Red State..:

Gov. Greg Abbott approved a law eliminating city and county rules on water breaks for construction workers, despite high heat-related worker deaths.

Debate persists on workers' rights and cities' capacity to safeguard tenants and address other concerns. https://t.co/PgePbLnwLf

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) June 16, 2023

Blue cities.

The law will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin in 2010 and Dallas in 2015 that established 10-minute breaks every four hours so that construction workers can drink water and protect themselves from the sun. It also prevents other cities from passing such 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 shows. At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from environmental heat exposure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers’ unions claim this data doesn’t fully reflect the magnitude of the problem because heat-related deaths are often recorded under a different primary cause of injury.

I worked a summer job between college graduation and starting graduate school. 46 years ago this summer. It was a construction job. I worked as a laborer. It was in East Texas, the part that looks like western Louisiana. Lots of pine trees, in other words; but the site, for a building, had been cleared. It emphasized the heat, that shade on the border. Some days you felt like a bug under a magnifying lens; on a sidewalk, the lens being carefully adjusted by a particularly vicious child.

I had a good boss, one who knew we needed breaks when we needed them. One day, in August I think, I stopped for water and shade. A young carpenter on the job, a little older than me, walked by and told me to get to work. The boss heard it, and quietly told me to keep my place.

It’s good to have a good boss. Heat kills.

That was 46 years ago, when the summer heat regularly hit 100 in August, but seldom before. It’s been 100+ for 2 days now, and will be for the next 7 forecast days. In mid-June. And it won’t be cooler in August, to balance the scales.

It’s good to have a good boss. But the business of Texas government is business. And government closest to the people is best; unless that government interferes with business.

Blue cities. Red state. The people have spoken. Fuck ‘em. This is bidness.