Workers in 13 Cities Rally for Protections After Heat-Related Deaths

For the last two years, Cecilia Ortiz has worked as a passenger service agent at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. She typically has to walk 10 to 15 miles a day, up and down ramps, pushing heavy wheelchairs and carrying passengers’ luggage. This summer, temperatures have reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit on the airport’s jet bridges, and yet she says she’s been denied breaks and water by her supervisors.

“I have heart failure myself, and it is especially dangerous for me to work in extreme temperatures,” said Ortiz at a press briefing. “I shouldn’t have to work in these conditions. Nobody should.” Accessible drinking water, a cool place to rest, breaks as needed, and training to understand the signs of heat exhaustion are what Ortiz sees as a “very simple” way to make her workplace more safe during searing temperatures.

Airport workers like Ortiz are being joined by laborers in fast food, retail, and the farm sector this week to demand on-the-job heat protections from employers and the federal government. From Atlanta to Los Angeles, a string of rallies, town halls, and delegations are taking place in 13 cities as laborers and coalitions escalate their demands to elected officials.

On Tuesday, service workers rallied at major airports in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Phoenix. They called for immediate action from employers to ensure their safety in the workplace, including adequate breaks and access to drinking water during periods of extreme heat.

In Phoenix, where earlier this year local officials enacted a heat ordinance mandating many of these protections, workers and legislators sounded the alarm that the ordinance has led to inadequate improvements, and questioned how the protections are being enforced. “Why is it after passing an ordinance we’re still asking for the basics? Water. Breaks. These are humans rights,” said City of Phoenix Councilwoman Betty Guardado at the rally. Later this week, laborers across the country will be taking a coordinated water break to signify the need for access to drinking water at work.

As human-caused climate change continues to make the planet hotter, extreme heat in the workplace is increasingly becoming a lethal threat. Organizers say “Heat Week” is also spurred by the recent sudden deaths of Wednesday “Wendy” Johnson, a postal worker in North Carolina, and Ronald Silver II, a sanitation worker in Maryland. Both Johnson and Silver are believed to have died, in part, because of on-the-job heat exposure, which kills dozens of workers every year.

Service Employees International Union President April Verrett, whose organization is one of the groups helming Heat Week, said that these deaths could have been prevented by safer working conditions, before calling on the Biden administration to strengthen, finalize, and implement a federal heat rule. “Dying on the job is just simply out of the question, and it should never be a part of anyone’s routine. Yet employers are failing to act, and in doing so, they are failing to protect workers’ lives and their health,” said Verrett.

“Heat is a silent killer. It is the biggest weather-related killer in our community,” said Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, at the briefing. “I was born and raised in Texas. We know it’s hot, but it’s never been this hot, this early, for this long. So, as the climate crisis worsens, we need to come together and take federal action at the national level, guaranteeing everybody the right to these rest and water breaks.”

In July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, proposed a federal rule that would mandate employers provide indoor and outdoor workers with cool rest areas, drinking water, and breaks once temperatures approach 80 degrees. But that rule hasn’t yet been finalized, and it still faces a likely lengthy review, additional revisions, potential legal challenges, and an upcoming presidential election that could derail the political will to get it done. Casar said elected officials on every level need to do more to ramp up the urgent push for heat protections.

This is particularly important given that some policymakers are pursuing legislation that goes in the other direction, noted Casar — referring to a law signed last summer by Texas Governor Greg Abbott that barred Texas cities from enacting local worker heat protections. A similar law went into effect in Florida this year. The proposed OSHA rule, he stressed, if finalized, would “override laws like Governor Abbott’s that get rid of heat protections.”

“We could have these heat protections codified in federal law this month, if the Republican Speaker of the House would put this up for a vote … but we can’t hold our breath,” said Casar. (In fact, House Republicans have put forward spending bills that would hamper OSHA’s ability to enforce existing rules.)

The offices of Governor Abbott and Congressman Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, blasted the Biden administration for not doing enough to address the impacts of extreme heat. Beyond advocating for an OSHA standard, Gallego has also put forward legislation that would add extreme heat to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s list of major disasters, The Hill reported. “Once again, the administration is all talk, no action when it comes to extreme heat in Arizona,” Gallego said in a statement following a speech made by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who deigned extreme heat in Phoenix a “public health crisis.”