Letters: Florida can beat the heat with stronger protections for outdoor workers

Florida needs heat-protection standards

Re: The April 27 edition contained a story about the death of Salvador Espita, a legal guest-worker migrant, who died of 97-degree heat-related complications. At least 10 other workers in Florida have been documented to have died due to intense heat in the last six years. Apparently indifferent to the risks to construction and agricultural workers, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature passed a cruel law prohibiting counties and municipalities from requiring the very protections that likely would have prevented Espita's death.

In hot, steamy Florida, there are no state laws requiring employers to take measures to protect outdoor workers from heat-related injuries. Thanks to the Gov. DeSantis, counties, cities and "public" bodies are now forbidden from establishing a requirement that businesses protect their vulnerable workers. You ask who and why such an inhuman law is necessary. Look to your local Republican state legislators. Each voted "yes." Remember them in Nov. 2024. Not a single Democrat legislator voted for the law.

David Kahn, Boca Raton

Our View: Florida banning local heat protection rules allows greater role for federal government

News story placement questioned

Who makes up your headlines? On April 25, the banner was about young people going to coffee shops. The next day, a big front page headline about parking fees going up at Palm Beach International Airport. Never mind the nationwide campus unrest, the Trump trial, the Middle East hostilities, even Harvey Weinstein getting his conviction overturned. All the Post can muster up for headlines are stories deserving a short column on page 23. The guy who decides the headlines does a disservice to the journalists on staff and the paper in general.

George Poncy, Palm Beach Gardens

Courts won't save us from Trump

It seems that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon want to see Donald Trump go to trial before the November election. Whether it is because they feel beholden more to a man than their country, or a political party more than the rule of law and the Constitution, or they are simply corrupt, doesn't really matter. It Is thus more important than ever that every voter studies the facts surrounding the three cases held in abeyance and casts their ballot in November as if they were the jurors. A vote for Joe Biden is not only a vote for freedom and democracy, as well as the Constitution and the rule of law, it is a vote of guilty for Trump. We have no choice but to try him in the court of public opinion, at the ballot box.

Debra Biderman, West Palm Beach

Library no sanctuary from rudeness

At a recent visit to the Boynton Beach Library, a rude patron, who was near me on a computer, was continuously talking very loud. I asked her to "please speak a little softer," She immediately held up her middle finger. I then went to the librarian and told him what happened. He came over and told this individual to shut off the cell phone or leave. She then left. It seems that many people in today's society have no respect for others at a library.

Charles A. Harrington, Boynton Beach

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida needs strong heat protection rules for outdoor workers