The dangers of heat stress for both indoor and outdoor workers is only increasing as our planet continues to warm. In the food system, farmworkers, warehouse workers, restaurant workers and street vendors are some of the most impacted, but this is a hazard for workers across all sectors, like construction workers and delivery drivers. Incarcerated people are also extremely vulnerable to the dangers of heat stress.
Yet, federal OSHA has no standard to protect workers from the dangers of heat exposure. A small number of states have created their own standards: California, Minnesota, Washington, and last year, Oregon and Colorado. For workers in Canada, the situation is not much different: In Ontario, where FCWA member Justicia for Migrant Workers operates, there are no laws to protect workers from extreme weather or from extreme heat in their accommodations.
This lack of protection was already a major problem, made worse as we break temperature records every summer. In July, a 29-year-old farmworker in Homestead, Florida died on the job after working through to his lunch break with no periods of rest. And just a few days ago, a 48-year-old Kroger employee in Memphis, Tennessee died in a distribution center, after repeatedly trying to cool off in the produce section.
Even as these conditions become worse, states like Texas are taking away hard-won rights* where they do exist. It is unacceptable that the basic human needs of workers are not respected in our society. Access to shade, rest, and ample water should be readily available to all workers, not just people on the brink of illness or death.
Employers regularly disregard the wellbeing of workers so long as their production goals and profit margins are met. That’s why we must create enforceable regulations that mandate protections for all. We wanted to hear from workers themselves, and gathered testimonials from across our Alliance on what it’s like working without heat stress protections:
Mirella, Florida
My name is Mirella, I am from Guanajuato Mexico. I have worked in agriculture for 18 years: tomatoes, jalapeño, okra, other vegetables and apples. We migrate every season, every 7 or 8 months, from Florida to North Carolina and back.
Agriculture is very hard to work. Apart from the fact that the work is heavy, we have to navigate the temperatures. In the 18 years I’ve worked here, they’ve gotten stronger, this year especially. We have reached about 105 and that is new. We felt that we were going to faint from the temperature. The bosses do not adapt, they have never been interested in what we in the countryside are going through, they only care that we harvest. There are times when they don’t give us water, and when we tell them we’re out, they all huddle together and do nothing. We only have the water left from the morning.
Most of the work is done from 10 am to 5 pm, the hours of the heaviest heat. There is no shade, there are no more breaks. There was a fatality due to dehydration (heat stroke), a young man of 29 named Efrain. Last week we were at the funeral. The boss has not become part of anything, nor does he want to talk. There is also someone who had to go to the hospital due to heat stroke, her boss did nothing so she is filing a lawsuit.
The only support we have is us. If we see that a co-worker feels bad, we tell them to rest, and we try to hydrate them, and when they tell us “the boss can come and get angry,” we tell them that our health comes first. I want the employers to value the work we do. Without us, who are the first in the food chain. Without us they could not have business.
Jasper, Montreal
I’m Jasper, I’m in Montreal where I’ve lived for most of my life. I’ve only worked at one restaurant, for a year so far, but due to the high turnover rate I’m already one of the senior employees and a union representative.
I know that the climate in Montreal has greatly changed since I started living here in 2004 – it snows much later, and Spring has mostly disappeared, leading into worsening heatwaves every year. We experienced very unsettling smoke from the forest fires this year, followed by the island’s first recorded tornado. While I haven’t been in commercial kitchens in previous summers, this year has been tough. Myself and my colleagues have suffered from headaches, exhaustion, dizzy spells, nausea – it makes the work more dangerous and puts everyone on edge.
We received a note from management reminding us to drink plenty of water, and they’ve gotten us freezies to try and help, but left the air conditioners in the back of the restaurant broken for weeks during the worst of the heat. I’ve sweat through my uniform and been told to just make sure it doesn’t drip into the food. When we’re working next to an open oven for hours, trying to keep up with orders, sometimes there isn’t enough time to stay properly hydrated, and it affects morale. The customers in the dining area, however, have had cool air all Summer, and they don’t see us.
