FLORIDA CITY, Fla. — The heatstroke that José Delgado suffered six years ago after working in a sweet potato field in South Florida left him with damaged kidneys. It happened again two years later.
He is 75 now and still waking up at 5:30 a.m. six days a week to labor in the fields, putting his body through more and more days of extreme heat. Last year, the National Weather Service issued heat advisories for Miami-Dade County on 41 days. This year, it has done so on 63 days. Over two days in May, the heat index reached 112 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record by 11 degrees.
Delgado used to hope his story would move policymakers to enact heat protections for outdoor workers. He no longer believes it will.
His first heatstroke came in 2018, when he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. The episode inspired WeCount!, an immigrant and worker advocacy group, to campaign for a local law that would require employers to provide water and rest and shade breaks for Miami-Dade County’s more than 60,000 agriculture and construction workers on excessively hot days.
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Delgado took a bus from Homestead, Florida, to Miami three times last year to attend public hearings on the proposal. In Miami-Dade County, the heat index — a measure that considers humidity as well as temperature — exceeded 100 degrees for 46 consecutive days in 2023, during the state’s hottest summer ever.
The proposed protections drew national attention. But they never took effect. Leaders in the agriculture and construction industries said such rules would create “an unneeded burden to thousands of businesses, a bottomless pit of red tape, lost time and money.” A majority of the commissioners signaled they could not support the rules even after they were watered down.
The death knell came in April, when Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed legislation banning cities and counties from imposing such protections. He argued it would be unfair to allow different rules in South Florida than in, say, the Florida Panhandle.
Delgado still cannot believe it.
“I don’t understand why they refuse to pass that law,” Delgado said.
Delgado’s last hope is that the Biden administration will implement proposed regulations that would, for the first time, require employers to provide rest areas and water when the heat index reaches 80 degrees. The regulations could apply to about 35 million Americans.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2024 The New York Times
