by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Texas - as well as much of the southwestern United States - is undergoing a significantly hot summer with extreme temperatures reaching as far north as where I live in southern Missouri. The heat, a direct result of climate change, is vicious. Last year was the second hottest summer on record in Texas, and it looks as though this summer could be even worse.
A couple of fairly significant communities in Texas - the cities of Austin and Dallas - established ordinances earlier this year that would force construction companies operating within their city limits to provide workers with a ten-minute cooling or "water" break every four hours. But Texas businesses do not like being told how to behave, and they immediately approached their bought-and-paid-for Texas' legislators and requested a state law to override those community-based worker safety regulations. The Texas legislature complied and passed a bill which not only nullified the existing regulations out of Austin and Dallas, but also made it illegal for other communities to pass similar safety measures.
Governor Greg Abbott, who generally works in air-conditioned comfort, quickly signed the new legislation which eliminated required water breaks for workers.
Civil rights groups are arguing that the new law in Texas that eliminates the mandatory water breaks will have a significant impact on Black and Latino communities, groups that are already disproportionately affected by extreme heat. Current estimates are that six of every ten construction workers in Texas are Latino.
The Republican push for state-sanctioned cruelty rolls ever onward.
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