(1) The bill doesn’t take effect until September 1st, so these deaths are not a result of it.
(2) While OSHA has very good guidelines on what employers SHOULD do for worker hydration, they do not require it. I other words, OSHA does not say the employers MUST do it.
You have to dig into the article to discover that the deaths are completely unrelated to HB 2127. It doesn't go into effect until September 1st. I'm anti-Abbott and this bill but the author or editor is not being honest here.
The title is definitely implying a more direct connection than exists in reality, and the article doesn't go into detail on when the bill is meant to go into effect. The author could be using it as an example of how much worse things could get once the bill goes into effect, especially with the references to the effects of past ordinances mandating water breaks.
But I agree, there's definitely some intellectual dishonesty going on.
I know this will undoubtedly get me some downvotes... but at this point I really truly don't care about honesty anymore with this guy. He deserves the same type of blatant lies his administration constantly peddles yet still allows him to be re-elected. I mean... this man got re-elected AFTER his policies literally lead to the deaths of many innocent people - including one little boy who died in his bed overnight while his family desperately tried to keep their mobile home warm - when the power outages occurred due to the "TX freedom grid" not being required to have the sort of equipment standards everywhere else in the US have.
Say Abbott fucking eats babies. I don't care if he hasn't actually poked a child's corpse with a fork and chewed their bones. He might as well have at this point considering how many have or will die as a direct result of his policies. At this point, whatever it takes to get him removed from office is justified. This "we go high when they go low" angle is and always has been unfair, and I don't care about how it hurts anyone's feelings or sense of personal ethics. I care about WINNING. That means getting a better person in office as soon as possible. Right now, I'll take anything I can get.
The spirit of what the article says is correct, and I know it's not technically the truth, but we all know people will die from this when it DOES become law. It WILL be true in the coming years as the policy goes into effect. This article is like pointing out how maternal death rates have been rising as a result of RvW being overturned... before red-state anti-abortion laws had fully gone into effect.
It is exaggeratory in the present, but it is a fucking FORECAST for what will occur in the future.
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.
Only 4 of them were even workers out in extreme heat, and none of the deaths are confirmed to be from that.
Do you have actual evidence or is it just something in your head? I despise abusive employers and don't trust any corporation but the breaks are still mandated until September 1st.
This is absolutely asinine. Water is a basic necessity for human survival. What you will end up with is staff too ill to work… At the minimum. Whoever nodded and went “yep, this is a good idea” needs to actually see what it’s like to go work a shift in 40c+ heat and no hydration. Pure, concentrated stupidity. Their blood is on the governors hands but I sincerely doubt they give a shit.
I don’t think I’d be able to do my boring office job without regular water access. It’s purely madness to expect someone to do a physical job without as much water as one needs.
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