Texas Guts Local Laws Protecting Construction Workers

The state’s housing boom and soaring temperatures create a deadly combination for construction workers. Despite a recent ruling, a new law will effectively bulldoze local labor protections.

In Texas, a Travis County judge ruled Wednesday that the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act (HB 2127) is unconstitutional, reports The Texas Tribune. The bill, which is still scheduled to go into effect Friday, prevents local governments from passing laws stricter than state labor laws, among other things. As reported by The Texas Observer, it also nullifies any existing laws related to certain topics that were passed by local legislatures, which are often more progressive than the Texas state government. Though the Observer reports that HB 2127 is vague and its scope includes doing away with local ordinances dealing with things such as eviction protection, overtime, cat declawing, and fair-chance hiring, there is one field it will surely impact: The state’s construction industry, where employers will no longer be required to provide water breaks on regular schedules, as The Real Deal reported.

Governor Greg Abbott signed the legislation—nicknamed by opponents the Death Star Bill—into law in June this year from his workplace, a temperature-controlled public building. 

HB 2127’s impact will be felt in cities like Dallas and Austin, which had passed their own water break laws. Those will become void, and though employers will be required to comply with OSHA regulations that provide general guidance to prevent heat-related illnesses in the workplace, such guidelines do not mandate breaks. The Guardian reports that in 2021, the Biden administration ordered OSHA to produce heat safety standards, but they have yet to be issued. Workers rights organizations like Texas-based Workers Defense Project (WDP), which advocates for better workplace conditions for construction workers across the state, have contested HB 2127. One WDP member, a construction worker, told The Real Deal that the law was a "death warrant."

The bill arrived at a time when new construction housing sales and single-family construction have surged. As reported on NPR, 1 in 13 workers in the state work in construction. Temperatures have surged as well: This summer, the Dallas–Fort Worth area saw 44 days of 100-plus-degree temperatures, Austin recorded 45 consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures, and the temperature in Houston reached 109 degrees last week. According to The Texas Tribune, the state has the country’s highest rates of worker deaths from high temperatures, and construction deaths accounted for the second-highest workplace fatalities in the state. Coupled with the fact from the National Association of Home Builders that 61 percent of all construction workers in Texas are Hispanic—the highest percentage in the country—these statistics mean that the bill is dangerous to all workers but particularly to communities of color.  

Top image: Getty/imageBROKER/Andy Dean

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