After record summer, Florida looks set to ban local heat protections for workers
Source: NPR/WLRN Miami
Published February 29, 2024 at 8:00 AM EST
On extremely hot days, many outdoor workers in Florida often lack access to three basic accommodations: water, shade and rest breaks. “The majority of our field workers suffer from heat stress,” Teresa Choc, an organizer with the Farmworker Association of Florida in Homestead, explained. “We’re the ones who put the food on everyone’s table, and it’s through arduous work in the sun.”
For years, the association and other workers-rights groups have urged local and state government leaders to enact heat safety protections for people who work outside. They’ve made some progress in Miami-Dade County, where county commissioners are considering new rules for local agriculture and construction businesses.
But Republicans in the state legislature are trying to stop cities and counties from adopting local workplace heat standards. Under a state legislation under consideration, local governments would lose the ability to guarantee outdoor workers access to shade, clean water, rest breaks and even heat safety training. Instead state lawmakers would have the sole authority to determine heat protection standards that go beyond federal rules.
“There are businesses operating at all four corners of the state, and the intent is to make sure that we don’t have a patchwork of regulation,” said state Sen. Jay Trumbull (R-Panama City), the Senate bill’s sponsor.
Read more: https://www.wlrn.org/government-politics/2024-02-29/heat-protections-workers-florida-miami-legislation-hb433
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I have family down there and I cannot convince them to leave. I can just hope that bunch of mobsters get their comeuppance before they do make it into said wasteland... 
