Florida county urges state to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat

William Brangham:

In these record-breaking heat waves, people who have to work outdoors, like agricultural workers or construction crews, are among the most vulnerable.

Earlier today, President Biden announced new steps to try to protect those workers. Using better weather forecasting, the Department of Labor will develop an alert to signal to employers and employees when heat is going to be dangerous. The department will also beef up inspections of certain worksites.

The president noted today that Americans can no longer pretend that we are living in a normal climate.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: Even those who deny that we're in the midst of a climate crisis can't deny the impact extreme heat is having on Americans, Americans like an elderly woman in Phoenix, who fell out of her wheelchair and, after five minutes on the ground, had third-degree burns.

William Brangham:

Florida is one state that requires no protections for the estimated two million outdoor workers in the state. But one county is hoping to change that.

For more on this, we're joined by Nicolás Rivero. He's a climate change reporter for The Miami Herald.

Nico, thank you so much for being here.

As we just heard, President Biden is proposing some rules to try to protect outdoor workers. We know the Department of Labor and OSHA are working on some much broader longer-term plans as well. You have been reporting on the troubles that outdoor workers in Florida are having. Can you give us a sense of the things you have been reporting?

Nicolás Rivero, The Miami Herald:

Absolutely, yes.

So, down here in South Florida, as in the rest of the country and the world, we have been going through some record-breaking temperatures this summer. These are the kinds of temperatures where the National Weather Service advises that you spend as little time as possible outside, avoid strenuous activity.

But a lot of workers don't have any choice but to go to work that day. So what we're seeing is outdoor workers in many cases are working in dangerous temperatures without adequate access to water or shaded breaks throughout the day.

And, just last week, I was at a vigil for a worker who died on the job in Southern Miami-Dade County, again, because workers just don't have access to the kind of basic protections that you might need to stay safe in high temperatures.

William Brangham:

And you were talking about — like, what are those kinds of protections? They may seem self-evident, but what are the things that employers have been urged to do to try to protect people.

Nicolás Rivero:

Yes, so workers are asking for three basic things, water, shade and rest right?

So, adequate access to water and clean water. In some cases, with farmworkers, they might store water next to pesticides and that water is dirty and workers don't want to drink it. Also, breaks throughout the day, regular breaks. Many workers only get one break, and that's for lunch in the middle of the day, and then they're working four, six, maybe eight hours straight without a break.

And then just somewhere on the job site where there is shade, so if a worker needs to get out of the sun and cool off a little bit, they can.

William Brangham:

And I understand from you're reporting that there is an effort by one county to try to enshrine some of those protections.

What is the proposal?

Nicolás Rivero:

Yes, so commissioners in Miami-Dade County proposed a bill last week that would mandate a couple of things.

The first is training for workers on how to recognize the signs of heatstroke and other heat illnesses and how to administer first aid in an emergency. And then, on hot days where the heat index hits 90 degrees or above, it would require employers to make sure workers have access to enough water, give them 10-minute breaks every two hours throughout their working day, and have some place in the job site where there is shade.

And it has penalties for companies that fail to do that.

William Brangham:

And, right now, there are no requirements on companies in Florida to do things like that. They may, but there are no requirements to do so?

Nicolás Rivero:

That's right.

In Miami, like much of the rest of the country, there are no requirements at the local, state or federal level that specifically create protections for heat for workers. The only protections that do exist are the federal level, where OSHA has what's called its general duty clause, which means employers have a broad requirement to create a safe workplace for workers.

But there aren't specific rules that say you have to give workers water or you have to give them a certain amount of breaks throughout the day.

William Brangham:

And so one of the provisions you're talking about is training workers to be able to understand when one of their colleagues is in trouble and then teaching them how to act. I mean, that's a — that's a lot to ask.

Nicolás Rivero:

It is, but, I mean, it's one of the things actually that workers want the most, because they have told me: I don't know what to do if my friend is in trouble. And if I don't know what to do, he could die.

And so workers want to have this knowledge. They want to have this training, so that they can look out for each other.

William Brangham:

And what have employers, generally speaking, said about this proposal?

Nicolás Rivero:

Well, a lot of companies will say that they voluntarily are already doing the right thing. They already give their workers access to water. They already give them breaks throughout the day.

And it's true that many companies are voluntarily doing some of these things. But what I hear from workers and worker advocacy groups is that many companies are falling down on one or more parts of this. So they're not getting adequate water throughout the day, or some of them — this doesn't seem like a heat-related thing, but they don't have bathrooms in the job site.

So workers feel like they shouldn't drink too much water because they won't have an opportunity to go through the bathroom in the day. And that too creates danger. So, companies may do parts of the right thing to do, but they may not do it all consistently.

William Brangham:

So, do you have any sense of how likely it is that this proposal will pass?

Nicolás Rivero:

Well, in Miami-Dade County, it passed its first reading with a unanimous 11-0 vote. Now it goes into committee, where it could be changed or it could be modified or voted down.

And then, afterwards, it has to pass a final vote for the full commission. It seems likely that it could pass in the county. Now, the danger is that the state of Florida could preempt that, as they have with many local regulations. And, in fact, Texas last month preempted similar rules in Austin and Dallas. So, the state legislature came in and undid what the local governments did in that case.

William Brangham:

As I mentioned, you're a climate change reporter for The Herald.

And is it your sense that employers have broadly taken on the idea that it's not like we're in a new normal and now it's all of a sudden going to be this hot consistently, but the projections are that this will continue to go up and get worse? Is it your sense employers appreciate that and are making plans for that future?

Nicolás Rivero:

No, I mean, I think what you hear a lot is, especially in South Florida, it's always hot. Summers have always been hot here.

But I think, if you look at this summer, in particular, you can see it really never has been this hot. It truly has been a record-breaking summer on any number of metrics in terms of heat. So, I don't think that we can keep doing the same old things and expect them to keep working in a climate that is working — that is warming, and where our hottest days are becoming more common.

William Brangham:

All right, Nicolás Rivero, climate reporter for The Miami Herald, thank you so much for being here.

Nicolás Rivero:

Thank you for having me.