Virginia workers rally for heat stress protections 

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — The last thing Jason Parker remembers after working a shift removing compressor bearings for NASA in 90-degree heat is a chill down his spine.

"My friend's wife found me lying on the floor of my house, and I have no memory of getting there," the Virginia State Building & Construction Trades Council president said at a press conference Wednesday. "That's how insidious this thing is." 

Parker joined labor and climate change activists on a warm day in Virginia to urge the state to adopt standards for workers at risk of heat stress. State Delegate Phil Hernandez, through his chief of staff, stated that they aimed to provide workers with three simple protections. 

"It is imperative that we ensure everyone can go to work with dignity and return home with their health, and we know how to keep workers safe: water, shade and rest," Dan Harner said on the Democrat's behalf. "It is a simple strategy that has worked for thousands of years across all of nature."

Manuel Gago, director of the Worker Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, said that heat standards are a matter of life and death. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 43 workers died from heat-related deaths, with 17 being construction workers in 2022.  

"Every worker deserves the dignity of safety, access to water, rest and shade, and also the ability to speak up without fear." Gago, who has visited tomato field workers experiencing temperatures over 110 degrees in Virginia's Eastern Shore, said. "No one should die just for trying to earn a paycheck."

Virginia is one of 44 states without heat regulations in place. Hernandez and State Senator Ghazala Hashmi introduced the legislation in the General Assembly's January session but were unable to gather the necessary support to reach Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin's desk. 

Opponents reasoned that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would soon pass federal standards. Charlotte Brody, vice president of health initiatives at the BlueGreen Alliance, said she wasn't holding her breath. 

"Even though OSHA started under the presidency of Richard Nixon, no Republican president in 35 years has voluntarily issued any kind of OSHA rule," Brody said.

Brody said under President Donald Trump, OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have suffered staffing and budget cuts, rendering it unlikely that the federal government will establish any sweeping heat reform soon. 

"There's no one left to do research on heat or any other worker safety problem," Brody said. "The National Labor Relations Board has been decimated. The Chemical Safety Board, the agency that investigates when there's been a chemical explosion, has been proposed to have its budget cut to zero." 

Brody pointed to Trump's January executive order, which established that for every new regulation, the regulating agency must eliminate 10 existing rules. Partisanship aside, Brody noted that OSHA has been slow-moving under the most labor-friendly administrations. 

"Some rules like silica and benzene took 19 years from when they were introduced to when they were enforced," Brody said. "Way too long for workers to wait."

Ramón Zepeda Ramos, an economic justice organizer at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, noted that workers subjected to high heat are typically employed in industries vital to modern society.

"We all depend on the farm workers who pick our food so that we can enjoy a healthy meal while they work under the extreme heat," Ramos said. "We all depend on construction workers who build our homes and our buildings so that we can live and work in comfort while they work under extreme heat."

Dr. Abigail Hankin-Wei, representing Virginia clinicians for climate action, detailed her experience dealing with overheated patients. 

"These patients often arrive critically ill, their organs shutting down as their bodies overheat beyond control," Hankin-Wei said. "Too often, they are young, healthy individuals who left their home that morning and never returned." 

Virginia would join Maryland, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon and Washington if they implemented regulations. The policies differ by state. Washington, for instance, requires employers to provide paid cool-down rest periods of 10 minutes every 2 hours worked in temperatures of 90 degrees or higher. 

In addition to requiring shade, water and rest for workers, states also require annual training for employees and supervisors on the symptoms of outdoor heat exposure and the policies in place to prevent heat-related illnesses.

"A lot of these companies don't see these employees as people," Parker said. "They see them as tools."