Cities Want To Give Workers Heat Breaks. States Are Stopping Them.

This summer’s most recent heat wave has broken temperature records in nearly 50 cities across the southeast. As these blistering temperatures move east, cities across the Northeast are bracing for triple digits while Houston residents are preparing for scorching heat without power. Millions of Americans are suffering under a heat advisory, meaning that exposure to the elements for just an hour or two could severely impact their health. Across the country, cities are encouraging residents to stay inside and are opening up cooling centers wherever possible to help prevent deadly heat stroke.

If it seems like these heat waves are coming more often and are increasing in intensity, it’s because they are. Scientists have confirmed what we are all experiencing: Heat waves are happening more often, lasting longer, and the temperatures are hotter, all due to greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a heat illness prevention rule to protect workers from this extreme heat – but it will likely be years before workers feel its protections as corporations are gearing up to challenge the rule in the courts.

In the meantime, many local and state governments across the country are adopting policies to help people cool down while temperature records continue to be broken. But some states are going in the opposite direction.

This past spring, the Florida state legislature passed a new law (HB 433) that specifically prohibits local governments in the state from protecting workers from heat exposure. Following Texas’ lead just last year, where their “Death Star” bill sought to ban local governments from implementing any new policies not set already by the state, this new law prevents local governments from setting any standards when it comes to water consumption, cooling measures, acclimation or recovery period, first-aid measures related to heat exposure and more. Even as record-breaking heat waves blanket the state, HB 433 goes so far as to prevent local requirements that employers post or distribute notices that inform workers how to protect themselves from heat exposure. While health professionals across the country advise caution during this scorching summer, state legislatures say, “Let them burn.”

This law is the latest in a national trend of Republican-controlled state legislatures undermining the power of local governments to protect the most vulnerable.

HB 433 in Florida was actually a reaction to a worker-led movement in Miami-Dade to pass workplace heat protections. Advocates and groups like WeCount, drawing upon the experiences of farmworkers and construction laborers, organized a campaign to bring heat breaks to the county. In a model for how democracy should work, Miami-Dade heard testimony from all sides, considered impacts on worker health as well as the potential impact on employers, and developed a policy that ensured the safety of workers without negatively impacting the booming construction industry. However, this exercise in local democracy was short-lived because the state legislature, at the behest of corporate lobbyists like the Associated Builders and Contractors, stopped local governments from taking action.

Abusive state preemption is nothing new in this country, but we have seen a frightening increase in its intensity over the past few years. In the South and the Midwest, where abusive preemption is most prevalent, these anti-democratic measures can be traced back to white supremacist backlash to Reconstruction, when thousands of Black leaders ascended to public office. And these policies continue to function as a way to suppress the voices of Black communities and other people of color.

Today, we see preemption primarily driven by large corporations and their lobbying arms, undermining local democracy to ensure they can continue to make a quick buck regardless of the human cost. From rent control to guaranteed income pilots to environmental policies, abusive preemption is being spearheaded by far-right ideologues and their corporate backers, restricting local democracy from addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. While rents, temperatures and costs of living continue to reach record highs, scholars and advocates are sounding the alarm about how states are preventing local communities from taking action.

The way forward to defeat abusive state preemption is not an easy one. We need to deploy all the strategies available to us – organizing state ballot initiatives, rebalancing the power of local and state governments through a new home rule, long-term electoral strategies and more. However, the solution starts with understanding the problem as one of democracy – of local democracy thwarted by powerful corporations and extreme right-wing legislators working in concert.

This weekend, the country will see some reprieve from the most recent blistering heat wave, but make no mistake. There will be another, and another and another. State legislatures may ban local communities from addressing the concurrent climate, housing and economic crisis we all face, but it will not stop them from coming.