Workers push for heat standards in State House demonstration – New Jersey Globe

Daniela Rivero splashed water on her face in a warehouse bathroom on a hot summer day, eager to cool down.

She’s worked in warehouses for 20 years, she said through an interpreter, but the summer heat is only worsening. For Rivero, the relief was needed — unchecked heat made her dizzy, and she had even fainted at work before.

“My boss then said, ‘Why are you going to the bathroom so much? I’m going to buy you Pampers. Do you have a problem?”

Rivero was one of at least a dozen workers who lined the hallways of the State House on Monday, pushing for a bill that would protect workers from heat-related illnesses while on the job. The bill, which now sits before the Senate and Assembly’s respective appropriations committees, would mandate employers to implement a plan to prevent heat-related injuries on hot days. The bill requires employers to provide cool drinking water, give paid breaks in shade or air conditioning, and monitor workers for signs of heat illness.

The bill passed through the Legislature’s labor committees in May, but legislators hit pause before their summer break. Critics of the bill, especially business groups, say the legislation is impractical and places a burden on employers.

But Monday’s State House demonstration — organized by advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey and joined by Teamsters, IUPAT, and Warehouse Life — put heat back into the discussion as summer drips away and the Legislature roars back.

Keisha Drake, a member of Warehouse Life who worked in an Amazon warehouse for nearly seven years, said she thinks the bill will eventually be passed.

The bill will largely support workers in industrial and agricultural settings, like farm workers, warehouse and shipping workers, and other outdoor employees. And, with summer 2024 the hottest on record, Drake said the bill is needed now to prevent heat stress, which has killed killed at least 815 workers from 1992 to 2017.

“The fact that you work for a billion-dollar company and they actually do not protect their workers from extreme heat like that, it doesn’t make any sense,” Drake said.

California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington offer some type of heat standard for workers, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. With the passage of this bill, New Jersey would join them.

“People have to cool down,” Drake said. “People are not robots.”