More than 69 million U.S. workers are at risk from extreme heat as summer begins, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), a network of worker safety organizations that launched its heat campaign last year.

Brittney Jenkins, a COSH coordinator, has been helping workers prepare their testimony.

“Protecting workers is not optional. It is a moral responsibility. If we are good enough to build the houses, clean the buildings, wash the cars, and pick the food, then we are good enough to be protected while we do it,” said Tony Pineda, Advisor for the Josefina Ahumada Worker Center and We Rise! Worker Leader with the National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH). “We are not asking for anything extravagant. We are asking for water, shade, rest, and respect. We are asking for training and real protections, so we do not have to risk our lives every time we go to work,” he added.

Jazmin Moreno Dominguez, a community organizer and representative of the Arizona Heat Coalition, advocates for worker heat protections in the state. But she didn’t speak at the rally as an organizer. She spoke as a daughter who has feared the summer months for as long as she can remember.

The groups call themselves the Arizona Heat Standards Coalition. In a letter to Gov. Katie Hobbs this week, they said they want the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health to adopt heat safety rules for all workers in the state, including requirements for water, shade and rest breaks.

“Workers are not disposable,” said Brittney Jenkins, National COSH’s Worker and Network Organizer for the Southern Region. “We expect construction workers, farmworkers, and delivery drivers to labor under deadly conditions—without even the most basic safeguards. That is unacceptable.”

Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, emphasizes the severity of the situation: “Every year, we tragically lose around 2,000 workers to preventable fatalities and witness over 170,000 injuries and illnesses linked to extreme heat. These staggering figures, while alarming, are likely just the tip of the iceberg.”

There are also long-term health concerns associated with heat and environmental stressors, such as chronic kidney disease and worsening of conditions like asthma and diabetes, Jessica Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker-led advocacy group, said in an email.

In the last episode of the season, host Shaka Tafari speaks with three women who work at the intersection of labor and immigration. They discuss the most pressing threats to immigrant workers, as well as the ways immigrants can resist these threats and support one another.

Our guests include: Mary from Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas, y Acciones (MISMA); Saba Waheed, director of the UCLA Labor Center, and Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).

In fact, the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health named Uber and Lyft among the most unsafe employers last year, alongside certain meatpacking, industrial farm and lumber mill companies.

In a statement, Katelyn Parady, with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said her organization hoped to see the state outline rules for paid breaks and access to water, but also hoped the guidelines would include clear enforcement measures.

Two of Musk’s companies made it to the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health’s (COSH) “Dirty Dozen,” a list of the worst workplace safety offenders.

Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the statistics of workplace injuries and fatalities, the annual release of the 2025 Dirty Dozen report highlighting negligent employers and the greater challenges faced by immigrant workers in hazardous industries.

Jessica Martinez, executive director of National COSH, said, “This is a tragedy. The gutting of NIOSH is a direct assault on workers’ safety, health, and lives. Leading to more death, more injury and less accountability.”

Labor Organizer of the Year Katherine Passley [of COSH Affiliate Beyond the Bars] is bridging the gap between—and combining the strengths of—labor and criminal justice reform movements.
 

Katelyn Parady with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said there’s no reason Arizona shouldn’t be leading the nation on heat protections.

Similarly, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) Executive Director Jessica Martinez added in another statement that “changes to its [NIOSH] structure must not compromise its mission or the well-being of workers.”
 

"People have a moral right to water, to shade to rest, to be able to go to work alive and be able to return home to their loved ones..." said Oscar Londoño, Director of COSH Affiliate WeCount

“Mar Jac continues to face significant health and safety and abuse issues, even as recent as 2024 and into 2025. The company has been cited multiple times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious violations, including incidents involving underage workers and fatal workplace accidents,” said Jessica Martinez, Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

“Working for The GEO Group while detained at the Golden State Annex was nothing short of forced labor,” one former detainee stated in the National COSH release. “We had no safety training, no protective gear—only punishment if we refused.” The anonymous former worker described being stripped of rights and said collective organizing became essential to defending basic dignity. “No one should be exploited for profit behind bars,” the individual added.
 

“We are holding these crosses with much sadness in our hearts because they have the names of human beings who could have been us,” said Alejandro, a member of the worker rights organization WeCount! who declined to provide his last name. “These were hard-working people who went to work one day, just to provide for their families, and never came back home.”

Marchers also singled out one local nursery included this week on a “Dirty Dozen” annual report produced by a worker advocacy group called the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.