MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A new crop of laws regarding heat regulation will take effect in the state of Florida on Monday.
Among them is a highly contested preemption law that will prevent local governments from enacting heat regulations and protections.
It comes as the U.S. continues to deal with record-breaking temperatures that have placed more than 100 million people across the country under heat warnings.
“To see the Florida Legislature, to see our governor side with industry lobbyists to prioritize the profits of a couple of people over the lives of hundreds of thousands…I think it’s shameful,” WeCount Co-Executive Director Oscar Londoño said.
WeCount is an organization led by agricultural, construction, and domestic workers and families in South Florida.
Since 2007, the immigrant member-led organization has organized for worker rights, most recently taking up the issue of protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat and the climate crisis.
Before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433 in April, Miami-Dade County was poised to pass its own ordinance requiring employers in the agriculture and construction industry to provide water, rest and shade to their outdoor employees or face fines and penalties. The basic heat protections were something that WeCount had been campaigning for, for years.
“That standard would have guaranteed basic human rights to more than 100,000 outdoor workers in agriculture and construction,” Londoño said.
But because of the new state preemption, the county tabled the ordinance. So now there are no laws in our state mandating rest and shade for outdoor workers at a time when human caused climate change is serving up more and more days of extreme heat.
“We will see more (heat),” said Miami-Dade County’s Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert. “We are expecting to see an earlier onset of heat and humidity that is dangerous this summer than we did last summer.”
Last year was the hottest on record and Miami-Dade County saw an unprecedented 42 total days with a heat index of 105 degrees or higher.
“The temperature is sometimes more than 100 degrees,” said construction worker Javier Torres. “The problem is (we) no have water, no have shade.”
Torres says he almost died last year after suffering a heat stroke at a job site that caused him to fall off a ladder.
“Sometimes the job we do is too dangerous,” Torres said.
Local 10 met with Torres at a worker rights rally organized by WeCount back in April.
Dozens of people marched down the streets of Homestead as they chanted “El Pueblo jamas unido sera vencido,” a phrase from a Chilean protest song that means: “The people united will never be defeated.”
The crowd’s powerful protest made it clear that they are not giving up their fight for heat protection anytime soon.
“We know that workers in South Florida have died and have died recently due to extreme heat,” WeCount Co-Executive Director Claudia Navarro said.
“In Miami-Dade County alone, 34 lives are lost due to heat every single year,” said WeCount Policy Director Esteban Wood.
According to FEMA, farm workers are 35 times more likely to die from extreme heat.
“In the state of California, if you’re a farmer, you have a protected right to water break,” said Wood. “We’re just asking for the same thing.”
Both the agriculture and construction industries have pushed back on these sorts of mandates, insisting that mandatory water and rest breaks create unnecessary regulation.
That is why when Miami-Dade County initially proposed its heat regulation ordinance back in July of 2023, organizations like the Builders Association of South Florida quickly organized in opposition.
“We thought that it should have been much more information, education focused, rather than fines, penalties and all sorts of consequences, you know, to business owners,” said Builders Association of South Florida President Nelson Stabile. “It wasn’t a broad legislation focused on the well-being of all employees of all sectors, it was specifically targeted at construction and agriculture.”
“There was no appeal mechanism,” said Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida East Coast Chapter Chief Operating Officer Sonny Maken.
Much of the opposition was focused on the argument that worker protections already exist at the federal level through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA.
“OSHA, which governs for the workplace, they do a good job of making sure that the environment that people work in is safe,” said Maken.
But that’s not necessarily the case for extreme heat protection.
“OSHA does not have a federal heat standard, a federal heat standard might take years to go into effect,” said Londoño.
There is progress on that front. OSHA’s new proposed rules for employers to protect workers from extreme heat are right now being reviewed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and have not yet been made public.
In a statement, OSHA says “The Biden-Harris administration has been taking aggressive action from the start to protect workers from extreme heat -- including increased enforcement where workers are exposed to heat hazards in high-risk industries like construction and agriculture.”
Both Stabile and Maken said that their organizations are monitoring what OSHA is working on and expressed support for the federal regulations, with conditions.
“Under the assumption that OSHA will be able to craft legislation that not only will be consistent across the board, and I think that will, that’s probably something we can safely assume,” said Stabile.
“I have not heard one, ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) member tell me they don’t want to give their employees water,” said Maken.
But summer is here, and for more than 300,000 outdoor workers who live in Miami-Dade County, the heat is on.
“We should care because it’s the right thing to do,” said Londoño. “If we didn’t have farm workers, if we didn’t have construction workers, our economy would go to a halt.”
“And so ultimately, what we’re asking for is to protect the workers that make our entire lives in Miami possible,” he added.
Heat can be a hazard for everyone, especially those in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.
For ways to protect yourself this summer, the Red Cross and the National Weather Service have compiled a list of safety resources.