{"id":8172,"date":"2023-11-09T17:59:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=8172"},"modified":"2024-03-25T23:32:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T03:32:25","slug":"business-kills-protections-from-heat-hazards-that-kill-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2023\/11\/09\/business-kills-protections-from-heat-hazards-that-kill-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Tries to Kill Protections from Heat Hazards that Kill Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami-Dade County Commission has voted<\/a> 8-2 to table proposed protections<\/a> for outdoor workers against heat until next March where the proposal will die if not approved. Removing these protections would be great news for Miami-Dade construction and farm workers!<\/p>\n

Wait. Hold on. Great news? With so many workers getting sick and dying from heat-related illnesses, how can failing to implement workplace protections against heat be such good news — especially after the hottest summer in human history?<\/p>\n

Because, according to the Florida business community, if implemented, the “outrageous” measures required in the bill — water, shade and rest — would have destroyed the agriculture and construction industries, throwing tens or hundreds of thousands of workers out of jobs. They would face destitution and homelessness. Their children would starve.<\/p>\n

Oh, and freedom. Now Miami Dade workers will continue to enjoy their God-given freedom to die on the job from a preventable workplace hazard.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the good work of the Florida business community, workers can keep their jobs. If not their lives.<\/p>\n

So, what’s really going on here?<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade workers can thank Florida’s agriculture and construction industry lobbyists who used their money, political power and threats to convince the Miami-Dade County Commission to table a bill, initially approved<\/a> unanimously last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an overreaching and outrageous heat sanction<\/a> on only two industries,\u201d said Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins. \u201cThis ordinance could potentially kill industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh my!<\/p>\n

Back in the day, we had a term for business’s attempts to convince workers that they faced a choice between their jobs and their lives: Job Blackmail.<\/p>\n

Back in the day, we had a term for business’s attempts to convince workers that they faced a choice between their jobs and their lives: Job Blackmail<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bill mandating the protections was being pushed<\/a> by the worker advocacy group WeCount<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re workers who have suffered cramps, chills, vomiting, dizziness, fainting and put our lives at risk,\u201d said Pedro Marcos Raymundo, a construction worker, roofer and member of WeCount, an advocacy group that organizes outdoor workers in South Florida. \u201cWorkers like me deserve water, shade and rest and we need to be trained on the symptoms of heat illness. Our lives can\u2019t be at risk to make the owners rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"heat\"The original ordinance would have required construction and agriculture employers with five or more employees to provide construction and farm workers access to water and 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours on days when the heat index hits 90 degrees. It also would have required employers to train workers to recognize the signs of heat illness, administer first aid and call for help in an emergency. The protections were estimated to cover 100,000 workers.<\/p>\n

The original bill was significantly weakened<\/a> as a result of a “compromise” with the business opposition and then 8 commissioners still voted against the weakened bill. The revised bill would have only taken effect after the heat index hit 95 degrees, which puts the threat to workers far into the “danger” zone of OSHA’s heat app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the vote, WeCount release a press release promising to keep fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking outdoors should not be a death sentence,\u201d\u00a0said Oscar Londo\u00f1o, co-executive director of the worker-led\u00a0WeCount<\/span>!<\/a>, which launched the\u00a0Que Calor<\/a>\u00a0campaign over two years ago and has been leading the efforts to pass the first municipal heat standard in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, our Miami-Dade Commission delayed a historic vote that would have guaranteed basic human rights for outdoor workers, like access to clean water and the right to a 10 minute rest break to drink that water under shade. It\u2019s shameful that industry associations and their lobbyists keep using their money and political influence to block these common-sense protections,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Londo\u00f1o said.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIn the coming months,\u00a0we<\/span>\u00a0will continue to organize to win the first municipal heat standard in the country.\u00a0We<\/span>\u00a0know\u00a0we<\/span>\u2019re on the right side of history, and\u00a0we<\/span>\u00a0hope our County Commissioners will join us and pass this legislation in March.\u201d<\/p>\n

