Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/19/desantis-bans-heat-protections-for-outdoor-workers.html
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As always with Republicans, the cruelty is the point. Especially with a sadist of the sort who considered Guantanamo torture sessions to be good entertainment.
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As I said last year, when Texas pulled the same stunt
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So sounds like time for Democrats to bring a bill to the US Congress to impose those heat protection guidelines on Florida. [And when or if DeSantis tries to sue to have them declared unconstitutional, point out that this bill explicitly recognizes that federal regulations apply.]
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Headline is misleading.
They didn’t “ban heat protections”.
They banned cities/counties/etc from mandating them. It is a subtle but important difference. Jobsites are still free to implement them on their own.
Of course, they probably won’t, especially if a good chunk of their workforce is undocumented, and thus unlikely to protest or quit.
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Remember in the turn of the last century you could get into a gun fight against hired goons of your employer and maybe the Sheriff (or they could be on your side) over hazardous working conditions and low pay? Some of them just went on strike, but for others it… escalated.
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Native WVian here. The Coal Wars, and the Battle of Blair Mountain, are part of our history. Amazing to me that the same folks who stood up to the mine bosses with their lives have groveled in front of Il Douche, who represents exactly the same strata. History is weird.
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No need to hire gun thugs when you’ve convinced half the workers to undermine the other half for the benefit of the owners. Efficiency!
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“If you work hard and aren’t lazy, maybe you too could own a coal mine!”
IMO, the Republicans latched on to America’s bigotry and racism (the Southern Strategy), paid lip service to Evangelicals, and then slowly started to counter anything and everything Democrats were “for” regardless of if it hurts themselves or not.
Today the Democrat party LITERALLY hates and wants to destroy America, and anything they are for is therefore evil. That includes having enough water so you don’t die on a job site. 
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This sounds more sinister than just banning local governments from requiring heat related protections for workers. It sounds like a state governor wresting control from local cities and counties in a trojan horse power grab. Read the part about minimum wage - forbidding anyone but the state of florida from imposing minimum wage requirements. This is the great irony of these MAGA republicans - they prefer ultimate control and big, totalitarian government over freedom. I’m guessing this is an “own those liberal cities in florida” gesture. Man, does Florida ever suck.
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Yeah, that’s more accurate. It’s not about freedom, whatever they say. It is about control in all aspects.
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Texas did it too. It needs everywhere, not just singling out Florida.
Given climate change, they shouldn’t even mention any particular state or latitude, just define it by temperature.
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“Nobody wants to work in 90-degree weather without heat protection anymore!”
-Some governor, probably.
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This is the state government in collusion with corporations to stop local governments from actively protecting their citizens. 
I guess that’s maybe what you’re getting at, but this is still something to be rather pissed off about, as at the heart of it, it’s about abusing workers.
Yes, this has been happening in red states for years, especially as blue cities are seeking to protect their citizens.
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I suspect they’re using it as a secondary threat to immigrants who are usually the recipients of these jobs. Although it’ll just roll up to impact contractors and farmers, so the spite circle could alienate their base.
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Agreed, that’s a meaningful difference stripping decision-making power away from the city/county, especially combined with the minimum wage provisions.
As always, they seem to be much more concerned with the possibility that cities & counties (seems to be specifically targeted at Miami-Dade) raising the floor on these types of issues might work rather than putting forth any actual problems caused by Miami-Dade providing some extra protections for workers.
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Every so often I’m mildly surprised to be reminded that the Pinkerton Agency is still a thing. The little history featurette on their website kind of skipped straight from “we foiled an assassination plot against Lincoln once!” to “we are a global family of professionals!” without managing to touch on how they spent a couple generations as a brutal private army fighting organized labor.
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Yeah, some how a trust fund baby “billionaire” habitually stiffing contractors is for working class people. “He’s one of us,” somehow that make sense. The only thing in common between them and orange is their racism. I’m sick of those turkey and their voting for Christmas.
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I think that Ron needs to stage a photo opportunity with some local roofers to demonstrate how awesome it is to not have water on the job. Preferably on a tall building.
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