AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement in response to a new directive from the Trump administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) through its National Emphasis Program that leaves workers vulnerable to heat:
This new policy limits OSHA’s ability to hold bosses accountable when they fail to protect workers from heat on the job. It puts workers’ lives in danger, plain and simple.
As climate change accelerates and heat-related illnesses rise alongside temperatures, the Trump administration is willfully putting workers’ lives at risk to pad the pockets of corporations. The new directive turns a once proactive enforcement approach into a reactive one, removing specific targets that inspectors rely on to conduct independent investigations, speak directly with workers, and enforce health and safety laws—especially critical at a time when the Trump administration is already issuing fewer warnings and citations to employers. By shifting to “self-audit” and voluntary participation, corporations get a free pass from following the law, while workers pay the price.
This month, the labor movement will commemorate Workers Memorial Day and honor those who suffered injury, illness, or lost their lives on the job—including the more than 2,600 workers who died from heat exposure in the past five years alone. We call on the Trump administration to renew the previous directive and actually make good on its promises to working people.