High heat is bad for workers<\/h2>\n

It gets hot in Florida, and outdoor workers pay the price — in death and illness.<\/p>\n

WeCount organized testimony an a demonstration when the bill was presented to the Commission.<\/p>\n

In more than an hour and a half of public comments, 48 workers, nurses, doctors, religious leaders, students and community activists spoke in favor of the bill. They spoke, sometimes tearfully, of coworkers and loved ones who had been hospitalized or died on the job, patients they\u2019d seen coming into emergency rooms with heat-related illness or the heat strokes they had survived while working under South Florida\u2019s unforgiving sun.<\/p>\n

The Miami Herald<\/a> has chronicled the stories of farm workers, roofers, landscapers, and other workers who have no legal protections and no relief from the heat if they want to keep their jobs. And just last August, \u00a0a South Florida farm worker, Efrain Lopez Garcia died after working during the historic heat wave<\/a>. \u00a0Friends and loved ones say Lopez Garcia complained about feeling sick during a recent shift out in the heat.<\/p>\n

Last summer was the the hottest ever recorded in Miami\u00a0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Garc\u00eda, like the rest of Miami-Dade County\u2019s over 300,000 outdoor workers, had been laboring outside during a record-breaking stretch of hot days when he died. Since June 12, the county\u2019s heat index \u2014 a measure of heat and humidity that tells you how hot it feels in the shade \u2014 has risen above 100 degrees for 37 straight days. Shortly before L\u00f3pez Garc\u00eda\u2019s death on July 6, the county began a still-unbroken 16-day stretch in which the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory every single day.<\/p>\n

Following Lopez-Garcia’s death, Miami-Dade county commissioners unanimously passed the preliminary measure to adopt a heat standard for workers. A stronger measure than the one they just defeated earlier this week.<\/p>\n

But that was then.<\/p>\n

High heat is bad for business<\/h2>\n

While predicting the destruction of Florida’s agriculture and construction industry, the opponents had no explanation for how construction and agriculture workers in states that have regulations protecting workers from heat have somehow managed to stay employed. States like California, Oregon, Minnesota, Colorado and Washington.<\/p>\n

And considering that they’re allegedly interested in the profitability of their industries, the Miami Dade Commissioners and business community seem to have shockingly little understanding of how high heat impacts productivity.<\/p>\n

A New York Times story<\/a> earlier this year describes the productivity-killing effects of high heat:<\/p>\n

In 2021, more than\u00a02.5 billion hours<\/a>\u00a0of labor in the U.S. agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and service sectors were lost to heat exposure, according to data compiled by The Lancet. Another report found that\u00a0in 2020, the loss of labor as a result of heat exposure cost the economy about $100 billion<\/a>, a figure projected to grow to $500 billion annually by 2050.<\/p>\n

Other research found<\/a>\u00a0that as the mercury reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit, productivity slumps by about 25 percent and when it goes past 100 degrees, productivity drops off by 70 percent.<\/p>\n

Of the many economic costs of climate change \u2014-\u00a0dying crops<\/a>,\u00a0spiking insurance rates<\/a>, flooded properties \u2014 the loss of productivity caused by heat is emerging as one of the biggest, experts say.<\/p>\n

And the opposition isn’t pussyfooting around.\u00a0 They’re relying not only on traditional lobbying, but lawsuits as well:<\/p>\n

In one of its communications ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote, the Associated General Contractors of South Florida (AGC) urged supporters to \u2018FIGHT BACK!<\/a>\u2019 against the bill by ca\"heat\"lling the mayor or commissioners, or by contributing financially to a potential lawsuit against the county. Earlier this year, Florida made a new law allowing businesses to sue local governments for policies that impact a business\u2019s profits.<\/p>\n

The Commissioners had a number of other creative arguments to continue killing workers:<\/p>\n