Cal-OSHA Standard Board: Shown here in 2016, the Board is deciding whether to adopt an indoor heat standard to protect workers while employers try tokill or water-down any new rule.
When workers go to work during the summer months at Rite Aid’s Distribution Center in the Mojave Desert, their million-square-foot steel building without air conditioning can sometimes feel like an oven.
Danger is real
Laboring inside hot buildings has long been recognized by workers and medical experts as dangerous, but employers have successfully blocked state and federal laws to protect workers.
Local 26 President Luisa Gratz is trying to change that by working with a team of volunteers and medical experts – coordinated by the Worksafe! Advocacy group – who are pressing Cal-OSHA to adopt a new “indoor heat standard.” Gratz knows firsthand how dangerous a hot building can be for employees; she once worked in a facility where co-workers passed-out from the high heat.
One death is too many
“A worker died a decade ago at the Rite Aid warehouse in Lancaster when it was hot,” she says. “It’s outrageous, but the history of health and safety laws in the U.S. seems to be based on the principle that workers have to die before protections can be passed.”
Protections long overdue
Gratz is aware of workers in many other warehouses and offices who have experienced symptoms of heat stress and heat exhaustion that include passing out on the job. She says a law protecting employees against hazardous indoor heat is long overdue, recalling that when Rite Aid workers formed their union 10 years ago, they were motivated in part by the death of a coworker believed to be the first victim of heat inside their warehouse. That tragedy sparked workers to organize and negotiate the first indoor heat contract language for warehouse workers in the nation. Their action forced management to install evaporative coolers and provide additional water breaks when indoor temperatures spiked. “It was a good start, but with climate change creating hotter conditions, we need stronger protections,” said Gratz.
Searching for support in Sac
Gratz and other union supporters have spent years urging Cal-OSHA’s Standards Board in Sacramento to pass regulations with teeth to protect workers from excessive indoor heat. Stronger regulations were passed by the legislature at one point, only to be vetoed by then-Governor Schwarzenegger at the request of business interests. The 7-member Board appointed by Governor Brown now has two vacancies and is hampered by industry lobbyists who often slow progress to a crawl and undermine even the smallest reforms. The situation with OSHA in Washington, D.C. is even worse, with President Trump, now rolling-back workplace protections.
Brown bows to business
Not long ago, the possibility of passing indoor heat protections in California looked promising after Governor Brown appointed Ellen Widess, a strong worker advocate, to head Cal- OSHA. But after several years, industry groups ganged-up against Widess, and eventually forced her to resign. The shakeup further emboldened industry groups who won a more “business friendly” approach to workplace safety at the expense of workers. Today, Cal- OSHA plods along with too few inspectors (far less per-capita than Oregon and Washington) and too little clout to punish employers who continue killing roughly 400 workers per year, a number that has held steady for most of the decade.
Gratz says the rule-making process is frustrating, but she and others remain determined to keep pushing for statewide indoor heat protections. Her work is part of a larger coalition effort that includes unions and safety advocates operating under the banner of “Worksafe!” – a statewide network that includes the ILWU. Gratz and others sent a letter to Cal-OSHA this past June, detailing the criteria for a good indoor heat standard:
- The trigger for worker protection should be based on a “heat-index” that combines temperature and humidity. Industry opposes the index in favor of a weaker standard based only on “dry bulb” temperature. Gratz says a “wet bulb” temperature test that includes humidity provides a more accurate measurement and is crucial to protect workers.
- The trigger heat-index should be set at 80 degrees, the number originally proposed by Cal-OSHA experts. Industry lobbyists raised it to 85 degrees, a move Gratz and others described as a “step backward” that contributes to heat exhaustion, heat stress, other illness and death.
- They stated workers who labor outside are already covered by a state law requiring mandatory shade breaks for temperatures over 80 degrees, so indoor workers should have the same protection.
- Industry wants indoor heat protections for only a narrow list of named industries – excluding workers not specifically mentioned. Gratz and others want a standard covering all indoor workplaces, including offices and freight containers.
- Workers operating inside hot structures and offices should be guaranteed hourly “cool-down” breaks, but the California Chamber of Commerce and other groups oppose these protections.
- The proposed standard would guarantee that workers shall be able to choose a representative of their choice to monitor employer compliance with these protections. This proposed Cal-OSHA standard would help workers with and without unions.
Details of these and many other parts of the proposed Indoor Heat Rules are still being debated by the Cal-OSHA Standards Board – and sandbagged by industry lobbyists. The challenge is something Gratz has met before, but continues to fight for worker health and safety.
“Meaningful change for workers only happens when there’s pressure from below,” she says. “Top management gets to make their decisions from air conditioned offices while folks on the floor are sweating to meet their production quotas. Changing that kind of injustice requires people to be organized, united and speak-up.”