- Greg Abbott signed a tally cutting regulations statewide, including multiple mandating water breaks.
- “We will see more deaths,” the deputy head of policy and politics at the Texas AFL-CIO said.
- Texas is currently first in the nation for heat-related workplace deaths, the Texas Tribune cracks.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signaled a bill Tuesday that eliminated ordinances across the state requiring water breaks for construction workers — all while a record-setting heatwave swings across the state.
The law — which takes effect September 1 — particularly impacts ordinances in Austin and Dallas that mandate construction workers take at least ten minutes every four hours to drink water and cool off, according to the Texas Tribune. Fans of the bill say the intent was to eliminate local regulations in favor of state-wide policies, the Huffington Post reports.
Meanwhile, Bishop James Dixon — President of the NAACP Houston — condemned the invoice, according to local news outlet KHOU 11.
“These bills are a threat to democracy,” he told the outlet. “They’re a warning to civil rights and human rights.”
Ana Gonzalez, deputy director of policy and politics at the Texas AFL-CIO, a federation of labor mixings, told the Texas Tribune the bill may prove fatal for construction workers.
“We are talking about a human right,” Gonzalez stipulate. “We will see more deaths, especially in Texas’ high temperatures.”
Texas has the highest rate of heat-related workplace deaths, the Texas Tribune check outs.
This summer will prove especially brutal, with southern Texas hitting record highs on Thursday and Friday. Zealousness indexes across the region are reaching into the 120s, with forecasts predicting temperatures and humidity to continue pinnacling through at least June 25, the Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, heat-related safety measures are a key point of contention for industries across the political entity this summer.
The Teamsters union reached a tentative agreement last week with the United Parcel Assistance on negotiations to install air conditioning in all delivery vans, which the union says can reach over 120 degrees, according to CNN.