Truck drivers, kitchen workers demand extreme-heat rules

Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) joined workers at Thursday's rally to call on lawmakers to support a bill to protect workers exposed to heat. (Sophie Nieto-Munoz | NJ Monitor)

It reaches more than 100 degrees in the truck Luis Fernando Ferrer drives from Elizabeth to Newark airport, but he said his bosses tell him they’re not legally required to provide air conditioning and to roll down the windows if he gets too hot.

“How do we stay cold by rolling down the windows in this heat?” Ferrer said in Spanish. “It is only going to get hotter, so we need safety protections for workers like me and other crew now.” 

Ferrer was one of dozens of workers who gathered in Elizabeth Thursday to urge the Legislature to reconvene this summer and pass statewide safeguards for workers exposed to extreme heat. The workers cook and deliver food intended for plane passengers. 

Activists with labor advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey joined about 30 GateGourmet employees, some still wearing their hairnets, to stand in the shade in front of their workplace and chant for what they consider basic protections for workers — shade, paid breaks, and access to cold water. 

Their calls for change come about two years after three summertime deaths of Amazon workers in New Jersey, including Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias, whose family believes suffered cardiac arrest while working under extremely hot conditions.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says heat is the leading cause of death among weather-related phenomena in the nation and notes workers of color in essential jobs are disproportionately subject to hot working conditions.  

A bill that has yet to receive final approval in Trenton would create protections for employees to avoid heat-related illness and injury. Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) said the scorching heat New Jerseyans have faced recently make it clear that lawmakers need to act immediately.

“There are workers in New Jersey that suffer every day, they work outside, cooking inside in the kitchen, and those are the people we have to protect and to make sure their employers are doing the right thing for them,” she said. 

The bill would require employers to create a plan to monitor workers’ exposure to heat, provide cold water, ensure access to shade or cool-down areas, limit the length of time workers can be outside in the heat, and coordinate an emergency plan if an employee suffers an injury from excessive heat.  

Business groups opposed the bill when it was first introduced, arguing there are already standards in place for outdoor workers and that federal heat standard rules are being developed. Quijano said she and Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union) — both are sponsors of the bill — are working on amendments to address some of those concerns business groups expressed. They cannot be introduced until the Assembly is in quorum, and the lower chamber is not expected to return until September at the earliest.

Quijano said the bill has support among Democrats and called it a priority to pass into law. She noted that it took years to pass a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

“I will work hard to get it passed — but I’m only one vote. Look at what happened with driver’s licenses. That took seven years, and we can’t afford that again,” Quijano said. “We have to find a pathway to success.” 

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