President Trump’s election threatens workers’ ability to cope with the heat

Protections for workers against extreme heat are at risk after Trump’s election

Written by Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News

Climate wire | Workplace advocates say former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House jeopardizes new heat protections for workers that the Biden administration proposed in the summer.

On the campaign trail, Trump did not directly address the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposal to require employers to provide workers with water and cool places to rest during hot weather.

But many of Trump’s Republicans criticized the plan when it was announced, including House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas). Westerman called this “one of the stupidest things they’ve ever done,” and said the heat rules ignore the realities of working outdoors.

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During President Trump’s first term, OSHA implemented a number of regulations, including regulations scheduled to be proposed in October 2017 that would force the healthcare industry to prepare for airborne pandemics like COVID-19. Work on health regulations has been suspended.

But Jordan Barab, who served as OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health during the Obama era, said the heat bill would be completely invalidated because of the law that governs how OSHA issues public health standards. He said it would be difficult for the incoming Trump administration to do so. management.

But Barab said there was no need for the incoming administration to finalize the rule, which could put people’s lives at risk.

“If the Trump administration doesn’t move forward, people will die,” Barab said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”

Heat-related illnesses killed at least 815 workers and seriously injured about 70,000 more between 1992 and 2017, according to federal data. And health advocates say the toll is likely to rise as temperatures rise due to global warming.

OSHA has been under pressure to protect workers from heat for decades, starting with a 1986 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending heat standards.

More recently, at the end of the Trump administration, Congressional Democrats put pressure on the agency with a bill co-sponsored by current Vice President Kamala Harris that would require the agency to enact rules.

But it wasn’t until this summer that OSHA proposed regulations that, if ultimately passed, could protect some 35 million workers from extreme heat.

Groups representing some of these workers are now concerned that the bill will not become law.

“President Trump will undoubtedly have to work aggressively to undo this progress that intentionally endangers workers, including many workers who voted for President Trump.” said Antonio de Loera-Burst, a spokesperson for the company. “Whether these workers die from extreme heat on the job should not be a partisan issue.”

Without federal action, Barab said, workers and their advocates will have to lobby the 29 states that enforce worker safety rules to enact their own heat policies. Ta.

He added that national measures could create a situation similar to the history of “right to know” regulations that require employers to inform workers about the hazardous properties of the chemicals they work with. In 1981, the Reagan administration froze work on these regulations that had begun under President Jimmy Carter.

After two years of successful efforts by labor advocacy groups to persuade about 15 states to adopt their own rules, OSHA decided in 1983 to issue its own Right-to-Know rule to standardize requirements across jurisdictions. I was forced to.

Currently, six states have heat protection measures in place for workers, but others are resisting the idea. Texas and Florida recently passed laws that prevent local governments from requiring water and breaks for workers.

One state that has stepped up protections is Maryland, which instituted heat standards in September, in part due to the heatstroke death of a sanitation worker in Baltimore.

“If there is a silver lining, it is that climate change is definitely a problem, and we are likely to see another record-warm spring and summer. It will not be easy to hide these rising temperatures. , workplace deaths are also inevitable,” Barab said. “So there could be pressure at the state and federal level to do something.”

Reprinted from E&E News Published with permission of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides news that matters to energy and environment professionals.