Will Texas Workers Ever Get a Break from the Summer Heat?

[douglas9]

On April 15, Annie Fierro of the Workers Defense Action Fund arrived at a state House committee hearing in Austin to support a bill that sought to prevent workplace heat-related illnesses and deaths.

Fierro chose to share written testimony from Ignacio, a Houston member of Workers Defense who she said was unable to get time off to attend the hearing. For over 25 years, she explained, Ignacio had worked as a finisher for construction projects. Laboring inside un-airconditioned buildings filled with chemical vapors and little ventilation in Texas’ scorching summers is a regular part of his job. Then, in March 2024, he was hospitalized with kidney failure that he attributes to working without sufficient breaks or water through Texas’ sweltering heat. He now receives dialysis 12 hours a week.

After his employer learned about his condition, his pay was docked, and he’s still not given time for water breaks.

“I am just one of the thousands of Texas workers that suffer poor and unsafe conditions on the job,” Fierro read.

But, in the end, the proposed legislation died—part of yet another unsuccessful effort to bolster protections for workers in increasing heat.

Republican lawmakers in Texas have long rejected legislation meant to prevent work-related heat illnesses and deaths. During the record-breaking summer heat wave of 2023, Governor Greg Abbott also signed into law the so-called “Death Star” bill, banning many local ordinances including those passed in Austin and Dallas that mandated rest breaks for construction workers. (The law was ruled unconstitutional by a lower state court and remains tied up in appeals.) That year, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 14 Texans died from workplace heat exposure, though BLS statistics undercount heat deaths in particular.

https://www.texasobserver.org/osha-heat-standard-texas-workers-trump/