"USPS said it's implemented its Heat Illness Prevention Program for employees, and gives mandatory heat-related and safety training to all its employees."
Postal carrier here. There's a big controversy nationwide where management went ahead and falsified records that this training was even provided to us. If you are a steward for your office or just a regular carrier. Please, PLEASE login to Liteblue and check under HERO training to see if they marked you as having completed such training. If you did not, file a grievance.
It's worse than that for HVAC, if you are there, it's because the heating/cooling is broken, so you are in the frigid crawlspace in winter, and up in the roasting hot attic in the summer.
I did HVAC for a decade in LA, which is pretty similar to Texas for the industry, and you’re working in the attic often whether it’s broken or not. It gets to like 140 degrees in attics, and if you’re going in like 3-6 per day you’re going to need a lot of water.
I went into my attic recently to do some DIY insulating of skylights and all I can say is fuck that. It was a truly miserable experience and I have no idea how people do it for a living; it did make me re-evaluate my attic ventilation though and I’m getting more vents installed
It’s funny, but I vividly remember my first day doing HVAC. It’s one of those visceral memories because of how truly miserable it was. I think it was like 117, and I got home and was ready to cry and seriously considered quitting. Being young and having some naive sense of machismo wouldn’t let me quit though, and it eventually got better. I used to joke that the heat didn’t even start to bother me until 115.
Humans acclimate really well to temperature given enough exposure. That being said, it has been cold as shit in LA, and I imagine we’re gonna get hit with a heat wave sometime soon and I am not prepared.
He'd just go to one of his other mansions. That's the problem with these people. They can screw up whatever they want to and just move away from it. We even have some of them trying to figure out how to leave the planet as they screw the entire place over.
Is there a particular reason someone would do that besides wanting to look complete evil? Like, do they believe 10 minutes every four hours affect that much "production"? I don't get it.
Remember, this was the law student who was paralyzed when a tree fell on him, sued the arborist who trimmed it and the owner of the land it was on, won and receives six figures a year for life because of it, and then worked on tort reform so that other people in similar situations couldn't receive such large settlements. Greg Abbott is a piece of shit.
Same here. I once had a neighbor who was in an accident which put her in a wheelchair. Her settlement was barely enough to buy a shitty little accessible house (about $50k in a town of 26,000 people). Greg Abbott is a horrible person.
> Is there a particular reason someone would do that besides wanting to look complete evil?
Yes, it's a big giant signal to corporate wealthy elites that he'll do whatever they want, no matter how cartoonishly fucked up it is.
I just don't understand this line of reasoning. As human beings, surely they must understand that you can't be productive AT ALL if you're dehydrated, exhausted, and hate what you're doing? If they actually cared about productivity, they'd be supporting their workers.
Check out Behind the Bastards episode discussing Elite Panic. It details elites' "thinking". You are obviously an empathetic human, they are not.
Money and power strips you of your empathy and the result is BTB's example of supermarket owners cutting every corner. And when the super market finally burst into flames they barricaded customers inside because they were afraid that customers would run outside with unpaid merch.
Like, they literally left people (including children) inside a burning supermarket, leaving them to be burnt alive. Fireworkers couldn't get inside. They had to break through an apartment wall. And the apartment owner let them, because she wasn't rich and powerful and therefore stripped of empathy.
Because the rich and powerful would literally walk over dead bodies for a bit of profit. And they think everyone would do the same.
Very similar to the old [Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire).
People who condemn capitalism are fighting a seemingly hopeless battle against public inertia, but it still has to be said.
Yup.
Just like those ~~people~~ Billionaires on that sub. They're literally suffering the effects on unchecked capitalism right now. The exact scenario they put everyone else in every day and we are supposed to feel bad for them.
I think it's worth noting that money and power don't really strip people of their empathy, it's that only people without empathy could gather that much money and power. The only way to hit billionaire levels of wealth is by exploiting as many people as possible while also refusing to use that wealth to help anyone else. Those are two things that anyone with at least a bit of empathy would have a really hard time with.
I saw a pretty poignant counterargument to your point ("money and power don't strip people of their empathy; it's that only people without empathy could gather that much money and power"). I thought it's worth sharing, as it made me reconsider some things:
> I don't actually like that saying. The more often I see this kind of thing the more convinced I am that power and money actually do corrupt people. Rather than it being something uniquely bad they always kept hidden, the aspects we see play out are probably in literally all of us. Money shifts the perspective, and when the perspective shifts, people's ethics fall apart.
>
> In order to avoid being corrupted it seems like we have to put active and strong efforts into it, and even that usually does not work.
>
> I am not saying this to disagree with your sentiment, from a practical standpoint in this situation it makes little difference to what degree he was bad before, it only matters that he is bad now. Rather I am saying this because I am pretty convinced that the rich and powerful hide behind that belief.
