Dear John,

Climate change is here, and it is real. July 2024 was the 14th consecutive month with the highest average monthly temperatures on record.

This has become increasingly dangerous for workers whose jobs keep them working in direct sunlight all day, every day. Extreme heat is the most deadly weather-related event for workers, causing more deaths than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes.

Farm workers and construction workers are at the greatest risk for illness and death. According to OSHA, forty unnecessary deaths are reported on the job per year due to heat exposure, and they estimate there may be as many as fourteen heat-related deaths for every one that is reported.

Even when the heat is over 100 degrees all day, North Carolina farmworkers report they have to provide their own water. Their employers are not legally required to do so, even as workers become ill and die from the heat.

Construction workers also suffer the effects of triple-digit heat. Helmets and goggles can make a bad situation worse, as they trap heat around the head and the eyes, resulting in heatstroke or heat exhaustion, permanent eye damage, and even death.

Clearly, relying on good-faith efforts of giant farm corporations and big business owners to protect workers’ health and lives is not enough. So the Biden-Harris administration has introduced a new heat standard rule to protect workers from extreme heat. Unfortunately, agricultural and construction firms, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are trying to stop it.

Take a stand with the workers and send your official comment today! Tell OSHA and the Department of Labor to implement the Biden-Harris administration’s new heat standard rule, to save workers’ lives.

President Biden’s announcement of these first-ever federal safety standards for excessive heat will apply to 36 million workers. As Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su explains, certain “trigger” temperatures will require employers to provide cool water, shade, a place to rest, and some paid breaks, so workers will not feel “they have to choose between their health and their livelihood.”

Once implemented, the new rule will save lives. But not only do the farming and construction industries oppose the new rule, Florida and Texas have even passed new laws to ban local protections! This is why OSHA and the Department of Labor need to hear from us.

When the worker activist group More Perfect Union asked farmer Randall Watkins why he voluntarily agreed to guarantee his workers regular breaks and worker trainings on heat safety, he said, “Because they’ve got family to go back home to. So I try to treat them the same as I would want to be treated.”

It should be as easy as that. But until big businesses put a higher value on their workers than on their profits, we will need these laws and regulations to protect lives.

Send your comments to OSHA and the Labor Department today, urging them to adopt the new Biden-Harris heat standard rule now.

And thank you for standing up for workers’ health and well being!

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action