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.
Trump officials and Republicans are rolling back protections against heat-related illnesses and deaths. When it’s 90F on a hot summer day, Esther Minton wears a long-sleeved shirt to work.
“Working outside, you don’t have cover. There’s nowhere for you to really go if you’re on a roof or if you’re on the side of a building,” said Minton, a member of the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 28 in New York City. “Having the sun beaming on your skin all day long, you’ll never make it through, so what you wear makes a difference.”
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.
