Texas: no water break for you
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Texas governor signs bill rescinding water breaks as deadly heat grips state
Measure will nullify local ordinances that provide workers protection from devastating, triple-digit temperatures
What local workers protection ordinances are being eliminated? The article cites one that says construction workers working under high heat are to get a 10 minute water break for every four hours worked.
Making labor rules consistent across the entire state can be a worthy goal, this one just goes about it in a seemingly cruel, one-sided manner -- it prohibits local governments from instituting worker protection measures without providing a corresponding state level worker protection measure.
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10 minutes every 4 hours is pissing in the ocean. It's a self-regulating problem. Push the guys too hard and they'll quit or they'll find time for mini-breaks on their own. Last ditch is where the worker gets a heat stroke and the company gets sued, or at the very least is stuck with a decent medical bill.
As a young lad, I rode a jackhammer in 100+ heat. Ah, to be young and dumb...
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OK, I read it. It makes no sense, so I have to assume something else is going on that is not in the article.
@Mik said in Texas: no water break for you:
OK, I read it. It makes no sense, so I have to assume something else is going on that is not in the article.
It looked to me like Texas trying to centralize working regulations so that they're consistent State-wide, and stopping "progressive" towns making up fancy rules of their own. Maybe there's a ton of these little rules and it gets confusing?
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It primarily has to do with the AFL-CIO. The labor union is pulling an inordinate amount of weight against local communities. This law alleviates the negotiation burden on small communities that aren’t in a position to resist the union and makes the union have to negotiate with the state, a much tougher proposition.
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You also have Austin basically giving stuff away to the labor unions, which presents difficulties for sane districts in competing for labor.
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