Unions press City Hall for heat rules after a scorching NYC summer

At a roundtable held during Climate Week, union leaders and rank-and-file workers told Deputy Mayor Julie Su that people who labor outdoors, or in hot kitchens and warehouses, need stronger safeguards before another heat wave hits. The group agreed that this summer had been brutal, with a punishing stretch of heat in July.

Su, whose portfolio at City Hall is economic justice, sat down with representatives of large labor unions and with employees of big private companies, among them Amazon. She said heat has killed more people in New York City than flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes put together. “People die because simple precautions are not taken on the job,” she said.

Donald Nesbit holds the No. 2 post at Local 372, which represents school cafeteria workers. He likened the conditions his members face to a hot car. “If we were to lock our animals in a car with those same conditions, we would be arrested,” he said.

What unions want from employers and the city

The workers came with a list. They asked for safety training offered in several languages. Staff who work indoors need better ventilation and cooling, they said, while those who work outside need places to cool off at the job site. They also proposed hazard pay during extreme heat and help from employers when someone has a heat-related medical emergency at work.

Panelists also urged a change to workers’ compensation so that heat illness on the job is covered. City officials are reviewing whether such illness should count as a reportable health condition in a workers’ comp claim.

Limits on NYC extreme heat worker protections

Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued an executive order in June telling city agencies to draft safety guidelines for work in extreme heat. Workers who want to complain about an employer can already go to the city’s Commission on Human Rights or to its Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Still, no concrete rules or mandates on extreme heat exist yet.

Su was labor secretary under President Biden. She said mandates on private employers can come only from Washington. City rules would therefore be optional for private businesses, though they could help people on the municipal payroll. Even so, she said, a standard that is clear and specific would bring some employers into line.