We try and find ways to keep cool and make jokes. We keep a spray bottle and a water gun in the back. We try to rotate who’s at the grill or making salads. If someone looks flushed they might be told to step into the freezer for a minute. Many of us have gone without layers of our uniform because of the heat, which means a few employees have gotten avoidable burns where the kitchen jacket should cover them. Management hasn’t commented on this.
Maria, New York
My name is Maria, I arrived to the U.S 5 years ago, I’m originally from Mexico, I came looking for a better quality of life for me and my family. Since I arrived in New York I have worked in agriculture, especially apples, grapes, and nursery. Currently I have been working at a winery for 2 years. My work day starts at 7:00 am and ends at 5:00pm. I start cleaning the plants so the grapes can get air, and I tackle the weeds. This will last one more month; then we will cover the grapes in September, and in October we will uncover and pick the grapes. Most of the time I am outside. A month ago the supervisors told us that we have the right to take a break, but that is only because we belong to a union. Before that, nobody told us, and we rarely took brakes.
Recently we were affected by the air quality that resulted from the fires in Canada. We started to have burning eyes, and our throats hurt. We told our employer and after two days they gave us masks. But the quality of those masks were bad. Our employer is always at the office, so she has never felt what we felt. There are 4 workers who are always outside, and when the air was dangerous we never stopped working, no one even told us to take care of ourselves or anything. At the beginning we didn’t understand why the sky looked like that, we thought it was just fog. It wasn’t until we saw the news that we learned the reason. We got scared when we heard about the fires, but we kept working.
There were several days that we were working under an orange sky, but we couldn’t do anything about it, our employers didn’t come out and told us to be careful. Whenever we saw somebody coughing, even with the mask on, we just told them to take a break and to drink water. The only indoor place that we could use to rest is a shed where the tools are stored, but no one told us that we could use it to take a break. We also didn’t know about the right to breaks at that time.
In addition to all this, we sometimes can’t handle the heat. The temperature has reached 90’s and humidity is very high. We want everyone to know what we face when we work the fields, and to at least acknowledge our work. We want our employers to let us stop working when the temps reach high 80’s. We need to be the ones that decide if we can work under those high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions, or not.
Gilberto, Ontario
I am from Guatemala, I have been working for the same company for 8 years. My family has a lot of needs, that is why I work under a guest program in Canada. I work in the nursery growing peppers. There is no drinking water available in the nursery, but the problem is that it contains a lot of chemicals, that is why we have to buy our own water. During the whole year, our employer gives us only one small water bottle, and that is not enough. There is a ventilation system in place, but it is simply not enough when the temperatures are too high.
Thank God nobody has fallen ill from the heat yet, but that is because people stop working if the heat is too much for them. The farm owner tells us to stop working if we can’t work in the heat, but the problem is that if we don’t work then we don’t make any money, so we have to endure the high temperatures.
The heat gets so bad that during our work, our clothes get soaked in our own sweat, and we have to constantly wring out our clothes so we can get rid of the sweat. It is horrible. I understand that there is nothing the employer can do to change the temperature, but he could give us as much clean and cold water as we want. The nursery owner could also pay us wages when we need to stop work because of the heat. We are not asking for much, just that we are treated the same as the citizens of the U.S or Canada, because they have no problems taking taxes from us without giving us the same rights.
Across sectors of the food chain, FCWA members are fighting for legal protections, improved workplace conditions, and worker trainings on heat stress:
In Washington, Familias Unidas por la Justicia is pushing legislators to include heat stress provisions in the next Farm Bill.
In Southern California, Warehouse Worker Resource Center is supporting Amazon workers who just filed a heat stress complaint with Cal/OSHA.
Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United launched their “Beat the Heat” campaign in 2021, training workers on how to identify dangers and soliciting comments for the Department of Labor. Read their recent report here.
And this week, our allies at National COSH are focusing on heat stress for their #WorkedUp! campaign, and supporting a federal bill that would enact heat stress protections for all workers. You can learn more about the issue in their Know The Facts heat stress guide.
* The day after posting this blog, HB2127 was declared unconstitutional! We will continue to keep an eye on this bill as an appeal is likely forthcoming.