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In a week where parts of the state are getting triple-digit temperatures and weather officials urge jeans to stay cool and hydratedGov. Greg Abbott gave final approval to a law that will eliminate local rules mandating water breaks for construction workers.
House Bill 2127 was passed by the Texas Legislature during this year’s regular legislative session. Abbott signed it on Tuesday. It will enter into force on September 1.
Supporters of the law have said it would eliminate a patchwork of local ordinances across the state that bog down businesses. The scope of the law is broad, but ordinances that establish minimal disruptions to the workplace are one of the explicit goals. The law will nullify the ordinances promulgated by Austin in 2010 and Dallas in 2015 that instituted 10-minute breaks every four hours so construction workers could drink water and protect themselves from the sun. It also prevents other cities from adopting these rules in the future. San Antonio has been considering a similar ordinance.
Texas is the state where the most workers die from high temperatures, government data show. At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from exposure to ambient heat, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers’ unions say these data do not fully reflect the magnitude of the problem because heat-related deaths are often reported under a different primary cause of injury.
This problem particularly affects Latinos because they make up six out of 10 construction workers, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
Unions expect heat-related deaths to rise if mandatory water breaks go away.
“Construction is a deadly industry. Whatever the minimum protection is, it can save a life. We’re talking about a human right,” said Ana Gonzalez, Texas AFL-CIO Assistant Director of Politics and Policy. “We’re going to see more deaths, especially in the high temperatures of Texas.”
The National Weather Service is forecasting highs of more than 100 degrees in several Texas cities for at least the next seven days.
Heat waves are extreme weather events, often more dangerous than tornadoes, severe storms or floods. High temperatures kill people, and not just in the workplace. Last year, there were 279 heat-related deaths in Texas, according to data analysis by The Texas Tribune.
In 2022, Texas saw the second hottest summer on record and an extreme drought swept the state. This summer is not expected to be as hot as the weather pattern known as La Niña, which typically brings dry conditions to Texas, said state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.
Still, climate change amplifies the effects of heat waves, said Hosmay Lopez, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer who studies heat waves. Climate change is causing heat waves to stretch out over longer periods of time, reach higher temperatures, and occur more frequently than they would otherwise. The problem is especially pronounced in the dry areas of the Southwest due to the lack of vegetation and soil moisture, which in the wetter regions produces an evaporative cooling effect.
At the same time, he added, increased urbanization in the United States, especially in places like Texas where cities are expanding, makes more people vulnerable to the health hazards of extreme heat due to the “urban island” effect. Basically, the combination of concrete and buildings, in addition to the lack of green spaces, causes heat to be radiated at ground level, increasing the temperature in cities.
“The impact of climate change on extreme heat is not just increasing [by weather events] but also enhanced through social dynamics,” Lopez said.
HB 2127, introduced by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, is perhaps the most aggressive attempt by Texas Republicans to curb progressive policies in the state’s largest liberal-leaning cities. Under the new law, local governments would not be able to create rules that go beyond what state law dictates in broad areas such as labor, agriculture, business and natural resources.
Beyond eliminating mandatory water breaks for construction workers, opponents of the legislation argue it will also make it harder for cities and counties to protect tenants facing eviction or fight predatory lending, noise excessive and invasive species. Unions and workers’ rights advocates opposed the law, while business organizations supported it, including the National Federation of Independent Business, a lobby group with more than 20,000 members in Texas. Abbott said “would provide new hope for Texas businesses struggling with onerous local regulations.”
Supporters of HB 2127 say local regulations on breaks for construction workers are unnecessary because the right to a safe work environment is already guaranteed through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Water breaks are best dealt with by OSHA controls, argued Geoffrey Tahuahua, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas. Tahuahua believes that local regulations impose a rigid scheme that, unlike OSHA guidelines, does not allow for the necessary flexibility to tailor breaks to individual workplace conditions.
“They’re trying to do a one-size-fits-all and that’s not how it’s supposed to work,” he said. “These ordinances only add confusion and encourage people to do the bare minimum instead of doing the right thing.”
David Michaels, who served as OSHA chief from 2009 to 2017, disagreed with the approach of HB 2127 proponents.
“Under the OSHA law, employers are responsible for making sure workers are safe,” said Michaels, now a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health. “And we have compelling evidence that they’re doing a really bad job because a lot of workers are getting injured on the job, especially in Texas.”
Michaels noted that OSHA does not have a national standard for heat-related illnesses and only issues citations for heat overexposure after an injury or death, but not before that happens.
“The best solution would be to have a national standard, but since we don’t have that, local ordinances are very important in saving lives,” he said. “Banning these local laws will result in workers being seriously injured or killed.”
Gonzalez, of the Texas AFL-CIO, disagrees with the idea that local regulations hurt businesses.
Mandatory water breaks “were passed in 2010 in Austin, and construction continues to grow, especially in the state’s larger cities,” Gonzalez said. “It is simply false, an excuse to limit the power of local governments and an intrusion into democracy.”
HB 2127 does not prevent the enactment of a state law establishing mandatory breaks for construction workers, and two bills to that effect were introduced during the regular session.
House Bill 495authored by Rep. Thresa Meza, D-Irving, sought to establish mandatory 10-minute breaks every four hours for contractors working for a government entity. House Bill 4673by Rep. Maria Luisa Flores, D-Austin, would have created a statewide advisory board responsible for setting standards to prevent heat illness in Texas workplaces and establishing penalties for employers who fail to meet them.
No bill made it through the legislative process.
Daniela Hernandez, state legislative coordinator for the Worker Defense Project, said she hopes lawmakers will push for a state law mandating water breaks for workers. He added that he would not rule out the possibility of cities suing to try to keep their water fracking ordinances.
“Without an ordinance or a law, there is no safeguard. There is no guarantee that the worker will have these water breaks”, he said. “We will keep fighting.”
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