Editorial: The cruelty of exposing outdoor workers to extreme heat

It won’t be easy to find another Florida governor who inflicted so much cruelty on its people as quickly as Ron DeSantis did with a single signature.

One of the worst single actions by the 2024 Legislature, House Bill 433, prohibits all local governments from taking any steps to protect outdoor workers from heat or from requiring their contractors to pay employees more than the Florida minimum wage of $12 an hour.

People are already dying from extreme heat in Florida at a time when every year and virtually every month sets new records. Farmworkers have been the most conspicuous victims, but roofers, delivery drivers and indeed everyone who works outside are the losers, because no state or federal standards exist to sufficiently protect them, and now there will be no local laws either.

Miami-Dade had been considering a countywide heat protection ordinance after the deaths of farm workers at Homestead and Parkland, which spooked Florida’s ruling class to kill that idea in its cradle.

A needless death in Broward

In Parkland, a 28-year-old Mexican immigrant who took a job picking vegetables died on New Year’s Day 2023. A farm labor contractor from Okeechobee was cited for exposing workers to a heat index of above 90 degrees without water, shade or periodic rest periods.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said the contractor faced a maximum of $15,625 in penalties under federal law. That’s how much the United States decided that young laborer’s life was worth.

“The first day of 2023 was this young worker’s last because this employer failed to take simple steps to protect him from heat exposure, a known and dangerous hazard,” OSHA said.

For the Legislature and DeSantis to strip away basic heat protections in the face of vehement public opposition — more than 90 organizations pleaded for HB 433 to be vetoed — demonstrates yet again how Florida has become less of a democracy and more of an oligarchy.

A pay-to-play culture

The state maintains the democratic façade of elections, but entrenched special interests and their campaign money largely determine who’s able to run for public office and what they are allowed to do with it.

This broken system can be fixed, but it will likely require Floridians to vote for change in overwhelming numbers.

Florida journalist Jason Garcia, whose blog Seeking Rents closely follows the money in Tallahassee, calculated that from Sept. 1 to Jan. 9, when the session began, Florida’s two most powerful business lobbies, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida, contributed $2 million to legislators, nearly all of it to Republicans, and $1 million more to the Republican Party committees that bankroll legislative campaigns. That’s when HB 433 was brewing.

The bill’s first draft called on the Florida Department of Commerce to recommend heat safety rules for the Legislature’s approval if OSHA doesn’t adopt any by July 1, 2028. That didn’t make the final cut.

Chamber lobbyists advised legislators on the language of HB 433, and in a self-congratulatory post-session message, the Chamber crowed that it “led the fight for the preemption of inconsistent and dangerous workplace safety standards.”

The Chamber’s long-time CEO, Mark Wilson, whose own dinner-table vegetables could have been picked by a laborer exposed to hellish conditions, called Florida “the national model for economic growth, quality of life and competitiveness.”

Quality of life? For whom?

A perversion of preemption

Preemption bills like HB 433, which strip cities’ and counties’ powers of self-governance and reserve exclusively to the Legislature the authority to regulate Florida’s privileged industries, have just about swallowed the home rule provisions of Florida’s 1968 Constitution, approved by voters.

The point of home rule, as an enlightened 1968 Legislature recognized, is that the best government is the one closest to the people.

During his first year in office, Florida’s governor sensibly vetoed a bill that would have prohibited local governments from banning plastic straws. But that Ron DeSantis disappeared long ago and has allowed the Legislature to monopolize control over vacation rentals, cruise ship berths, home-based businesses, how city ordinances are passed and even natural gas stoves, amid many other preemptions.

The workplace bill goes beyond simply forbidding heat-protection ordinances. It prevents local governments from asking how they protect their workers from heat or giving preference for that. It also forbids any local scheduling law, such as one that might guarantee domestic workers time off for their children’s graduations or doctors’ visits.

As Florida’s Legislature was intentionally leaving workers exposed to lethal heat, the city council in Phoenix, Ariz., the nation’s hottest city, voted unanimously for a protection ordinance much like what Miami-Dade might have adopted.

A since-discarded Florida tourism slogan claimed “the rules are different here.” How true. How sad. How dangerous.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.