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Texans Die from Heat Exhaustion After Governor Bans Water Breaks (www.texasobserver.org)
submitted 3 years ago by [B] to c/politics@lemmy.world
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House Bill 2127 pre-empts municipalities from enacting legislation in eight areas—with predictable results.

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[–] 6 points 3 years ago (12 children)

The article mentions 11 people, only 4 of which died on the job. The rest were either outside, at home, or were imates in prison. Notice the wording used in the headline too, "11 Texans die after", not "11 Texans die FROM".

Since then, 11 people between the ages of 60 and 80 have died of heat-related illness in Webb County, the Associated Press reported. Most did not have air-conditioning in their homes. A teen and stepfather died while hiking in extreme heat at Big Bend National Park, per a National Park Service release. According to the Texas Tribune, at least nine inmates, including two men in their 30s, died in Texas prisons that lack air conditioning. And at least four workers have died after collapsing while laboring in triple-digit heat: a post office worker in Dallas, a utility lineman in East Texas, and construction workers in Houston and San Antonio.

It's just pure disingenuous behavior. There's plenty of legitimate reasons to hate Abbot, this comes off as manipulation.

And people wonder why there's so much distrust in media.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    Okay, but 9 inmates dying because they don't have air conditioning is still on the state to fix. And the four workers shouldn't have to die because of their jobs.

    It's not like Texas is at the forefront of worker's rights. They could have easily prevented those deaths, but they choose not to.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    It's just 9 human beings and 4 other human beings dying in the heat, what's to worry about?

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    They died from the laws that are still in effect until Abbot's bill takes over in September. Why see you blaming that bill when it has nothing to do with these deaths?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    I didn't blame the bill, I only pointed out how callous you were being by saying that these deaths are nothing to worry about. This bill is not the cause of those deaths, however the bill (in my opinion) won't do anything other than cause more suffering. When someone makes a complaint instead of it going to a local authority who would have the resources and bodies to investigate the company, that conversation will become "oh sorry nothing we can do, talk to OSHA and then wait for 3 months for a response where they tell you they may look into it!" What benefit comes out of restricting local jurisdiction's ability to pass laws requiring extra water breaks? What gets my goat is that the only benefit I could reasonably see is increased corporate profits at the cost of human well-being.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    It's not disingenuous when his actions to ban water breaks are done at a time of record heat. It is virtue signalling. Too bad they only have virtues which are not based upon well founded morals or ethics. That is worth lambasting even if it doesn't have a 100% causal link.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    "only 4"

    Each one of those four is a human being. With a family, a life, a personality, hopes and dreams. And that humanity was taken away from four human beings and their families, why? For some fucking political points to underscore how "anti-worker" the conservative party is (with the racist dog whistle rhetoric being that they are also anti-immigration).

    Whether it's one person, four people, twenty people, or someone who "just" suffered heat stroke, it doesn't change how utterly cruel this is. It doesn't change the fact that it's a violation of human rights, whether there's federal laws on the same subject or not. It doesn't change that conservatives are adding insult to injury with these fatal policies.

    And yes, maybe there's state and federal laws that will override the lack of municipal laws. But what happens in real life is that some foreman somewhere denies workers water. The workers can't say or do anything maybe because they're not here legally. Maybe because they don't want to lose their jobs. Or maybe they just don't know their rights. Then, they die or are injured from the heat. Only then can they or their families pursue damages in court, which could be expensive and will probably take years.

    That's the problem. The only recourse for workers or their families will come after the death/injury.

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