‘Being in hell’: California’s indoor workers face dangers from increasing heat waves
Cooks working next to a fryer without air conditioners in a 115-degree room. Workers pleading to use portable fans to cool down in a warehouse where the temperature can reach 120 degrees.
Those are examples of California workers who labored through the several major heatwaves that have engulfed much of the state this summer.
As heatwaves set records again and again in much of California, workers say they often find themselves not protected, putting them at the risk of heat stroke and exhaustion.
The state has regulations requiring employers to provide shade, break, water and other protections for those working outside.
But the state has yet to create such regulations for those working inside, despite a law that required California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal-OSHA, to do so by 2019.
“We’re waiting years and years to get a certain standard,” said Jora Trang, chief of staff and equity at Worksafe who has been pushing for the regulations. “Workers are still injured and dying during that time, and it’s quite frustrating.”
Indoor workers and heat
Leticia Reyes, a cook at Jack-in-the-Box in Sacramento’s North Highlands, was one of eight workers who went on strike in late June.
The employees spent days at work without a functioning air conditioner when temperatures inside the restaurant went as high as 115 degrees, Reyes said. Last year, workers had to bring air conditioners from their homes and opened the store’s refrigerator, she said, but they had had enough.
“A couple people started feeling real sick,” she said. “The manager just wasn’t listening to us. They weren’t helping us. They weren’t allowing us to take 10-minute breaks.”
The strike led to Reyes’ store getting a new manager and a fixed air conditioner, she said. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment, although it did tell HuffPost that the restaurant is run by a franchisee who said the air conditioning unit is up and running.
Meanwhile, at a Rite Aid warehouse in the Antelope Valley in Southern California, many of its 400 workers had to pay for portable fans themselves to keep cool in days when the temperatures rose as high as 113 degrees, said Luisa Gratz, president of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 26 which represents many of the workers.
“Employers don’t want to admit that the conditions in the warehouse contributed to the health of those workers,” Gratz said. “If they cared as much about people as their bottom line, it would be much easier to survive.”
Rite Aid said in a statement that it’s working closely with the union to address the “unprecedented heat wave,” through measures such as cooling cloths, additional fans, opening facility doors in the evening and giving more breaks during the day.
Still, some parts of warehouses, such as metal shipping containers parked in the sun, can get as hot as 120 degrees, said Tim Shadix, legal director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center based in Southern California. Even if a warehouse has air conditioning, it can be limited to certain parts of the building, he said.
“Workers described it as like being in hell or working in kind of a furnace,” he said. “People will get sick. They’ll vomit. They’ll get lightheaded. They’ll get really bad headaches.”
Between 2005 and 2020, Cal-OSHA confirmed 51 deaths and 719 injuries of workers due to heat illnesses, according to agency data.
Yet a study published this month for the Institute of Labor Economics found hotter temperatures caused about 360,000 additional injuries in California between 2001 and 2018.
The study, which analyzed the state’s worker’s compensation claims, found that a day above 100 degrees Fahrenheit leads to a 10% to 15% increase in injury risk compared to a day in the 60s. Such an increase applies to both indoor and outdoor workers, according to the study.
The study also found that lower-wage workers are far more likely to have injuries due to heat. Those in the bottom 20% of the income distribution, for instance, are five times more likely to have injuries due to heat than those in the top 20%, according to the study.
“There are so many professions where it’s just not possible to avoid exposure,” said Nora Pankratz, a research fellow at UCLA and a co-author of the study. “Someone based in Inglewood definitely is much more likely to experience a strong increase in injuries (due to heat) than somebody living in Beverly Hills.”
Lack of indoor heat regulations
In 2011, Domingo Blancas spent three days at a hospital after suffering a heat stroke while working in a metal container in an Inland Empire warehouse.
That experience led worker advocates to push the state to create specific rules protecting indoor workers from heat exposure, eventually getting Gov. Jerry Brown to sign Senate Bill 1167. That bill required California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal-OSHA, to create such rules by Jan. 1, 2019.
The rules, as drafted, would require workers in hot workplaces to have access to cool drinking water free of charge close to where they work. Employers would be required to create a cool-down area and encourage workers to take a preventative rest period if they feel the need to do so.
But Cal-OSHA can’t use those rules quite yet, because they have yet to be finalized. The agency is still reviewing the rules’ financial impact on California businesses, as required by state law.
The contractor preparing the review expects to finish its job by this year, after which the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will begin the formal rule making process, the agency said in a statement.
Kevin Bland, a lawyer at Ogletree Deakins law firm who has represented California businesses as part of Cal-OSHA’s rulemaking process, said the standard may not be “ready for prime time yet.”
There are some inconsistencies between indoor and outdoor regulations, and the rule may need more exceptions for different industries, he said.
The delay, however, frustrates California worker advocates.
“It’s been a process starting in 2012,” Trang said. “And in 2021, we’re not there.”
Cal-OSHA can still cite employers for creating an unsafe environment. If employers have an air conditioning system, a specific Cal/OSHA regulation requires the employer to keep the unit functioning. Workers can file a complaint with the agency if their employers are not taking steps to protect them from indoor heat.
But Trang said the specific rules would make it easier for the agency to protect workers from heat exposure.
“Employers benefit from having specific information and employees benefit from where and when they should expect to be safe,” she said.
Pankratz noted that her study found that after Cal-OSHA implemented rules to protect the state’s outdoor workers, the number of injuries due to heat had gone down significantly.
Although the study urged caution in interpreting the result, saying other factors such as better cooling technologies could have also played a factor, the relationship does show the potential impact a state’s policy can have on protecting its workers, Pankratz said.
Farmworkers
Even those with workplace rules continue to face problems, however.
An estimated 800,000 farmworkers are employed in California, according to a UC Berkeley study. Each year, the state’s agricultural industry produces about $50 billion in revenue.
Amid the pandemic, farmworkers have faced debilitating heat waves, a disproportionate rate of COVID-19 infections and unsafe exposure to wildfire smoke.
Despite being deemed essential workers throughout the health crisis, Leydy Rangel, national communications manager for the UFW Foundation, said some farmworkers are not aware of their rights in the fields. She added that farmworkers who are undocumented are less likely to file complaints or demand protections in fear of facing deportation. She estimates that half of the farmworker workforce in the U.S. is undocumented.
“Lack of legal status is at the heart of what makes farmworkers so vulnerable,” Rangel said. “They fear speaking up about those dangerous working conditions.”
One way she said state leaders could protect farmworkers during heat waves is to create more public awareness campaigns aimed at educating them of their workplace protections. Her group is also calling on Congress to enact a federal heat illness prevention standard in the workplace.
Assemblymember Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, who represents a district dubbed as “America’s Salad Bowl” for its agricultural production, said the state needs more science-based regulations to protect farmworkers during heat waves.
“We’re dealing with a workforce that is largely undocumented, that’s largely not very vocal and hesitant to complain or report any consistencies or compliance issues,” he said. “If our goal is to prevent illness, protect the health and wellness of this essential workforce – we’ve got to do a better job.”
Editor’s notes: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct number of heat-related fatalities and injuries as reported by Cal-OSHA.
This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Being in hell’: California’s indoor workers face dangers from increasing heat waves."
