minor workplace protections for excessive heat exposure," said Fulcher, "it's past time for the federal government to step up."
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Democrats Propose Bill to Protect US Workers From 'Life-Threatening Heat'
"How many more workers will we let dangerous heat and callous employers kill before this nation acts?" asked one union leader.
Jul 26, 2023
Labor unions and climate groups applauded Wednesday as congressional Democrats introduced legislation to ensure the health and safety of workers exposed to dangerous heat as temperatures soar to record highs across the Northern Hemisphere.
Named for a California farmworker who died after picking grapes for 10 hours in 105°F, the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act is spearheaded by U.S. Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Alma Adams (D-N.C.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and Bobby Scott (D-Va.,) and Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).
"I will never forget Asunción Valdivia or how his tragic death could have been avoided," Chu said in a statement. "Whether on a farm, driving a truck, or working in a warehouse, workers like Asunción keep our country running while enduring some of the most difficult conditions—often without access to water or rest."
"The escalating climate crisis has led to sweltering temperatures and to a distressing increase in cases of workers collapsing and even losing their lives due to excessive heat," she continued. "To value our workforce and protect people's safety and lives, this bill will establish comprehensive and enforceable federal standards addressing heat stress on the job."
The legislation directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to create policies for heat exposure in indoor and outdoor environments.
"Asunción Valdivia was killed by extreme heat in 2004 while working to feed this nation," noted United Farm Workers (UFW) president Teresa Romero. "Since his death, we've also lost Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez in 2008, Florencio Gueta Vargas in 2021, and now Efraín López García and Dario Mendoza, both killed in July of 2023—just to name a few."
"Farmworker families have already lost far too many loved ones to deadly temperatures—and to deadly government inaction," she added, welcoming the bill. "How many more workers will we let dangerous heat and callous employers kill before this nation acts?"
In addition to UFW, the bill is backed by groups including the AFL-CIO, Earthjustice, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Migrant Legal Action Program, National Employment Law Project, Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Union of Concerned Scientists, UNITE HERE!, United Auto Workers, and United Steelworkers.
"Whether it's driving a catering truck in direct sun to stock departing planes with food and water or toiling in front of commercial appliances at maximum hotness in hotel kitchens, workers in both primarily outdoor and indoor spaces face record highs," said Gwen Mills, UNITE HERE! secretary treasurer. She commended the sponsors and urged Congress to swiftly pass the bill, calling it "the kind of federal intervention required for protecting ourselves from an increasingly more alarming climate crisis."
Juley Fulcher, a worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, pointed out that "working in the scorching heat, especially at the levels we've seen across the country this summer, can cause heat exhaustion, muscle and organ damage, cardiac arrest, heat stroke, and even death."
"Breathing in the wildfire smoke that has recently blanketed much of the nation triples the risk of death on extremely hot days," Fulcher continued. "Repetitive heat exhaustion from working in extreme heat—such as the unprecedented heatwaves that continue today—can cause long-term illnesses."
Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien—whose union just won a historic contract battle with United Parcel Service within days of what was expected to be the nation's largest single-employer strike—declared that "it's long past time for meaningful legislation" to protect workers from extreme heat.
"Paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, and limitations on time exposed to heat are simply commonsense steps that should be mandated immediately," he said. "Waiting to implement these measures is unacceptable and will result in the further loss of lives."
Brown stressed that "no worker should have to endure life-threatening heat to provide for their family."
"We know too many workers still work in dangerous conditions, putting their health and safety on the line every day to provide for their families," the senator added. "There's not much dignity in a job where you fear for your health or your life."
On Monday, Brown, Cortez Masto, Chu, Grijalva, Padilla, and Scott partnered with Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as well as Reps. Greg Casar and Sylvia Garcia, both Texas Democrats, for a letter—endorsed by dozens of other lawmakers—to two DOL leaders calling for "the fastest possible implementation" of an OSHA heat standard "to ensure that millions of people can go to work with greater confidence that they will return to their families alive and uninjured."
The letter came after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month signed House Bill 2127. The "Death Star" law, as it's called by critics, bans municipalities from passing policies that contradict nine broad areas of state law, and is set to kill certain heat rules.
To draw attention to the need for federal protections given the worsening fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, Casar on Tuesday joined advocacy groups and unions for a vigil and "thirst strike" on Capitol Hill. The congressman said that "the Biden administration must step in, override Abbott, and ensure heat protections for all Americans in all industries. Our government should work for working people, not for greedy corporations that exploit their workers and fill Abbott's campaign coffers."
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