by Jason Bellamy-Fults
As an IBEW apprentice, I was taught that the most important objective on any jobsite is that every worker comes home safe at the end of the workday.
Because those who prioritize profit and “efficiency” sometimes lose sight of that objective, we need a strong union, one that makes sure safety standards are being enforced and our collective bargaining agreement is being followed.
Not having a union, on the other hand, means we have less power in the workplace and our safety is too easily relegated to just one factor in a larger equation that privileges profit. We have to look out for ourselves, and anyone who “causes trouble” or “slows things down” can be easily dismissed.
Of course, currently in Florida, only about 6% of workers have union representation, lower than the national average. So who safeguards these workers’ safety? Well, if the anti-worker Florida Legislature continues to have its way, not much of anyone. Not only does our state not even have a Department of Labor anymore (thanks, Jeb!), but it has aggressively and repeatedly preempted the ability of its municipalities to keep workers safe and make sure that they are treated fairly.
From what I have observed, the process basically works like this: a City or County, recognizing the statewide lack of respect for working people, will pass an ordinance to remedy that, at least locally. This could be something like requiring a living wage instead of the state minimum on publicly-funded projects, or protecting workers from the dangers of heat stress or having their wages stolen, for instance.
Inevitably, an industry group such as the Chamber of Commerce or even a local oligarch will find offense with said measure. Rather than going through the democratic process of convincing voters that they’re right and that such an ordinance is unnecessary, however, they’ll simply find one of their legislative lackeys to sponsor a bill that preempts such efforts statewide.
The legislator need not even be in the area where the local ordinance was passed. Hell, they don’t even technically need to write the bill, lobbyists are more than happy to do this for them.
The standard rationale that’s given for such bills, when they bother to justify it, is creating a consistent business environment rather than a patchwork of local laws that are difficult for businesses to navigate. Which would be fine, I guess, if this “consistent business environment” didn’t consistently tend to look like a race to the bottom.
One case in point (of many), SB 1492/HB 433, passed in the 2024 Florida legislature. It was supported by four of the five members of the Alachua County legislative delegation (Reps. Brannan and Clemons, Senators Bradley and Perry), with Rep. Yvonne Hinson voting against it.
The most aggressively preemptive section of the bill was provided to Florida legislators directly by the Chamber of Commerce. Similar efforts had been filed repeatedly over the years and, as described by the FL AFL-CIO, sought “to wipe out wildly popular living wage ordinances and any other pro-worker ordinances currently on the books in communities around the state. The bill also preempted local governments from passing or enforcing any ordinances designed to prevent workers from suffering from heat stress related illnesses. This bill went down to the wire and only passed after supporters limited the preemptions to living wages and heat stress.”
It’s that last part, the “heat stress” bit, that I want to focus on for the remainder of this column. Anyone who has ever worked an outdoor job in Florida knows that it’s not to be taken lightly. I’ve been fortunate in not having to work without adequate sun protection, breaks, and hydration since I was a young man, but not everyone is. Too many people are treated as disposable.
Consider our farmworkers, consider Marco Antonio Hernández Guevara.
A 35 year-old Mexican farmworker (here legally on a H-2A visa, for anyone who cares), a husband and father, who suffered from heat stroke while harvesting for JAM Farmers in Clewiston this past summer. Marco left his home and his family to come here and do work that few Americans would be willing or able to, and he died in the process.
Please sit with that for just a moment.
I hope that you’ll join me in donating to Marco’s family. But perhaps just as importantly, I hope that you’ll join all of us at the AFL-CIO in working to prevent more tragic losses such as the one that Marco’s family suffered. In a warming climate, and a state particularly susceptible to it, the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who work outdoors must be protected from the dangers of heat-related injuries.
For anyone who still needs to hear it:
Every worker deserves the job safety standards that union representation and a collective bargaining agreement can bring.
No one should have to risk their life for a paycheck.
All Floridians deserve a political system that isn’t underwritten by the Chamber of Commerce and other political corruption machines. If the state isn’t going to protect its workers, they can at least get out of the way of communities who are trying to.
Until every worker comes home safe at the end of the workday.