Across the country, people are skipping meals and falling behind on housing payments while layoffs, automation, and diminishing labor protections deepen insecurity. The message many workers hear is simple: You are replaceable.
Airport, warehouse, cafeteria, delivery and construction workers will meet with New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su to discuss the health effects of extreme heat on the job.
The roundtable will focus on the physical toll of heat exposure and the safeguards available, or missing, in participants’ workplaces. Workers will also discuss what stronger heat protections would mean for them and their coworkers.
The TEMP Coalition, chaired by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), is organizing the discussion with Su and the Mayor’s Office of Economic Justice. Other participating organizations include the BlueGreen Alliance and the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).
En el programa de radio La hora del Cafecito, transmitida por La Onda, desde Phoenix, tuvimos como invitada a Jazmín Moreno, fundadora de Agave Community Trade, con quien se conversó sobre el tema del calor en Arizona y las consecuencias para las personas que trabajan a la intemperie.
En estos trabajos, tener a la mano una botella con agua no es suficiente, es necesario que exista una regulación para las personas que son vulnerables al calor, por las condiciones que exigen las actividades que realizan estando expuestas al sol.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) started developing a heat standard in 2021 and proposed a draft in 2024, but now Republicans want to pass a law—with the Orwellian name “Heat Workforce Standards Act”—that will stop OSHA from creating or enforcing a national heat safety standard.
“Workers know what keeps people safe,” said Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH): “access to water, rest, and shade; effective training and emergency plans; protection from retaliation; and strong standards that employers are required to follow.”
