2y ago

Why Don’t We Have Serious Regulations on Making People Work in the Heat?

www.currentaffairs.org /2023/07/why-dont-we-have-serious-regulations-on-making-people-work-in-the-heat

No more excuses for heat deaths. As global warming worsens, it’s time to guarantee workers’ basic human rights.

12 comments

America still has child labor, all child labor laws exclude agricultural work. Slavery never ended, it's just prisoners and illegal migrants now.
- Don't forget people in debt.
  
  We just call those people in America.
Texas has recently removed all regulations regarding water breaks for employees. This is a clear example of how the pro-life party only cares about the unborn because they want power over others.
The pro-life party claims to be concerned about the well-being of unborn children, but they are willing to let pregnant workers suffer in the heat without access to water. This is a clear example of how the pro-life party's priorities are not actually about protecting life, but about controlling women's bodies.
Because capitalism.
- That and all safety regulations are written in blood.
  
  People are already dying and states like Texas are walking back regulations. They do not care.
  
  They are.
- My country (NZ) is pretty bloody capitalist (just look at the state of our waterways lol) but according to WorkSafe, companies are required to take measures to protect workers including scheduling work for cooler parts of the day/year.
  We haven't had a proper deadly heat wave yet though so it's hard to say for sure how effective our regulations will be. We're generally terribly prepared for the heat waves that are likely going to kill a fuckload of old people and farm slaves out central and up north in the coming decades.
  
  I agree that there exists degrees of egregiousness in the implementation of capitalism, that is true. But the core problem with that ideology stays the same: it puts profits before people, in the end, invariably. And if it ever is to take measure to protect people, those have to be fought for continuously and will suffer relentless aggression from a system that simply is simply not intent in abiding any impedance to its cashflow.
We do, at least in EU.

12 comments