Miami-Dade’s push to protect outdoor workers dies after state ban. What’s next?
Outdoor workers in Miami-Dade looking for water, breaks and shade from the sweltering South Florida sun went to their politicians for help. But after powerful pushback from agriculture and construction lobbyists, the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday put an end to a landmark bill that would’ve protected 80,000 outdoor workers.
The commissioners withdrew the bill because they couldn’t legally pass it after the Florida Legislature passed a bill banning local governments from setting their own heat rules.
Commissioner Marleine Bastien, co-sponsor of the bill, said she still hopes there’s a possibility of bringing the bill back in some form.
“My heart is heavy, but I am not giving up on ways to protect outdoor workers,” Bastien said to the Miami Herald.
The years-long effort from WeCount, a workeradvocacy group, to pass heat-protection legislation came to a head this summer — the hottest year on record. For 46 days, Miami’s heat index topped 100 degrees every afternoon. It’s a problem that climate change is making worse.
Esteban Wood, the policy director of WeCount, said the fight doesn’t end here.
“WeCount is going to regroup; the issue is not going away. Extreme heat is getting worse as summer approaches, and the county has a responsibility to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat,” Wood said.
‘OVERREACHING AND OUTRAGEOUS’
But even before the Florida Legislature banned counties from setting their own heat rules, the majority of commissioners didn’t support the bill. In November, their main objection was “unnecessary regulation” that singled out the agriculture and construction industries.
“This is an overreaching and outrageous heat sanction on only two industries,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said at the November commission meeting. “This ordinance could potentially kill industry.”
Critics of the bill say the rules are redundant. They argue that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) already issues fines for unsafe working conditions, including for violations related to heat. But while OSHA is working on a heat-protection standard for outdoor workers nationwide, it could be years before the draft rule is introduced.
Despite research showing the toll that extreme heat takes on outdoor workers and anecdotal stories from MiamiDade’s farmworkers, the proposed policy was unpopular with employers, who voiced their concerns to the commissioners. Miami-Dade’s failed bill was watered down from its original intention of ensuring water and mandated breaks for half the year to only be effective for five days a year on average, with no fines, after a concerted lobbying effort from Florida’s politically influential agriculture and real estate industries.
Wood said WeCount is committed to finding “bold solutions,” including exploring protections outside of the legislative process.
This month, WeCount went to Palm Beach for a farmworker festival rallying support for the Fair Food Program — a legal contract between outdoor workers and fast-food restaurants and grocers to buy from farms that follow a strict code of conduct.
In 2021, the Fair Food Program’s code of conduct was revised to include protections from rising temperatures.
As part of the Fair Food Program, growers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours and all workers have to stop what they are doing. Workers also are required to get electrolyte drinks during those hotter months. That’s largely what workers were initially seeking in the Miami-Dade ordinance that failed.
“We are disappointed by the result, but this does not stop in any way our momentum to protect our outdoor workers,” Wood said.
Ashley Miznazi is a climate-change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.