Climate change is killing workers, but it doesn't have to be this way

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Way back when I was splitting my working time freelance writing and working live events, I signed on with an audio-visual company that provides services to hotels. It was considered the retirement gig for production folks, as there was no touring involved and very little stress. As a lighting designer, my job consisted of gussying up a ballroom in corporate colors and making sure the lights I used to illuminate a podium made presenters look good. All that gear came from a warehouse, run by a cherished coworker who used to lovingly chide me for wearing ballet flats on show days because they weren’t exactly as safe as steel-toes. He stood up for me when there did come an opportunity to work out of town and I was the only woman on the gig. And he was known for his relentless work ethic, which was just as strong as his belief in the people around him. That relentlessness may have cost him his life.

A lawsuit has been brought on behalf of this friend, who likely succumbed to heatstroke one blazing summer day in the New Orleans metro and ultimately passed away. The company claimed it was heart-related. Rumblings from his friends and colleagues made it clear: It was likely heat-related.

There’s little recourse for workers who die from extreme temperatures, which have been made much worse due to climate change. As Mother Jones notes in a recent report, median penalties for on-the-job deaths stand at just $12,144 for federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) plans. State OSHA plans typically penalize companies with median fines of just $6,899 for worker deaths. For companies like the one I worked at, with revenues in excess of $40 million, a penalty like that certainly wouldn’t inspire a whole lot of change. Not that enforcement has even come close to allowing for such penalties to be incurred in the first place: As the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) notes, underreporting of such tragedies is altogether too common.

Amazon is guilty of underreporting when it comes to COVID-19 cases, as are meatpacking plants and farm operations. The entire state of Texas is guilty of underreporting workplace incidents like injuries, as it’s the only state without universal workers comp, which means companies have even fewer incentives to do the right thing since they’re ostensibly setting their own rules. As workplace tragedies—like the eight lives lost to a tornado at the Mayfield Consumer Products plant in Kentucky—continue to mount, legislation has been introduced to at least address some of the issues. The Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, named for a worker who died of heatstroke in 2004, was introduced last year to address heat-related deaths in the workplace. And, last week, OSHA finally announced the launching of what it dubs a National Emphasis Program on heat-related hazards.

“Tragically, the three-year average of workplace deaths caused by heat has doubled since the early 1990s. These extreme heat hazards aren’t limited to outdoor occupations, the seasons, or geography. From farmworkers in California to construction workers in Texas and warehouse workers in Pennsylvania, heat illness—exacerbated by our climate’s rising temperatures—presents a growing hazard for millions of workers,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement. 

Missing are requirements instead of guidance for natural disasters or grievous workplace incidents, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred 12 years ago today in the Gulf of Mexico. The largest oil spill in American history, it led to the deaths of 11 workers, irrevocably damaged the environment, and has continued to impact the Gulf South today. Damning reports following the incident found that safety regulations were regularly flouted for the sake of expedience. These problems persist to this day. Despite establishing new oversight in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill, journalists found that offshore worker deaths remain underreported.

As the president pushes for bold, sweeping changes to reach net-zero, so too should the Biden administration push for a country in which workplace deaths rarely, if ever, occur. Committing to a greener future means ensuring those who play key roles in reaching that goal are protected from exploitation, paid a livable wage, and protected from entirely preventable disasters. The Department of Labor has indeed issued reports touching on environmental justice but, like its guidance-over-rules approach to handling such matters, it is altogether lacking. The time to act is now, especially given the fact that it takes years for OSHA to fully adopt a regulation. The agency must act before more are senselessly lost for the sake of profit.