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[Texas Tribune] “We are dying”: Houston workers protest new state law removing water break requirements (www.texastribune.org)

submitted 1 year ago by LilBiFurious@lemmy.world to c/workreform@lemmy.world

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https://archive.is/2CsfM

House Bill 2127, which takes effect on Sept. 1, will do away with local rules that require water breaks for construction workers. The cities of Austin and Dallas, for example, require 10-minute breaks every four hours. San Antonio officials had been considering a similar ordinance.

“We are human beings who need respect,” Martínez said. “We really need to be allowed to work without problems, without any barriers … Believe me, we are dying inside those buildings when they take away our water and our [break] time.”

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[-] DanglingFury@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Who let these people out of the factory?!

[-] Vaginal_blood_fart@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

On the upside, fewer Texans. /s

[+] hawkwind@lemmy.management -34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This will sound like I am not supporting workers, but hear me out. The intention of this law has nothing to do with taking away breaks. There’s this picture being painted of “state and evil construction companies” vs “workers and municipalities.” There’s actually two different fights here: workers vs evil construction companies and, the state vs municipalities. Focusing on the first one is important outside of how the state and city are bickering.

If you know your construction company will take away your 10 min / 4 hr water break because the city can no longer enforce that, that’s NOT the state’s fault because they’re taking a common sense approach to consolidating laws and eliminating bureaucracy. That is an evil fucking construction company.

You want to blame a lawmaker because they assumed no company would be evil enough to do that, fine, but think about that, and the entire scope of this bill, when deciding who to protest against.

EDIT: Sorry to come off looking like a republican shill. That was honestly not my intention. I'll try harder next time. ESH except the workers trying to stay hydrated!

[-] MelonTheMan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I appreciate you trying to explain a perspective, even if it's possibly "wrong." We do need to spend time trying to understand why rather than default assuming it's because they're awful human beings.

I don't think the downvotes are deserved as I don't think you're shilling for corpo overlords or trolling.

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[+] Blamemeta@lemmy.world -52 points 1 year ago

Shitty law, but it's not even in effect yet.

[-] Shinhoshi@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In Houston today, it’s going to feel like 43°C (110°F). When I go outside in that heat even for a second or two, I‘m already too hot, need a water break, and wonder how anyone can survive working in that.

I don’t know how anyone with a conscience could feel that heat and think removing water breaks for the workers is fine.

Maybe I’m just a stupid communist though and should try losing my conscience or something…

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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023

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