If you drive a UPS truck at the peak of Texas Heat, where it is often 100 degrees or hotter, it feels like in a sauna, says Deanna Gentry.
“Although the door is open and you have a fan – if the sun is right on you – it is very, very hot and you can't escape it,” said Gentry, who worked for it
Gentry has closely observed how the company does not quickly give an important promise to equip its vehicles with air conditioning.
“When they were able to bring in the cameras, we had cameras in our cars almost overnight,” she said. “I have the feeling that heat security is more important to me than the cameras.”
According to a historical agreement with UPS, in which at least 28,000 air-conditioned vehicles are accessible, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, together with other unions, lead a two-front war to seek contract protection and a federal standard that offers thermal insulation for employees.
According to the team stars, UPS has so far only delivered 10% of its promises. “They are back, very far behind – the heat affects our members and they have to accelerate this process,” said Kara Deniz, deputy director of strategic initiatives from the union.
The unions have made some progress in obtaining protection against striking summer heat, but the practice is far from being widespread: 12 union contracts of more than 2,500 from Bloomberg Law since August 2023. From 2021 to 2023, only three contracts even mentioned heat stress, and nobody asked specific protective measures to prevent the danger, according to the library of collective agreements from Bloomberg Law.
UPS says that it has continued to be committed to the agreement of 2023, according to which the company must replace at least 28,000 vans by 2028. It prioritizes the workers in southern states such as Texas, but gives the opportunity to assign the new vehicles elsewhere.
“We install air conditioning systems in all new delivery vehicles that we buy and have our commitment to outfit delivery vehicles with two fans, heat signs on the
While a union contract offers a way for the workers to settle their symptoms with a company that does not meet any important promises, the unions ideally need a federal heat illness standard to build up, say observers.
The heat becomes a central problem for the organization of campaigns by the union, but industries with high heating risks such as agriculture and warehouses are exposed to hurdles to win contracts with thermal insulation, said Mimi Whittaker from the National Employment Law Project.
Agricultural workers are generally excluded from the protection of the federal government in the workplace, while some warehouses have lifted the problem as independent contractors by classification of employees, according to Whittaker.
“But as the teamster's information request shows, employers can take time to implement thermal insulation.
Union contracts for public order
According to Javier Ramirez from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, the push of the teamers to enforce thermal insulation, a catalyst and a model for public politics could be on thermal security laws.
“If large employers and unions agree on enforceable standards, this shows feasibility and puts pressure on the supervisory authorities,” said Ramirez. “These agreements also provide concrete examples of language and implementation strategies from which legislators and agencies can draw.”
In June, the Trump administration kept public hearings for a heat proposal from the bidea era Ab-Wobe to create heat regulation instead of an appetite to considerable delays or complete abandonment, which legal observers predicted.
The proposed rule would determine an initial trigger for a heat index of 80 degrees of Fahrenheit and a high heat trigger of 90 degrees for the time that measures to protect their employees. Companies have complained that the rule is unnecessarily wide and imposes excessive stressful requirements such as the acclimatization periods of workers.
Industry that are probably affected, such as construction and warehouse, put on pressure to modify the proposed heating sails into a more power-oriented approach, so that they combat the flexibility in combating heat-related diseases, as is suitable for their workplaces.
Restrictions on the implementation of the federal government
Without a specific heating stress rule, OSHA has used its general service clause to quote employers because it does not protect employees from hot conditions. The law requires employers to provide jobs free from known, dangerous dangers that can be feasible.
Without a federal heat sail, trade union workers still have a procedure to settle their symptoms before the Federal Supreme Court, Michael Duff, Professor of Law at the St. Louis University School of Law.
“There are options that you have that are actually more efficient than what you could do with a large Osha rule, the structure of which takes 10 years to be watered down – until you speak – and forever needs to climb the door, and then you have a change in the administration on the way,” said Duff.
The Osha began to target heat injuries in its inspections in 2022. The agency carried out around 7,000 heat inspections and spent 60 heat quotes between April 2022 and December 2024 due to violations of the general service clause.
Employers often require these quotes with success, and claim that Osha cannot regulate the danger or pursue an excessively broad approach.
For example, the US Commission for Security and Health Check of the US health and health check in 2013 has lifted heat stress quotes from the OSHA against the postal service, in which the agency did not determine sufficiently specific measures that the postal service could have taken to reduce the heating.