Every single person clocking in deserves to clock out safe and return home healthy at the end of the day, but that basic guarantee is evaporating as extreme temperatures broil the planet. Rank-and-file unionists are setting their own standards.
Workers shouldn't be dying to make a living.
Every single person clocking in deserves to clock out safe and return home healthy at the end of the day, but that basic guarantee is evaporating as extreme temperatures broil the planet.
Heat waves have repeated struck Europe this year. In North America, the phrase “heat dome” has entered our vernacular. Each year seems to break new records.
Folks who live and work exposed to the elements are most at risk. There are ways to lessen the strain on the body, but in sweltering construction sites and inside windowless warehouses, workers are collapsing , suffering life-altering injuries, and dying from preventable heat exposure.
In Oklahoma City, rank-and-file members of Teamsters Local 886 took matters into our own hands.
In 2024, my wife ordered dozens of digital hydrometers — thermometers meant to measure humidity as well as temperature. These were actually designed for wealthy folks to keep in cigar humidors. Nothing was better suited for our purpose.
Temperature is one factor for heat stress; humidity plays an equally essential part. People working in hot, humid environments may not be able to sweat enough to cool down.
Alongside distribution of the thermometers, we developed a simple web app for workers to submit temperature, humidity, and time-stamped readings, allowing us to chart wet-bulb globe temperature— a metric developed in the 1950s specifically to prevent heat deaths during military training.
It wasn’t fancy, but it worked.
Crowdsourcing our own safety data brought workers into the struggle in a new way, showing isolated package drivers that their problems were shared. Logistics workers in all parts of the country are being burned by climate change.
This year, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters built upon what we started in Oklahoma City, shipping hundreds of thousands of thermometers to local unions. A QR code on each thermometer links directly to the UPS Teamsters app , where drivers and warehouse employees can instantly report heat and safety hazards in real time.
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While workers and our unions are deploying cigar-humidor thermometers and homebrew web apps to calculate a 70-year-old military metric, Congress is moving in the opposite direction.
H.R. 6213, the so-called "Heat Workforce Standards Act," would prohibit the Secretary of Labor from implementing OSHA's proposed heat injury and illness prevention standard.
The GOP-supported bill goes further than delaying protections; it ensures no federal heat standard can ever exist, permanently barring the Department of Labor from enforcing a rule addressing heat.
The toll is staggering : an estimated 559 workers die from workplace heat exposure each year, and more than 24,000 suffer heat-related illnesses or injuries. This number is likely a drastic undercount. These folks are our neighbors, parents, partners, and friends. The threat isn't theoretical to those whose lives are cut short or permanently derailed.
We all deserve better.

But here's what Teamsters do have under our collective bargaining agreement at United Parcel Service — and what we're fighting to enforce.
Simple, proven safeguards—water, shade, and mandatory rest breaks—make a real difference.
Under the Teamster contract at UPS, Article 18 protects the right to take a paid break in a cool area to rest and recover. And the company's own training materials give us all the ammunition we need to enforce it.
UPS Pre-Shift Communication Meetings (PCMs) explicitly instruct employees: "On extremely hot days or during heat waves, maintain a slower pace and take frequent breaks." The UPS Heat Safety DIAD Training reinforces: "You should pace yourself every day but it's particularly important when you're working in extreme heat." And the training is crystal clear: "Pacing means slowing down or taking breaks."
When management pressures or harasses workers for doing exactly that, it's a contract violation.
As a union steward, I tell members to communicate by DIAD so they have a written record. If they receive an aggressive or harassing DIAD message, I tell them to take a picture and file a grievance — document it using the company's own heat stress training materials as evidence that management is violating Article 18 (Safety) and Article 37 (Harassment).
Folks working inside the hub have contractual guarantees too: Article 18 requires management to provide adequate ice, designate air-conditioned cool zones, and install building fans.
But contracts don't enforce themselves — workers have to hold the line. That is why Teamsters are building member-to-member networks, trading strategies, and turning individual grievances into collective power.
A promise on paper is only as strong as the workers willing to stand on it together.
Fear is the tool that politicians and corporate bosses reach for first, because it works to keep us isolated. It stops working the moment we are not. Breaking the cycle takes collective organization.
If you're already in a union, find out what your organization is doing to address heat and safety. If it’s nothing, start doing something. Survey coworkers to identify specific pain points. Start a health and safety group chat to push for real change, not just to vent. Look out for each other.
If you're not in a union, this is exactly the kind of fight that builds one. No matter your industry, you deserve a voice in what happens at work. Register for a Secrets of a Successful Organizer workshop from Labor Notes . Fair pay, comprehensive benefits, and safe working conditions are too important to leave to chance.
You can also tell Congress: kill H.R. 6213 and pass a real federal heat standard now. Let your representative know that no one should have to risk their life for a paycheck. Dial 844-937-2517 to be connected through the AFL-CIO.
Here's the thing about the climate: it doesn't care about partisan politics. It doesn't wait for Congress to act. It just keeps getting hotter.
The heat is here, and it's killing. Corporations won't protect us. Politicians won't protect us. H.R. 6213 proves that so many don’t even want to try.
Our community needs us to fight.
We can keep us safe. But we shouldn’t have to do it alone.
Get involved: join a union, or build one ; talk to your church about a letter writing campaign to your representatives; march on an uncaring boss with a petition; and, mostly importantly, look out for one another.
The only thing more dangerous than extreme heat is the belief that we can't do anything about it.
We can.
We are.
And we're just getting started.