Tim Barber died of heat illness [1]on his second day on the job. He was a healthy 35 year old when he collapsed at an upstate New York construction site in 2020. In a video posted on OSHA’s website, Tim’s father explains how it was preventable and says: “I never want a family, ever, to get a phone call that says come and identify your son because he died of heat illness,” and “It should never, never, never happen again.”
Yet it keeps happening. Heat illness is vastly underreported, and may contribute to 10,000 deaths a year in the US. Death certificates often list only one cause, omitting the contribution of heat[2]. Officially, heat causes 700 deaths a year (CDC) but that jumped to over 2,300 in 2023. Heat causes 2,000 illnesses in the workplace (Dept. of Labor) and 170,000 in total (Public Citizen)[3] each year. In Wisconsin, heat deaths have been rising for nearly a decade[4], and ER visits for heat jumped to 1,056 in 2024, a 25 percent rise from 2023.[5]
Two of the hottest summers in recorded history just passed[6], and workers are refusing to sacrifice their health. Things are worse than 1995 when Chicago lost 739 people over five days, the deadliest recorded heat wave in the US at that time[7],[8], [9], [10]. Yet remarkably, only six states have rules to protect workers specifically from extreme heat, and there are no national rules[11],[12].
This may be about to change. In July, OSHA released a proposed rule to protect workers from extreme heat. It would force employers to offer more water and shaded rest areas when temperature and humidity combine to reach a heat index of 80. Many labor organizations[13] are supporting the proposed rule. If the Supreme Court blocks the rule, there are bills in Congress with the same goal, Senator Baldwin and Representative Mark Pocan have signed on. Others are urging OSHA not to wait for Congress, but to implement “emergency” temporary heat rules.[14]
OSHA’s draft rule has already spurred public comment. Rebecca Coyne, a private citizen, wrote, “I appreciate OSHA’s employee input requirement, because it acknowledges that workers themselves are often best-informed about the heat risks of their jobs.” But Ms. Coyne wants requirements for an anonymous feedback mechanism to protect workers from backlash. Diana Winther, an IBEW 48 member, wrote, “Judgment is key when working as an electrician, and it just isn’t possible to make the right choices if you are suffering from dehydration and/or heat-related illness.” Ms. Carol O’Neil of Johnson Creek, WI wrote “This is the kind of law that our states, schools, and students desperately need…However it can’t come without a funding portion.”
Workers of all types and ages are at risk. At this year’s AFL-CIO Earth Day event, Rhonda Leneski, an AFSCME custodian at a Maryland university, described cleaning buildings where air conditioning was shut off[15]. “Drunk Shakespeare” theater workers in Chicago recently won a union, after organizing around air pollution and heat and cold in the leaky old buildings where they work[16]. In 2023, an Amazon warehouse worker in Joliet, Illinois died of suspected heat illness.[17] In July, a Wisconsin Rapids letter carrier outlined the risks of prep work in vehicles with AC off, and [18]shifts moved later in the day, when summer temperatures rise. The complaint is “currently open,” said OSHA spokesperson Denisha Braxton. UPS delivery workers have fainted and died in the heat, some less than thirty years old[19]. Thousands work in Wisconsin schools and prisons without air conditioning[20][21]. One bright spot is Wisconsin’s new rule for employers of migrant workers[22] — perhaps prompted by the ghastly conditions revealed during the covid pandemic period.
Letting workers suffer in the heat may appear unintentional, but employers resist regulation to fix the problem. Recently, business interests induced leaders in Florida and Texas to rescind rules requiring employers to provide drinking water and other heat safety accomodations. The risk falls most heavily on lower-income workers and workers of color. Farmworkers suffer 17 percent of all workplace heat deaths[23]. This is class war, with systemic racism, a tendency to “exterminate all the brutes” as Joseph Conrad wrote in Heart of Darkness and as explained in Raoul Peck’s 2021 HBO miniseries of the same name. With respect to Frederick Douglass and less to Charlton Heston: billionaires will not concede the power to roast us until we wrest it from them — with our hot, sweaty hands.
Only a strong workers’ movement can win reforms. Starting a health and safety committee at work is a good first step, even in workplaces without a union. And every union and worker should register a public comment on OSHA’s heat safety rule! The deadline is Dec. 30th. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/08/30/2024-14824/heat-injury-and-illness-prevention-in-outdoor-and-indoor-work-settings
Here is a simple template to submit a comment:
[1] Remembering Tim: A life lost to heat illness at work
[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/climate/heat-deaths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU4.-A_B.hKYVX8VlGklU&smid=url-share
[3] Workers Need Protection From Record-Breaking Heat – CounterPunch.org Public Citizen is source of the statistic.
[4] state-heat-data.pdf , Heat Health Network – UniverCity Alliance – UW–Madison ; Extreme Heat | ReadyWisconsin
[5] Emergency department visits from heat rose 25% in Wisconsin in 2024 ; Climate and Health: Extreme Heat | Wisconsin Department of Health Services
[6] This was the hottest summer ever recorded on Earth | Live Science
[7] Cooked: Survival by Zip Code | Documentary | Independent Lens | PBS
[8] To Protect Workers in High Temperature Workplaces, Reps. Chu, Scott, Grijalva, and Adams Lead Introduction of Heat Stress Legislation | Representative Judy Chu ; Protect Workers from Deadly Heat ; BILLS-118hr4897ih.pdf ; Factsheet – Bill to Protect Workers from Heat Stress – Public Citizen ; Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act of 2023 (H.R. 4897) – GovTrack.us ; S.2501 – 118th Congress (2023-2024): Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act of 2023 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
[9] Chicago’s Deadly 1995 Heat Wave: An Oral History – Chicago Magazine
[10] Counting corpses: A look back at Chicago’s deadly 1995 heat wave – Chicago Sun-Times
[11]https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2024-09-30/maryland-becomes-the-first-east-coast-state-to-adopt-worker-heat-protections
[12]https://chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matterId=BC4E1D2D-1653-EE11-BE6E-001DD809716C
[13] BlueGreen Alliance | Stand with Workers and Support OSHA’s Proposed Heat Standard
[14] Eleven AGs Press Congress, the White House, and OSHA for Action to Protect Workers from Extreme Heat – The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center
[15] https://youtu.be/dEANKyX6pJY
[16]‘All’s Well That Ends Well: Drunk Shakespeare’s Cast and Crew Ratifies First Union Contract · Actors’ Equity Association
[17] Amazon Says a Worker’s Death Was Not Work-Related. But a 911 Call Appears to Contradict the Company’s Narrative. – In These Times
[18] What to know about rising temperatures and prisons in Wisconsin, U.S.
[19] UPS Driver Dies: California family hopes Esteban Chavez Jr.’s death warns other workers of heatstroke – ABC7 San Francisco ; Union: UPS driver crashes in North Texas due to heat exhaustion – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
[20] New Berlin nursing home goes hours without A/C; problem resolved | FOX6 Milwaukee ; Despite rising temperatures, Milwaukee schools lack air conditioning ; Stifling prison heat used to be just a Southern problem. Not anymore. • Stateline ; $9,000 Settlement in Wisconsin Prisoner’s Heat-Related Illness Suit | Prison Legal News ; What to know about rising temperatures and prisons in Wisconsin, U.S.
[21] Beat the Heat: How Workers Are Winning Fans, AC, and Even Heat Pay | Labor Notes
[22]Updated state regulations aim to provide more protections for migrant farm workers – WPR