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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas)
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) celebrates the one-year anniversary of his all-day thirst strike with Texas workers on the sunny steps of the U.S. Capitol, which helped lead to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposing the first-ever federal heat rule this month.
“When workers organize, we win. Last year, I held an all-day strike to amplify the voices of working Texans. Two days later, President Biden announced his support for workers in the heat, and one year later, he announced the very heat protections we were asking for,” saidCongressman Greg Casar (D-Texas). “Now, we are closer than ever to winning the first-ever federal heat rule and protecting millions of American workers from the extreme heat. Greg Abbott can try to take away rest breaks to raise the profits of his billionaire buddies — but working Texans are not giving up!”
“Participating in the thirst strike last summer was revolutionary for our community,” said Marisol Gayosso, a Workers Defense Project member leader and longtime construction worker from Dallas who attended last year’s thirst strike. “A construction worker dies in Texas every three days, so the lack of job protections has created a crisis for workers in our state that is exacerbated by the climate crisis. I wholeheartedly believe that the 9-hour thirst strike with Congressman Casar was highly influential in leading OSHA to recently propose the new federal heat rule because there in unity there is strength.”
“For families like mine, this is a matter of life and death. Our livelihood is construction work. This is a worker rights matter. This is a human rights matter. And this is a critical matter,” said Lupita Lopez, a member of Texas Organizing Project (TOP) in Houston who attended last year’s thirst strike. “Each and every worker in our country — no matter their nationality, race, or economic status — deserves a work environment that respects our basic health and wellbeing. I appreciate Congressman Casar amplifying this worker issue that is also so personal to him.”
“Solidarity in action, as well as in words, that is what we know to expect from Congressman Casar,” said Analilia Mejia, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy. “His commitment to uplifting his constituents has not only given voice to the voiceless in TX-35, but has helped shape the debate as to what is just, necessary and right.”
The new federal heat rule proposed by OSHA will protect around 35 million American workers who face extreme heat on the job outdoors and indoors. The heat rule is expansive, and it would finally give American workers the right to rest, shade, and water. The proposed rule comes just a month after Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Doug Parker visited Austin to talk with workers about the need for federal protections. The rule would require 15 minute paid rest breaks every two hours when temperatures exceed a heat index of 90 degrees, along with other protections.
Background:
In 2010 at the age of 21,Casar led a thirst strike on the steps of Austin City Hall with Workers Defense Project to call for rest and water break protections. Austin passed rest and water break protections that year. Casar then helped pass local rest and water break protections in Dallas in a multi-year campaign that culminated in 2015.
In July 2023,Casar held a nine-hour thirst strike with Texas workers on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and urged Joe Biden and Department of Labor Acting-Secretary Julie Su to protect workers prior to Texas House Bill 2127 becoming law. The state law, championed by Governor Greg Abbott, eliminated local protections against extreme heat such as Austin and Dallas ordinances that require water breaks for workers.
Days after Casar’s thirst strike, Biden announced new executive actions to protect workers from extreme heat, including increased enforcement of heat-safety violations by the Department of Labor. He highlighted that his Administration’s actions were for workers “who literally risk their lives working all day in blazing heat, and in some places don’t even have the right to take a water break. That’s outrageous.”
Last month, Casar welcomedAssistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Doug Parker to Austin for a labor town hall with 100+ Texas union leaders and workers. Parker shared that the Biden Administration would soon announce a federal rule to protect workers from extreme heat on the job.
Earlier this month, the OSHA proposed the first-ever federal heat rule.
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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio. A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.
