Last year, the United States experienced its hottest summer ever, while Florida had the hottest July and August on record for them. We can imagine that was pretty unpleasant for everyone, but most especially for those who have to work outside all day in the hot sun.
Now, you might consider it common sense that those people would, at the bare minimum, be given water breaks and time in the shade so they don’t die of heat stroke. But no. Not always. That would be why, according to Public Citizen, at least 2,000 people die on the job each year, and why 170,000 are injured in heat-stress-related accidents each year.
But you know who is pretty okay with that? Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who just last week signed a bill barring local governments from instituting their own very basic heat-related regulations.
Why? Because he’s Ron DeSantis, that’s why. Though apparently he didn’t believe it would be a real winner, so he signed it into law without a press conference, simply dropping a press release announcing it later in the day.
This is likely a response to Miami-Dade County’s decision to institute its own regulations last year, in response to it being so hot out.
“The intent of the bill is to ensure that employers have the ability to govern themselves and make sure they create the best working environment for their employees,” said bill sponsor Sen. Jay Trumbell (R-Panama City), a man who apparently believes that some workers for some companies maybe do really good work if they are outside all day in 100-degree weather.
In a press conference on Friday, DeSantis said the bill he signed did not come from him. “There was a lot of concern out of one county, Miami-Dade. And I don’t think it was an issue in any other part of the state,” DeSantis said. “I think they were pursuing something that was going to cause a lot of problems down there.”
Problems? Drinking water is a problem? Taking breaks and getting some shade is a problem? How?
Lupe Gonzalo knows this reality well. She used to pick tomatoes in Florida during the summer and she’d find herself woozy from the heat. Sometimes she’d cramp up or get piercing headaches. Gonzalo shoved bottles of water into every pocket, but even that wasn’t nearly enough to get her through the day. Some colleagues, she says, went to the hospital with heat exhaustion—and some even died.
“Without water, without rests, without shade, the body of a worker—it resents it,” Gonzalo says in Spanish.
You can’t physically torture people, make them watch their coworkers die and then expect them to do a great job.
Here’s what I really don’t get though. I get that these people didn’t care about workers, but if I just loved capitalism and wanted these businesses to thrive, I would absolutely want to pass a law regulating these kinds of things. Sure! They may think they’re saving a lot of time and money not letting their workers take water breaks or providing any shade, but they’re being set up for lawsuits, bad publicity and maybe even the smallest amount of guilt (kidding!) should their workers start dropping like flies. Sometimes you have to save people from themselves.
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