The Race Against the Clock to a Workplace Heat Rule

“It’s no coincidence that the day after HB 433 went into effect, President Biden and the Department of Labor published that proposed rule,” explains Oscar Londoño, co-executive director at WeCount!, a grassroots organization advocating for better living and working conditions for immigrants and families across South Florida. ​“A lot of that was the result of organizing that’s happened for years and decades across the country, but also the urgency of what’s happening in states like Florida and Texas, and the need for the federal government to respond and step in.” 

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), which advocates for abuse- and exploitation-free workplaces, is building on local organizing with a nationwide campaign to pass the federal OSHA rule. It has 20 local affiliates and also serves as a hub for smaller grassroots groups like Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), a worker center in Illinois. 

“For years, we’ve had workers come to WWJ every summer, talking about heat in their workplaces,” says WWJ Associate Director Tommy Carden. ​“And last summer, there was a tragic incident at an Amazon warehouse in Joliet, at an MDW2 facility.” Carden is referring to the June 2023 death of an Illinois worker named Roger A. Kieca. Although Amazon did not acknowledge the incident as work-related, dehydration caused by extreme heat on the job on that day was identified as a possible factor in the death of 59-year-old Kieca, as In These Times has previously reported.

For Katelyn Medders, 28, the stakes couldn’t be clearer. 

As an access control agent with ABM at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Medders says she doesn’t get much when it comes to heat protections, despite temperatures in Charlotte, N.C., exceeding 100 degrees this summer. The tarmac, which can feel up to 50 degrees hotter than the recorded temperature, offers no shade for workers, she says. She describes having a medical condition called Pseudopapilledema –  – the apparent swelling of the optic nerve –  – that frequently makes her dizzy and nauseous. Dehydration exacerbates the migraines brought on by her condition, but she says she is often unable to even take her medication during her shifts due to the lack of available water. Neither of the Carolinas have workplace heat standards that explicitly require employers to provide heat protections.

Medders says she and her coworkers were recently granted access to a water dispenser in one of their break rooms — but it does not always work, even if they have time to get to it. In the 10-15 minutes it can take to walk from an aircraft assignment on another concourse to that break room and back, Medders worries that she will slow down the time-sensitive cabin cleaning operation and let down the team that relies on her. Medders says they are all repeatedly warned by managers and reminded by signs posted in their break rooms that they will be fired immediately if they take a water bottle off a plane to drink themselves. ABM did not respond by deadline to In These Times​’s comment request.

Nine in 10 American voters support OSHA’s heat rule, including 96% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans. But powerful business lobbyists like the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Farm Bureau Federation strongly oppose a federal heat standard. According to data from the nonprofit research group OpenSecrets, they have each poured millions into congressional lobbying efforts in the past two years alone. 

On the other side, a number of labor and advocacy groups, including SEIU, the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) and the nonprofit consumer rights group Public Citizen, have organized with workers nationwide to call attention to the workplace dangers of rising temperatures. During an August 8 press conference organized by SEIU, workers made it clear that they will not — and cannot — let up their fight just yet. Shae Parker, a food service worker and member of the USSW, expressed how ​“we definitely have to hold these corporations accountable for our health. We only get one body, and they’re sitting up in the big offices.” Ever since suffering from heat exhaustion at work and being carried away on a gurney, she has voiced a simple wish: ​“We want to go home to our families at the end of the day.”

Organizers remain hopeful about the long-awaited federal heat proposal, first announced back in 2021. But still, ​“this is not an ideal timeline,” concedes Jessica Martinez, executive director of COSH. ​“The worst-case scenario is having an anti-worker administration that would gut something like this.” That is why COSH has launched its Fired Up! Workers for Heat Justice campaign to advocate for an expedited process to get the OSHA rule moving forward and enshrined in law as soon as possible. According to OSHA’s rulemaking timeline, it can take anywhere from two to five years to go from comment period to publication.

Finalizing and publishing the rule is so essential because it helps safeguard against its future undoing. Unlike an executive order, which can be quickly undone by another administration, Martinez explains, revoking a federal standard requires re-doing the entire rulemaking process in reverse.

Even with an accelerated timeline, it is unlikely that progress could outpace the arrival of a new administration in January 2025. Leaders in the movement acknowledge that the summer of 2026 is the soonest we can reasonably expect the federal rule to become law. This, the best-case scenario, would give protections to workers as soon as possible and safeguard the rule against an election result in 2028 that is hostile to workers’ rights.

Nicole Hernandez Hammer, assistant director of climate and environmental justice at SEIU, emphasizes the importance of local heat legislation given the potential uncertainties of a federal ruling. In March, workers in Phoenix, Ariz., won a landmark rule for outdoor heat safety measures. Such local protections can also ​“address the specific needs of the folks in their state,” she points out. ​“Even what Maine would consider heat based on their infrastructure and their historic climate patterns versus what would be considered hot in New Mexico, let’s say, would be different.” 

In the near term, many fear that a Trump administration would torpedo the draft rule, leaving workers stranded in fields, construction sites, airport hangers, warehouses and kitchens without protections. During his presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump repeatedly attempted to slash OSHA’s funding. His first term also saw over 100 environmental rules rolled back and over 500 deregulatory rulings in progress by 2020. There is no sign to indicate that he would change his approach if he were to win again.

The slow rulemaking timeline leaves workers like Katelyn Medders and Shae Parker still subject to political winds. In the meantime, people across the U.S. will continue to fall sick and die at work, because it is too hot and there are too few protections in place to guarantee their access to the three essentials: water, shade and rest. 

“I definitely will be taking workers’ rights into consideration when voting this year,” Medders tells In These Times. ​“Not just because I am a worker and going through all these tough conditions, but I do believe the working class deserve a little bit more than what we’re getting.”