Florida Senate passes bill banning local heat protections for workers

silence7@slrpnk.net to politics @lemmy.world – 377 points –
Florida Senate passes bill banning local heat protections for workers
thehill.com
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Damn, Republicans are really committed to being a Captain Planet villain now.

It really seems like red state conservative legislators just sit around brainstorming about how to make people's lives more miserable, so that they can help the rich get richer.

It really seems like red state conservative legislators just sit around brainstorming about how to make people's lives more miserable,

FTFY, lol. Case in point: They're all coming up with various anti-trans laws. Those make people's lives more miserable, but I don't see how those make anyone get richer.

It gets ignorant people riled up about things that aren't issues so they emotionally vote in the people who give the rich tax breaks and other benefits that increase their wealth.

For example, there is no actual trans related bathroom issue that requires making bathroom laws. But getting people riled up about lies that make them afraid gets conservative votes.

It’s scapegoating. They may not care one way or another, but finding a marginalized group for everyone to get outraged over is a classic way to manipulate emotions, and Conservatives have a long history of hopping from one scapegoat to the next, trying to keep outrage high

You give them too much credit. They're just doing what their corporate masters tell them to do.

Dude you're misattributing blame here, the hateful stuff is coming from wealthy culture warriors, rich fuckers who want to force their values on us, they may sit on certain corporate boards, but it's these individuals that are driving this shit from top to bottom.

Here's a pretty good list of who the biggest donors are from both sides, from the 2021-2022 election cycle:

https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/biggest-donors

Pretty sure they were the villains even during the original, early 90s airing of Captain Planet.

Hoggish Greedly? Looten Plunder? Those are definitely Republican names and values.

Supporters of the bill say it will establish uniform regulations instead of having inconsistent rules across the state...

That doesn't sound too bad.

Florida employers would be required to follow general rules set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has not yet issued standards for dangerously high temperatures.

Oh...

We uniformly have no regulations and would prefer to keep that uniformity so it's easier for everyone to understand.

lol

OSHA sets the rules for high temperatures

Florida employers: This is an outrage!

We hate big government.

Ok, start making local governments responsible for their people's health/safety/wellbeing.

No, not like that!

Florida Senate should have AC privelages revoked and no more WFH

The state of Florida is an employer in Florida after all. They have to shut it down

I worked for the better part of a decade on a golf course in Florida doing manual labor. There were a few instances of guys getting heat stroke and having to go to the ER while I was employed there. That's WITH bosses who drove around during the hot months with ice water and Gatorade for us and made sure we were taking breaks. This makes me sick...

I've been in industrial environment in the Midwest for about 5 years. While I've been here 4 people have collapsed due to heat stroke.

That's with mandatory 5-10 minute breaks in a cool room every 30-60 minutes, Gatorade and ice water being given freely, even ice cream and popsicles.

Prolonged heat waves are no fucking joke. Heat protection isn't enough, when it's too hot to cool off with sweat and a fan, it's too fucking hot to work in the heat, full stop.

The fucking military stops working outside when the heat gets to be too much. These guys are asking more of the workers than we ask of soldiers.

Yup, medics will roll up with their wet bulb thermometer, (basically a thermometer with some wet cotton on the bulb, to be able to measure how well sweat will be able to cool you down,) and they have a chart for different working times at different temperatures. When it’s too hot, they pull their people out and let them rest.

BANNING?!?!?!?!

Florida, I've said it before, but I apparently have to say it again. You are voting against your own interests when you keep voting for the Republicans you've elected. You are ruining your own lives, and deserve what you get at this point until you make some changes.

Here's the thing. Right wing media will simply ignore this. Most republican voters won't be informed that their representatives are taking way their right to a safe work environment. I'm not sure if it would change anything if they were aware but they don't stand a chance when they're stuck in their echo chamber.

So what? One of "those" "people" I don't like will be hurt more!

-Floridiot Republicans, probably.

probably definitely

They have to abide by the federal standards. Oh okay.

There are no federal standards. What the goddamn fuck. Orphan crushing machine isn't supposed to be a literal label!

I didn't see it listed anywhere, does this differentiate if they are paid or unpaid. Mandatory paid water breaks sounds like a good thing. Mandatory unpaid water breaks a bad thing.

There aren't any water breaks in Florida. Paid or unpaid.

Jesus Christ I live in Georgia and I don't think even we are that evil

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Everything in FL comes down to how can be we as cruel or racist/hateful as possible in terms of policy.

Not to defend this action, but under the theory that politics selects for narcissistic sociopaths …. It may “simply” be consolidating their own personal power without caring what affects it has on others

100% Decisions should be based on data that will benefit humans best

Basically what all of our ancestors fought blood and died for in the second American Civil War they don't tell you about, they want to take those rights away. They want to enslave the American worker have no doubts about it. American Heroes who died in the streets of Pittsburgh, who died charging the trenches at Blair Mountain, who died fighting for our freedom all over this country are watching us today. That's the battle make no mistake about it.

Are there any good resources that give an overview of some of this stuff? I must confess my ignorance, but your words are stirring and I want to know more.

Robert Shogan's book The Battle of Blair Mountain is fantastic.

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Freedom to die

I'll never understand this. It makes no sense.

Profit over people, particularly if you think that the construction and farm workers who are outdoors have darker skin.

It’s more than that because after a certain point your workers dying from heat stroke isn’t profitable…

The pathetic truth is that it really isn’t about money, it’s simply about hate.

Hate for the poor, hate for immigrants, hate for a brown construction worker standing in the shade getting 5 mins of relief coming from another Karen driving by in her BMW on her way to an AC’d office (look, they aren’t even doing any work! she says exasperatedly to her luxury car dashboard).

It’s just about the hate at this point, money be damned.

It’s unprofitable to pay for workers visits to the hospital. Even if you have insurance, which goes up with repeated “accidents”, you’re paying in lost productivity.

can we stage an airlift rescue of people in Florida and get them to a state that doesn't suck as much? Say, a lone pack of skyscrapers in northern Montana or Idaho? We can re-settle them from there, like immigrants WITH citizenship.

"Supporters of the bill say it will establish uniform regulations instead of having inconsistent rules across the state, NBC News first reported."

I agree with this. There's shouldn't be a dozen different water break policies across a state. Especially when it effects a lot of people in lawn care and construction and road work that go all over the place for jobs. There should only be one good set of regulations for breaks and temp and humidity and what have you that blanket covers the state. There isn't any good reason that every city or county should each have their own. The state needs to make a good one.

Sure, but there aren't any other rules, so what you get is employers putting people in danger:

Florida employers would be required to follow general rules set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has not yet issued standards for dangerously high temperatures, NBC News noted.

Which is the whole point of this.

Or as the first manager of my last job said "I don't have to give you SHIT except 20 minutes for lunch, and ONLY if your ass is here for 8 hours or more"

If they can get away with giving you nothing, then nothing is what you will get.

Hence when I said the state should make a set of good ones. It shouldn't be a county to county and city to city issue.

Then, if you did vote to to make it one, what of all the cities that don't make a policy? Or make a shitty one?

One easy option would be: we have a minimum standard, and people can choose something stricter if local conditions warrant.

The state and the federal government don't have one. This is actually to prevent any protections from being put in place at all.