Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all heat safety experts at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ahead of a June 15 public hearing on a proposed federal rule to protect 35 million workers from extreme heat. This is part of a larger “restructuring” which laid off 85% of NIOSH’s staff, nearly 900 employees.
The draft rule proposed last summer by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would require employers under OSHA jurisdiction to:
- Monitor workplace temperatures
- Provide water and shaded or air-conditioned breaks to workers when temperatures exceed 80 or 90 degrees
- Offer acclimatization programs allowing workers to slowly adjust to greater workloads in hotter temperatures
- Implement extra protections for temporary, seasonal, and immigrant workers in high-risk industries like construction and agriculture
The U.S. government invites big business representatives to rule hearings to testify against worker safety standards. OSHA is required to jump through extraordinary hoops to justify new protections. The testimony of the now-fired NIOSH workers would have helped defend the draft rule.
These layoffs are part of the larger billionaires’ agenda of deregulation to put profits over people. The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget for the Department of Labor would totally dissolve NIOSH and cut OSHA’s budget by $50 million, with enforcement programs taking the majority of the cuts.
Extreme heat kills tens of thousands of U.S. workers — and it’s getting worse
Extreme heat kills more people in the U.S. than any other natural disaster. More than 21,418 people have died from heat since 1999. These numbers are almost certainly underestimated, since heat-related deaths are difficult to track, and companies under report incidents.
There are no federal protections from heat-related death or injury on the job. Working in extreme heat can lead to heat exhaustion, kidney damage, and deadly strokes that can cause organ failure in minutes.
Workers in agriculture and construction are the most likely to be killed or injured by high temperatures. Extreme heat also impacts workers in many other industries, including oil and gas, landscaping, logistics, and food service.
Low-income workers, including Black, Latino, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander workers bear the brunt of heat-related injuries. Since 2010, Latinos in particular made up one-third of all worker heat deaths.
Climate change is causing temperatures to rise, killing more workers each year. In 2023, at least 2,325 people were killed by heat, 4.7 times more than in 2000.
Last year, the U.S. had 24 extra days of extreme heat due to climate change. The summer of 2024 was the hottest in recorded human history, and this summer will almost definitely break records as well.
Politicians fighting heat protections to serve corporate masters
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer hasn’t commented on the draft heat rule, but she has parroted the language of the fossil fuel industry, saying the Department of Labor will help “secure American Energy Dominance” to “lower costs for businesses.” This mirrors the White House’s call to “unleash American energy” — a euphemism for deregulating the industry and encouraging the production of more polluting fossil fuels.
The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas industry group, asked the Department of Labor last December to block the implementation of the heat safety standards so the multibillion dollar fossil fuel industry can “fully realize its potential under an era of energy dominance.” The fossil fuel industry has the third-highest rate of heat-related hospitalizations and is one of the top five industries for heat-related deaths.
Workers’ safety has also been attacked by right-wing state governments. During the summer of 2023 — then the hottest summer on record — Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the “Death Star” bill which banned local ordinances that required water breaks for workers. Oil and gas, construction, and agriculture are among the biggest industries in Texas.
In April 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a similar bill. Two million Floridians, including many agricultural workers, work outdoors in humidity and temperatures over 100 degrees.
NIOSH and OSHA products of working-class struggle
NIOSH and OSHA were established by the 1971 Occupational Safety and Health Act under the Nixon administration. OSHA was tasked with regulating businesses to enforce safe working conditions, while NIOSH was charged with setting safety standards through scientific research.
NIOSH and OSHA did not result from any pro-worker sentiment held by the deeply anti-worker Nixon regime, but rather from intense workers’ struggles. The trade union and mass environmental movements fought for decades for reforms to protect workers’ health and safety.
Before 1971, there were very few federal workplace health and safety protections. Death, injury, and disablement on the job were even more common than they are today. Employers, seeking to maximize profit above all else, found it cheaper to replace dead and injured workers than to implement safety measures.
The rapid expansion of heavy industry during World War II and the widespread use of powerful chemicals in production caused workplace accidents to skyrocket in the postwar period. In 1970 alone, 14,000 workers were killed and 2.5 million workers were injured in the U.S.
Unions like the United Auto Workers fought for federal safety protections. Black automobile workers in Detroit, including members of the radical League of Revolutionary Black Workers, protested air pollution and demanded union representation in matters of environmental justice. Tony Mazzocchi, a prominent leader in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, organized high-profile public meetings where workers testified about the hazardous chemicals they handled. These grassroots interventions forced the U.S. ruling class to address workplace safety.
Workers need power to survive
OSHA and NIOSH are imperfect mechanisms. U.S. law puts severe limits on OSHA’s ability to rein in big business and protect workers. OSHA’s rules are required to be “cost-effective” and “practical” for employers — meaning they can’t overly restrict capitalists’ ability to exploit their workers for profit.
Anti-worker Labor Secretaries (such as Eugene Scalia under the first Trump administration) have repeatedly weakened OSHA’s regulatory powers and manipulated the agency to ignore pressure from organized labor. Many presidential administrations, Democratic and Republican, have kneecapped OSHA through underfunding.
Despite these flaws, these institutions must be defended and, in fact, radically expanded. The entire billionaire class is carrying out an all-out offensive against pro-worker reforms and democratic rights, while the Trump administration is working to transfer trillions of dollars to the billionaire class and is toying with the idea of starting a reckless war with Iran.
The U.S. political system cannot handle these compounding crises. Only a mass movement of workers can stop these attacks and create a system that puts people over profits.
Feature image: Construction workers at a work site. Credit: Skibka/Pixabay
