Kim Smith knows how oppressive Florida’s heat can be for workers. The telecommunications technician has spent almost 20 years climbing utility poles in the Tampa sun and crawling through unventilated attics to install cable. She can’t imagine how hot the work will be in another decade or two.
So Smith was disgusted this week when her state’s Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill to block localities from implementing heat safety standards to protect workers.
“It’s disturbing,” said Smith, 45, a member of the United Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “Someone is going to die as a result of this legislation.”
As climate change leads to higher temperatures and longer, more intense heat waves, policymakers and regulators are looking for ways to protect vulnerable workers. But even the most minimal safety standards are running into opposition from powerful industry groups and their Republican allies in federal and state governments.
Lawmakers in the Sunshine State are considering an extreme step: preempting local safety measures that cities and counties might pursue. The GOP bill would invalidate a Miami-Dade County proposal that could require employers to provide outdoor workers with water, rest and shade on hot days. It would also bar any ordinance mandating heat safety training. It would even forbid requiring employers to hang posters on best practices for working in extreme temperatures.
The state Senate and House passed different versions of the bill and still needed to reconcile them as of Friday, the last day of the legislative session. If they fail to do that in time, they’ll need to reintroduce it and try again later.
Florida wouldn’t be the first GOP-controlled state to take heat safety out of local governments’ hands. Last year Texas lawmakers passed their own bill to preempt ordinances in Dallas and Austin that guaranteed workers water breaks. That broadly worded legislation, dubbed by critics the “Death Star” bill, is designed…
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