This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
Fresno officials and labor leaders are urging the federal government to follow California’s lead and implement heat safety standards for workers nationwide.
Local advocacy for a federal rule came on the heels of the first week of hearings by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over a proposal to set new federal standards for heat safety in the workplace.
“While here in our state, we have taken leadership in both indoor and outdoor heat illness and prevention protocols, there are still no federal standards to protect the workers in the fields or on the job sites,” said Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea at a news conference June 20. “That simply is unacceptable.”
Currently, only seven states, including California, have their own specific rules on the books setting heat safety standards for workers.
Leaders with the Central Labor Council, which co-organized the June 20 news conference in front of Fresno City Hall, and other workers’ rights groups praised California’s indoor and outdoor heat standards, advocating for OSHA to mirror them.
“We’re struck by the fact that we’re in California and we’re having to lead the way once again,” said Dillon Savory, the Central Labor Council’s executive director, “to help workers across this country actually work in an environment that gets them home at night without heat illness or without the risk of fatality.”
Exposure to extreme heat can cause illnesses, injuries and even death, as well as exacerbate existing health conditions, according to OSHA.
The federal agency received more than 1,000 reports of heat-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities over a six-year period from January 2017 to December 2022, as reported in OSHA’s 2024 publication of the proposed federal rule. That included 211 heat-related deaths, most of which were among workers in construction, landscaping, agriculture, manufacturing and postal and delivery service.
But the Trump administration’s sweeping deregulatory goals are casting a shadow over the path toward a long-awaited federal rule.
Some acknowledged the uncertainty under the current administration following Friday’s news conference.
“I am very, very concerned about just even the future of OSHA,” said Benjamin Takemoto, a community organizer with Valley Forward.
What’s next for heat safety standards in California and beyond?
California’s agency regulating worker safety, Cal/OSHA, has heat safety standards for both indoor and outdoor workers.
Some of Cal/OSHA’s protections for outdoor workers kick in at 80 degrees or more, including a requirement to provide shade structures. Cal/OSHA also has protections for workers at indoor workplaces where the indoor temperature reaches 82 degrees.
While California has a reputation of setting stronger regulations than the rest of the country on issues like environmental and air quality standards, there are a couple of provisions in the proposed OSHA rule that actually go further than Cal/OSHA’s.
“To speak very generally, the federal rule, for example, has strong acclimatization requirements, which is mandating how quickly workers can be introduced to hot environments when they’re not used to working in them — which is the most dangerous time for workers to be there,” said attorney David Cremins, who attended the June 20 news conference after speaking virtually at OSHA’s hearing over the heat safety rule.
Cremins, an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by the Vertex Foundation with California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., added that the proposed federal rule mandates heat recovery breaks for all workers at 90 degrees and above, while California’s requirement for additional breaks for agricultural workers only kicks in at a higher threshold of 95 degrees.
Still, the fate of OSHA’s rule remains uncertain under the current presidential administration.
Part of that has stemmed from concerns over President Donald Trump’s pick to lead OSHA, The New York Times reported. The president has tapped David Keeling, a former health and safety executive for UPS and Amazon — both of which have previously been fined for workplace safety citations, including over heat-related illnesses.
The White House referred Fresnoland’s request for comment to the Department of Labor, which didn’t immediately respond Friday afternoon.
“I think a lot of people did expect the process would be stopped entirely,” Cremins said, alluding to OSHA’s rulemaking process that includes the current public hearings. “That hasn’t happened yet.”
OSHA’s informal hearings will continue through early July, and the overall process “could take several more years,” Cremins said.
“The prospect of the Trump administration nixing the rule or the rule-making process altogether — I think it’s still very present,” he added, “but no one knows.”
Even closer to home in California, Takemoto of Valley Forward said, there’s more work to be done when it comes to enforcement of state standards on heat safety.
“I’ve heard from farmworkers, who are on the job for eight hours or more a day, working in the sun, and they’re not even being given clean water to drink,” he added, “or being given access to shade, or even given the time to rest.
“The current standards — they’re a great starting point, but they don’t mean anything if employers are not actually being held to that standard.”