Can Latinos Beat The Heat?




 Texas has continuously seen breaking record heat waves throughout the summer of 2023. “Over the last 10 years, there were more than 1,600 days when a heat record was matched or broken at one of 22 weather stations across Texas. That’s more than 1,000 more record-breaking days than the 561-day average at those stations in the decades prior to 2013, the Tribune’s analysis found”.(Schumacher, Ford, Douglas, 2023) Many Latinos in Texas are employed in outdoor or manual labor jobs including occupations such as construction agriculture and landscaping. These types of jobs expose workers to harsher temperatures increasing the risk of health-relating illnesses or even death. Recently “Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that overturns local ordinances in some Texas cities that mandate regular rest breaks for such workers.” (Levitan, 2023) Heat regulation standards for workers has brought attention to the conversation in order to address the topic. 

Bill 2127 goes into affect sept 1 and many have come to call it “death star law” or “law that kills” and multiple other names. “Unions have argued that the law would increase the risk of heat-related injuries and deaths on job sites. This will particularly affect Latinos, who represent six out of 10 construction workers in Texas, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.”(Uranga, 2023) Union Group Texas ALF-CIO has taken up for fighting for Texas workers advocating for the working people of Texas and brining awareness to the issue.


https://twitter.com/TexasAFLCIO/status/1671641522779856898


Mexican-American Congressman Greg Casar led a nine hour long hunger and thirst strike in regards to the Texas house bill and urged many to join him


https://twitter.com/gregcasar/status/1684294469279944704?s=42&t=HrI7zJIPp-MkE50MDBbu7g


This has led many others to act in forms of protest and has caused other political leaders such as Bernie Sanders to bring awareness to the issue by urging many to listen and tune in to the importance of federal heat protection for workers


https://twitter.com/berniesanders/status/1689311357273845761?s=42&t=HrI7zJIPp-MkE50MDBbu7g





Citations

Uranga, F. (2023, July 12). Limited regulations make Texas workers responsible for preventing on-the-job heat injuries. The Texas Tribune. 

Douglas, E., Ford, A., & Schumacher, Y. (2023a, June 27). Climate change has sent temperatures soaring in Texas. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/27/texas-climate-change-heat/#:~:text=Over%20the%20last%2010%20years,2013%2C%20the%20Tribune%27s%20analysis%20found. 

Hannah Levitan, I. R. W. (2023, July 21). Amid a record heat wave, Texas construction workers lose their right to rest breaks. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/21/1189179220/amid-a-record-heat-wave-texas-construction-workers-lose-their-right-to-rest-brea#:~:text=Greg%20Abbott%20signed%20HB%202127,1. 


Comments

  1. Stephen DiltsSeptember 1, 2023 at 8:18 PM

    This should be a much bigger deal to people! And for people that do not care, they should realize it affects non-Latino construction workers as well. When I worked indoors, I would get hot and one reason I quit was that my new manager would not allow us to drink water unless we were on break, which was only every four hours. Also, I thought of a rebuttal for people that think water breaks reduce productivity. I would argue that keeping workers hydrated and cool increases productivity. Maybe if the media paid more attention to this issue and showed the American people the harsh reality of worker conditions, more would show compassion, and push their representatives for change. But, our texts thus far have showed us how the media often downplays certain news because politicians want it downplayed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eliza NobleSeptember 27, 2023 at 8:42 AM

    This was such an interesting topic to read about, that I do not think is talked about enough. I actually do not think I have heard anything about this in the news, on social media, or even through random online searches (which is hard to believe because I have done a lot of searching lately on the climate, weather, and other related topics). I did not know this was an issue, but I can definitely see the importance it. To me this should be treated just like any other work-related safety standard, there should be a policy, procedure, and law in place to prevent unsafe practices and hazardous conditions (which I would consider this as one). Do you think the lack of attention and care to this is related to the ethnicity of the people affected?

    ReplyDelete

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