Robert Jarvis wants answers. “Why’d you make us work that day?” he asks. “Why?”
With five workers dead and one still missing since Hurricane Helene struck on Sept. 27, many of us in Tennessee and around the country also want to know what went wrong that day – and if we can prevent it from happening again.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) strongly supports OSHA’s proposed rule to address heat-related hazards for both indoor and outdoor workers. The rule, which was announced today, is a critical step in protecting millions of workers from heat-related illnesses and injuries.
As we progress towards an ordinance here in Southern Arizona, let’s be bold in our determination to effectively confront the ever-more-deadly challenge that heat presents in our workplaces. We have the resources in our community to make this program the model for the rest of the state. Let’s honor the memory of Dario Mendoza – and others who, like him, shouldn’t have died on the job – by passing the robust heat exposure ordinance our workers need and deserve.
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.”
