ATLANTA—On July 19th, as part of her visit to various unions in the Atlanta area, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su visited the local SEIU Workers United office to meet with various representatives of the Atlanta labor movement. Julie Su remains the Acting Secretary of Labor because Republicans in the Senate have held up her confirmation for the permanent position because they see her as too friendly to workers.
Among those present were the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), and Airport Workers United. Sitting around a square table formation, union members voiced their needs to Su, while the Secretary listened and offered insight as to how the Department of Labor plans to tackle labor’s biggest issues.
Su’s trip to Atlanta revolved around a few key points. First, there was the recent reaching of a contract for workers at a Georgia Bluebird bus factory represented by United Steel Workers (USW). When workers of the factory first voted to unionize, Su challenged both USW and Bluebird to reach an agreement within a year.
Both sides of the table were able to do so, and in her round table with the SEIU organizers, Su made it clear she plans to make this one-year timeline a standard for both companies and unions. According to the USW, the Bluebird workers contract was the “largest union organizing win at a manufacturing plant in the region in 15 years.”
In addition to the Bluebird factory visit, part of Su’s visit was to emphasize the Department of Labor’s campaign to target heat safety for both indoor and outdoor jobs. With workers representing everything from fast food to luggage handling at airports, the organizers were fully tuned in to the Department of Labor plans.
Su made clear the details of the recently proposed OSHA standard that would protect workers from heat exhaustion on the job. During the roundtable, Su stressed to the organizers that heat is the number one climate-related cause of death for workers, more than hurricanes, flooding, and earthquakes.
The new OSHA resolution provides a framework and structure detailing how employers would be responsible for the health and safety of their employees in both indoor and outdoor settings. According to the heat standard, there are two heat levels that bosses must take into account when protecting workers on the job. First, at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, employers must provide cool drinking water and break areas for employees to cool down.
The second heat standard kicks in at temperatures of over 90 degrees. At this level of heat, employers must take even further measures to ensure workplace safety, meaning routinely checking on workers, and a guaranteed fifteen-minute break every two hours.
While introducing the proposed standard, Su made sure to acknowledge there needs to be legislation and organization to ensure breaks are paid. Su made the point that when breaks are unpaid, it forces workers to choose between resting, or receiving a full day’s worth of wages.
Arrived one by one
Before Su arrived, workers from the different unions arrived at the office one by one, streaming past the historical union photos to find their seats in the room. Helping themselves to fruit cups, chips, and cookies, union members found their seats around the room in order to get ready for the upcoming talk.
Ahead of Su, a photographer and a staffer showed up. Then, a secret service agent or two walked into the room. Workers whispered among themselves, asking each other if they knew when the Secretary of Labor would arrive, anticipation clinging to the air. A white Chevy SUV pulled up outside the glass door. The organizers turned their heads to get a look. They knew she had arrived.
Su walked into the room and immediately addressed the crowd with a smiling face and waved to those sitting around the room. Faces beaming with excitement returned the favor. In the only way USSW members know how to start a meeting, the organizers led each other in chants, before settling in to engage in conversation and dialogue.
One USSW worker who was fully in tune with Su’s visit was Destiny Mervin, a member of the USSW and a former employee at a Decatur Popeyes. Mervin explained how she experienced the conditions that the new OSHA standard seeks to tackle. 90+ degree temperatures were the norm for Mervin and her coworkers at the Wesley Chapel Road Popeyes location. With no functioning A/C, workers were forced to step inside the walk-in cooler in order to not overheat but had to pay to be able to drink the cold water bottles in the store.
Mervin and her coworkers decided that they had enough. With the help of the USSW, the Popeyes workers organized a heat speakout on the sidewalk in front of the fried chicken fast food restaurant. This was just two weeks before OSHA announced the groundbreaking heat standard.
Mervin’s message to Su was a stark call for help wrapped in a demand for accountability. “Give these companies time limits,” Mervin said Su. With the number of workers under heat advisories going up every year, the USSW organizer made it clear that time was not a luxury workers could afford.
Arnice Sykes, representative of the USSW Atlanta chapter, is no stranger to this epidemic of overheated and underpaid workplaces. Sykes worked at a Burger King with no A/C in the middle of a brutal Georgia summer and led a protest against the conditions there. The day after the protest, the Burger King location closed down for a day, fixed the A/C, and reimbursed the workers for their lost hours.
Sykes made sure to slide a USSW pin over to Su. Without breaking her concentration on the story, Su fastened the pin to her baby blue jacket and carried on listening to the union organizer.
Workers outside of the service industry sat at the table that day as well. Gregory Johnson, a worker for ABM at the Atlanta airport made sure to sit in the seat right next to Su before the meeting started. His seat shifting and grin communicated his excitement in ways that his words attempted to.
Working for AMB requires airport workers like Johnson to work long hours on the runway of the largest airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson. In the heart of the South, Summer temperatures in Atlanta frequently go above 90 degrees for weeks at a time, well within the range of the OSHA’s latest standard. The long hours, low pay, and harsh conditions led to Johnson becoming injured on the job. Johnson reported to Su that he and his coworkers desperately need regulations for workers in high temperatures.
Following the publication of OSHA’s heat standard, there is currently a 120-day comment period that employers and unions who would be impacted by the standard have to make points. The result of the 2024 election holds great importance to the fate of the standard. If OSHA cannot finalize the standard before a possible Trump administration, there is a chance the rulemaking would not be pursued. Republicans and employers have already voiced opposition to the standard, and are hoping to secure a Trump presidency in order to kill the proposal.
Su closed her remarks to the workers and organizers by promising them to take their experiences into account when creating policy. Her commitment to the workers was strong; the daughter of immigrants herself told the room “I’m not afraid of coming back and saying ‘we were too aggressive’, I’m afraid of workers coming to me and saying ‘you were not aggressive enough.’” She directed the workers to make themselves familiar with the Georgia Districts of the Department of Labor, stressing that if the workers don’t raise their concerns in the proper channels, nothing may be done about the workplace abuses.
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