“We have long advocated for an OSHA heat standard,” Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said in response to the proposed national rules. “We are motivated and encouraged by the latest news from OSHA, as it signifies a vital advancement in worker safety. ... As climate change raises global temperatures, comprehensive heat protection standards are increasingly urgent."

WeCount, a Homestead-based nonprofit that represents the interests of farm workers, said that the practices the company outlined were a positive step but did not go far enough. The biggest problems are that are no formal regulations and no outside agency monitors whether Costa or other growers fulfill pledges of protection, said Oscar Londoño, the executive director of WeCount.

Unions and worker advocates are increasingly pressing for heat protections. Gerstein pointed out that the Teamsters recently secured air-conditioning in trucks and other heat protections in their latest collective bargaining agreement. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health is training workers to advocate for their rights. Employers are encouraged to proactively implement heat safety measures, and government agencies are urged to educate the public and model good practices. Municipalities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Miami-Dade County have appointed chief heat officers to help address these issues.

“It gives workers an opportunity to speak truth to power about the conditions of a worksite,” said Jessica Martinez, co-executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. “Having a trusted rep selected by the workers themselves makes a huge difference  when a government inspector is on sight.”

From 2014 through 2023, XL Concrete, the parent company of Black Iron, had 29 safety violations in Nevada, according to the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health. Faced with labor violations and dangerous working conditions, Black Iron workers say their only option is to fight for changes at the company through unionization.

Jessica E. Martinez, MPH, is co-executive director of National COSH. “This is an exciting and challenging time for US workers,” she said in a statement. “It’s exciting to see a renewed interest in joining labor unions, participating in workers’ centers and connecting with advocacy campaigns. The challenge facing workers who are fighting for something better is that conditions in US workplaces are getting worse.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health released a list of its “Dirty Dozen” employers of 2024, examples of employers that National COSH asserts put workers and communities at risk due to unsafe practices, which reportedly lead to preventable illnesses, injuries and fatalities.

COSH Network Affiliates Carlos Gutierrez from Mid-State COSH and Jessica Maxwell from Workers' Center of Central New York contributed to this article.

Costa Farms was included on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s Dirty Dozen report of unsafe employers in 2024.

Two companies doing business in Las Vegas, the Boring Company and Black Iron, are among the “Dirty Dozen” identified by the National Council of Occupational Safety and Health as workplace safety offenders. National COSH is an organization dedicated to worker safety.

Ana Mejia, a farm worker, worked for 11 years at Costa Farms in south Florida where she said she experienced two serious heat stress incidents on the job. Costa Farms was included on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s Dirty Dozen report of unsafe employers in 2024. Costa Farms declined to comment.

Walmart made the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH)’s “Dirty Dozen” list this year. It highlights 12 employers that National COSH believes to be endangering employees; Walmart is the only retailer on the list.

The National Council of Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) doesn’t dig the Boring Company. It’s named Elon Musk’s tunneling business to its annual list of “Dirty Dozen” workplace safety offenders.

“The latest data show an increase in workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses,” said Jessica E. Martinez, MPH, co-executive director of National COSH. “An increasing number of children are being assigned to dangerous jobs, and the reality of climate change is bringing the risk of extreme heat to both indoor and outdoor workplaces.”

National COSH selected SpaceX and The Boring Co., both owned by Musk, for one slot, citing workers who suffered crushed limbs, amputations, chemical burns and a preventable death. In addition, Black Iron Reinforcing, owned by XL Concrete, earned a spot for a worker death from electrocution, a partial finger amputation, 29 OSHA violations in a decade and allegedly denying election results after workers voted to join a union.

Language barriers and employee intimidation during inspections are two factors that will be affected by the change, said Jessica Martinez, Los Angeles-based co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which supports the change.

National COSH announced its annual Dirty Dozen report during Workers' Memorial Week, which ended Saturday. A Zoom presentation Thursday featured workplace safety experts and Dirty Dozen employees who were harmed at their workplaces.

The Co-Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, appeared on the America’s Work Force Union podcast and spoke about the annual release of the “Dirty Dozen” list of companies and the power of unions to make employees and workplaces safer.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) announced the "Dirty Dozen" employers of 2024 during a briefing on Thursday, April 25, 2024.

This list includes employers cited for risking the safety of workers and communities through practices resulting in preventable illnesses, injuries and fatalities.

Ana Maria of Costa Farms knows all about that. “Costa, with their lawyers, led the campaign” for that ban.

“I have suffered from extreme heat at work,” in rural areas of Miami-Dade County. “Once they took me to a nurse at work but the nurse wasn’t there,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter at NACOSH’s Zoom press conference. “In South Florida” over the last several years “34 workers have died and there were 11,700 visits to the emergency room.” More than half were in Miami-Dade,