Texas heat wave invigorates calls for worker heat protections

RACHEL FRAZIN

Updated June 29, 2023

When he works at his job as a painter in Texas’s extreme heat, Maynor Alvarez can feel the toll the weather takes on him.

He and his colleagues have suffered symptoms from cramps to headaches, feeling like they’re going to throw up. He’s felt his heart racing and needed to take breaks.

“All of us who have worked outside have experienced this heat exhaustion,” he told The Hill in an interview conducted in Spanish.

Ultimately, Alvarez said, whether he’s allowed a break may be up to a site’s foreman. He said there have been instances where he’s tried to pause and ends up getting sent home — losing a large portion of the day’s pay.

There are no national rules that require employers to give workers like Alvarez breaks because of the heat, and only a few states have regulations of their own.

An ongoing heat wave, which has sent temperatures in Texas into the triple digits, is fueling calls from advocates and others for worker protections, especially as climate change is expected to exacerbate such conditions in the years to come.

Exposure to extreme heat can cause heat stroke, heat exhaustion and cramps, according to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The institute has also said that people who work outside in industries like agriculture or construction are susceptible to severe illness or death from heat stress.

However, federal regulations could be years away, and the Lone Star State recently passed a bill that could strip what few local protections exist within its borders.

“It’s unconscionable that Texas would strip labor protections from workers as they face record-setting temperatures,” tweeted Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) last week.

“Workers deserve protection from extreme heat which is now more common due to climate change,” added the congressman, who is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and former chairman of the Progressive Caucus.

The Biden administration has publicly endorsed national rules aimed at preventing heat-related illnesses in the workplace — saying nearly two years ago that it planned to develop a rule aimed at preventing occupational heat illness and death.

And while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an October 2021 “advanced notice” that it would propose a rule, that hasn’t happened yet.

Juley Fulcher, a worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, which has pushed for national standards, said her organization had hoped that a rule could be finalized before the end of Biden’s first term. But now she said she doesn’t think there is enough time, and if Biden’s not reelected, the next administration may not continue the process.

“We have been pushing all along for them to move faster than that,” she said. “Anything can happen in elections, and obviously if a different administration decides to shelve this rulemaking … it could just stop in its tracks for another four to eight years.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, did not respond to questions from The Hill about the timeline.

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, provided The Hill with a written statement after publication saying that the safety agency “know[s] that extreme heat is a long-term problem and recognize[s] the urgency to address its immediate impacts.”

The statement, provided by spokesperson Victoria Godinez, notes that OSHA is continuing to work toward a potential heat illness standard and plans to hold Small Business Advocacy Review Panel meetings this summer, the next step in the standard development process.

The statement did not answer The Hill’s questions about when a rule might be proposed or finalized. It did note that other OSHA standards, including those related to sanitation and medical services, may provide some protections for people who work in hot environments.

Meanwhile, Texas, which has so far experienced the brunt of a heat wave that could shift eastward, does not have statewide protections. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) recently signed a bill that takes power away from cities and therefore could wipe out heat protections for workers in Dallas and Austin.

The move was sharply critiqued by labor advocates.

“We know that rest breaks save lives,” said Daniela Hernandez, state legislative coordinator at Workers Defense Project.

“We are concerned that with the rollback of these … very few protections that they have, we’re going to see more workers passing out at job sites from heat exhaustion and even potentially dying,” Hernandez said.

But, in a written statement shared with The Hill, Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris stressed the state’s commitment to safety.

“Ensuring the safety of Texans is a top priority as our state experiences high summer heat,” he said, adding that the law will “not inhibit people from taking water breaks.”

Antonio De Loera-Brust, a spokesperson for the United Farm Workers union, said that Texas’s actions reinforce the need for the federal government to act.

“The recent actions of Gov. Greg Abbott to unilaterally dismantle the protections for outdoor workers that Texas did have just shows how important it is to have a federal standard to protect workers even in places where the state governments are adopting anti-worker policies that put workers’ lives at risk,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alvarez said the lack of government actions to protect him from the heat is evidence that the people in power lack concern for workers like him.

“It’s disappointing that the laws of a First-World country are so outdated for workers,” he said.

— Updated at 4:33 p.m. June 29