Florida passes law that prevents local heat protections for workers

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Dave Jamieson

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Dave Jamieson, Labor Journalist with the HuffPost, joined America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss Florida’s recent law preventing local governments from passing heat ordinances for worker safety.

While some cities and states continue to work to protect workers from hazardous workplaces, Florida is rolling back protections for working in the heat. Jamieson shared the background on a proposed ordinance to offer heat protections for workers and how that led Florida legislators to pass a preemption law that prevents local governments from creating workplace laws without the state first passing one. In early 2024, the law was passed along party lines, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it.

Jamieson talked about the history of deaths due to heat in the state of Florida, including a high-profile story about a farm worker dying in the fields in 2023 due to the extreme heat. He outlined what the initially proposed ordinance in Miami would have done for workers. The restrictions now placed on any city or county in the state are egregious, according to Jamieson. Businesses in the state can set their own workplace protections, but the new bill prevents local governments from requiring any heat protections.

Jamieson said that not just Florida is passing or proposing legislation similar to this Preemption Bill. He said these types of bills are a simple way for state legislatures to appease their supporters. The safety of workers shouldn’t be as big of an issue as this, many of these provisions to protect workers seem like common sense, Jamieson said.

To hear more from Jamieson, please listen to the show above.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Florida passes law that prevents local heat protections for workers

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