In Battle Over Direction of Texas, an unlikely casualty: water breaks

When the heat index hit 115 degrees Monday, Karla Perez took a five-minute water break at a construction site in Dallas. Such rest breaks are required by the city, just as they are in Austin.

But a change in Texas state law, due to take effect in September, will sweep those local requirements away, leaving workers like Ms. Perez to count on their employers to give them time to rest and rehydrate. At the moment she gets three breaks a day. She fears what the change might bring.

“Employees are dying,” she said. “There’s no escaping it.”

The bill was part of a sweeping effort by the Republican-dominated legislature to exert control over Democrat-led major cities, which have become increasingly assertive in pushing progressive policies at the local level.

The new law, labeled “the Death Star” by its Democratic opponents, would prevent a host of ordinances, including those affecting labor, agriculture and natural resources. It is expected to overturn regulations such as those related to payday loans, puppy mills, certain sanitation requirements and other practices.

“I think the halftime ordinance is just the tip of the iceberg of what we’re going to see,” said Rick Levy, the president of the Texas AFL-CIO. “It’s probably the most sweeping transfer of power we’ve seen in this state, transferring power from local communities to politicians in Austin.

According to his supporters, the purpose of the law, known as the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, was to curb a patchwork of regulations that vary by locality and could conflict with state regulation.

“For too long, forward-thinking city officials and agencies have had small businesses in Texas jump through conflicting and confusing hoops,” State Representative Dustin Burrows, a Republican from the Lubbock region, said in a statement. when he filed the bill this year.

The law grew out of complaints about a growing number of local rules from business owners, particularly those that cross city and county boundaries, said Annie Spilman, the Texas state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, which lobbied for the legislation.

Ms Spilman said the bill did not prevent employers from establishing their own rest and water break policies. She added that she was unaware of the implementation of the ordinance in Dallas.

The law does not cover water breaks or other specific ordinances. Instead, it prohibits actions by cities to regulate working conditions beyond state law. Texas law does not provide breaks for workers, according to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration; neither does federal law.

At this point, most cities in Texas don’t require breaks either, though Austin has had an ordinance on its books for over a decade that requires a break for construction workers of at least 10 minutes per four hours worked. Dallas passed a similar measure in 2015. The possibility of an ordinance has also been raised in San Antonio this year.

City officials in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio said they were still evaluating the potential impact of the state law. which is broadly formulated.

“The bill undermines Austin and cities across Texas in their ability to do what is best to keep people safe,” said Austin mayor Kirk Watson, adding that he hoped contractors would “keep Austin values ​​high and continue to protect workers, especially in times like ours.”

Daniela Hernandez, the state legislative coordinator for the Workers Defense Project, which is committed to supporting immigrants in construction in Texas and supported local break ordinances, said the new law “increases the ability of a local government to support its own community to protect, to harm”.

Ms. Hernandez pointed to the state’s dizzying heat wave as an indication of why a water break is needed. “It’s only going to get worse,” she said of the triple-digit temperatures in Austin and the rest of the state. “The heat doesn’t even stop in September. Sometimes we wear shorts in December.”

The Dallas ordinance was passed following the death of a 25-year-old worker, Roendy Granillo, who was installing hardwood floors in a home without air conditioning when he began to feel ill and asked for a break. The request was rejected. He kept working until he collapsed.

The medical examiner’s office said the cause was heat stroke. “My parents were told his organs were cooked from the inside out,” says his sister, Jasmine Granillo.

But even after the ordinance was in effect for several years, some Dallas construction industry employers still didn’t know about the requirements for breaks.

John Foster and Donny Zanger, owners of Dallas General Contractor, said they didn’t know they had to take a 10-minute break for every four hours of work, but added they didn’t need the government to tell them that their employees needed that. water.

“It’s a good idea,” said Mr. Foster. “I don’t know what kind of homebuilder would need or use that ordinance. I don’t know of any contractors who work their guys so hard that they say, “Okay, 10 minutes for water.” They have access to water all day long. It’s not really a problem.”

United States Representative Greg Casar, who helped push for water breaks ordinances in Austin in 2010 as a 21-year-old labor organizer, said he planned to begin an effort at the federal level that would require water breaks on a national level. basis, pushing for state legislation or new administrative rules from the Biden administration.

“We’re going to push every day if we can,” he said.