On Tuesday, service workers rallied at major airports in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Phoenix. They called for immediate action from employers to ensure their safety in the workplace, including adequate breaks and access to drinking water during periods of extreme heat.

In Phoenix, where earlier this year local officials enacted a heat ordinance mandating many of these protections, workers and legislators sounded the alarm that the ordinance has led to inadequate improvements, and questioned how the protections are being enforced. “Why is it after passing an ordinance we’re still asking for the basics? Water. Breaks. These are humans rights,” said City of Phoenix Councilwoman Betty Guardado at the rally. Later this week, laborers across the country will be taking a coordinated water break to signify the need for access to drinking water at work.

As human-caused climate change continues to make the planet hotter, extreme heat in the workplace is increasingly becoming a lethal threat. Organizers say “Heat Week” is also spurred by the recent sudden deaths of Wednesday “Wendy” Johnson, a postal worker in North Carolina, and Ronald Silver II, a sanitation worker in Maryland. Both Johnson and Silver are believed to have died, in part, because of on-the-job heat exposure, which kills dozens of workers every year.

  • @StrongHorseWeakNeigh
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    173 months ago

    What a fucking world to live in. We live in the richest country on earth and we have to fight to drink water.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      73 months ago

      We live in the richest country on earth and we have to fight to drink water.

      What do you think made it rich?

      • @daddy32
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        23 months ago

        Modernized forms of semi slavery.

  • @Toneswirly
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    43 months ago

    Imagine telling your boss you need water breaks in record-breaking heat and him telling you no.

  • @Burn_The_Right
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    13 months ago

    Very few things get a conservative more excited than seeing vulnerable people suffering and dying.

    Conservatism did this. Billionaires may be the root cause, but their conservative base makes it happen.