Workers Can’t Wait for Protections from Heat

 Friday, June 20, will mark the first official day of summer. It is likely that the pattern of record-breaking heat will continue. For many workers, this is the most dangerous season of the year. That’s why this week members of the Heat Justice Now! Coalition from across the country are engaged in actions to demand protection in their workplaces during heat waves. From Florida to New York, New Jersey to California, workers and worker advocates are demanding heat protections in all workplaces. 

“Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related threat in the U.S., killing more people each year than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined,” explains David Williams, a Dollar Store worker and member of Step Up Louisiana in a [recent video] featuring worker leaders speaking out for heat justice. About 8 million workers in high-risk industries have occupational heat protection standards in Washington State, Oregon, California, and Maryland (along with agricultural workers covered in Colorado and indoor workers protected in Minnesota). But the reality is much different for most workers who are exposed to heat.  

Williams continues, “Over 69 million workers face dangerous heat on the job, and hundreds of workers die preventable deaths each year, yet most have no basic protections.”  

On June 16, OSHA will start informal public hearings on its proposed workplace heat standard, a critical step forward in the long process of finalizing a rule. But the future of the rule is uncertain. During his first administration, President Trump’s OSHA rolled back federal worker safety regulations. This time, he has demanded that for any new rule, an agency must eliminate ten existing regulations in return. He’s gutted the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which made science-based safety recommendations, and is proposing to reduce OSHA’s team that develops standards by 30 percent.  

Any delay in protecting workers means more workers will needlessly die of heat-related illnesses and injuries. In the four years between OSHA announcing its work on heat in 2021 and publishing its proposed rule in 2024, its severe injury database shows more than 295 incidents of heat stroke and heat exhaustion—especially in transportation and warehousing, construction, and support services like waste collection, janitorial, landscaping, and security.    

In these same four years, at least 40 workers died of heat-related illnesses or heat stroke on the job; workers like:    

• Thomas Linkous, a 37-year-old carpenter in Wisconsin, who died in May 2022, while building a deck for six hours in temperatures topping out at 95 degrees. 

• Jose Lupercio Medina, a landscaper in North Carolina, who was only on his second day of work when he collapsed in the July heat in 2022. He was 34 years old. 

• A new farmworker trying to maintain the pace of his colleagues, 28-year-old Victor Hernandez died in the 90-degree heat in Florida in January of 2023. 

• A 19-year-old laborer in Colorado, Carlos Perez Najera, who was collecting trash on a 90-degree day, suffered from heat stroke, had multiple organs failure, and subsequently died in August 2024. 

• Ronald Silver, II, a city sanitation worker in Baltimore, Maryland, who died in a heat index of 108.6 degrees in August of 2024. The city department reproted 12 cases of heat-related illness during that year. 

The scope of the tragedy extends even further. Other workplace dangers can be exacerbated by the dizziness, confusion, and cognitive issues that accompany heat exposure, including slip-and-falls and machinery incidents.  

In the construction industry, every 1.8 degree F increase in temperature can result in a 0.5 percent increase in the odds of all types of traumatic injuries. Workers suffering from heat stress can be challenged to abide by other safety rules like Cory Hartman, a 36-year-old roofing contractor in Illinois, who was working in high-heat and according to an OSHA report became confused and unable to connect to the fall protection system. He died atop a broiling hot roof and had to be lowered to the ground by an emergency response crew and a co-worker. 

“It’s a heat that takes your breath away,” Reina Osorio says in [the video]. She is a plant nursery worker who works outdoors in South Florida and a member of We Count!  

These needless deaths are why workers are hoping that federal OSHA takes action, but are also mobilizing to demand protection from state and local lawmakers and their employers. They are rallying on June 17th in Washington, D.C., to call for action, and also mobilizing in Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, Texas, Nevada, California, Virginia, and New York to make their workplaces safer.  

It’s been 53 years since the issue of workplace heat first came up in discussions about creating OSHA. Workers are saying loudly and clearly that they can’t wait any longer. Every worker in every state needs —and deserves — workplace heat justice now.