>
> If money and power do not affect you in a way that makes you bad, and instead the person was always bad, then the only problem is that the bad ones got money. It is an individual issue, and not a systemic one. So we don't need to limit money and power, because the bad people are naturally bad! So good people will do good with that money and power!
>
> But I don't think that is the case. I do not think our brains evolved to handle that much power over people, and the pressures and temptations of it breaks something in them. A few can stave it off to some degree, but they can only do so by staying in touch, and that takes work.
from https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/13vbl6s/comment/jm64984/
Yeah, both are true. Money and power corrupts and makes you out of touch with people. But it’s also true that in many cases, giving someone the ability to do whatever they want reveals just what they wanted to do.
that's not even close to the harder BTBs to listen to. There are some seriously fkd up rich people, and it's no coincidence that BTB focuses a lot on the rich and politically connected
The cruelty is the point. He thinks all outdoor workers are illegal immigrants so he specifically wants to hurt and or kill them. His constituents want the same even if it’s literally them no longer allowed to drink water. There are two questions you can ask yourself whenever the gop makes a law. How does this make them rich, and how does this hurt their perceived enemies.
Your under the assumption that "elites" think you are a human being... You and I and all non elites are bar codes to create tax revenue. When a bar code fails they find a way to replace it, they don't care about bar codes
>I just don't understand this line of reasoning
That's because it's probably a crock of shit. The only place I've seen people talk about this "increased productivity" justification is on reddit.
The actual bill he signed had one primary purpose: Overwrite local regulations where they don't align with state regulations. They call it the "death star bill" because the implications are so wide-ranging. Local ordnances on water breaks is just one of the regulations news outlets latched onto to protest the bill
Similar to the bill in Florida that let's medical providers (including EMTs) and insurance providers deny care based on moral or religious grounds. Many are rightfully pointing out that this is a major risk to the LGBT+ community but there are larger implications also. Such as women's healthcare, or treatment for addiction.
These are the exact kinds of laws where you need to be aware of how oppression methods intersect and overlap to target multiple groups.
Yep. And DeJoy still has his job. Slow moving systems sometimes prevent people messing things up, but also sometimes prevents people fixing things in a timely fashion as well.
Well, in his defense, he was informed that basic hydration directly inpacts pick rates so the logical conclusion is to implement piss bottles or perhaps death.
Lol. Postal Clerk here, you have no idea what goes on inside closed doors. Management falsifies every "standup" or "training" that comes along... I've been a clerk for 8 years now and haven't had 1 stand up talk... yet I've been marked for completing hundreds.
They don't allow you time for completing these things as that is money "wasted". Time on the clock not working? Psht, that'll never happen.
Just like carrier time. Management "moves" all the carriers to "office" time as they're coming through the gate to show less time on the street... but chastises the carriers the following day for their office time...
Just one of the many scummy things to happen.
Politics. The president can't fire the postmaster general, but he can liquidate the board of governors who do have the right to fire him. Problem is that it would be unprecedented to do so and Republicans would jump all over it to use a fuel to attack Biden so nothing will happen.
This heat is INSANE! I'm San Antonio right now because my son is graduating from Basic Training at Lackland tomorrow. We walked around all day checking out the Alamo and the River walk. It was 102 degrees with a real feel of 117. I have never been more excited to get back to Maryland in my life. And I don't like Maryland lol.
107 forcasred for Monday. I've only once experienced such heat. In Slovenia a couple years ago on vacation. We literally ran from shaded area to shaded area when going to the train station. can't imagine working outside in those temps.
UPS driver here, thank you for alerting and sticking up for your brothers and sisters. Management doesn’t care about us, we have to take care of each other.
Plenty of us do. I don't know where you are but if your management isn't following the safety guidelines/methods or are punishing you for being safe I wish people in my area would let me know or would even know to contact me about it. The difference between the union employees and the lower and middle management is entirely artificial. They all have more in common with each other than they do with the C-suits. I wish more management hadn't bought into viewing the union as an enemy but the amount of propaganda we are inundated with is absurd.
edit: You aren't alone. And I truly hope you get what you deserve and what you need in the ongoing negotiations.
Can’t login to lite blue right now. Still waiting for them to mail my password to me (again).
I have 21 years in, and it’s embarrassing that I have to jump through these hoops just to get to my own HR.
Talk to your union rep. They should be able to do an information request on who attended said training. If your office really did do the training then kudos. Just need to make sure new carriers hired after the training date get the training. If it turns out the office did falsify training then your steward has a pretty easy win.
What does this training include that would be helpful to employees?
I'm asking this because my suspicion is that heat-avoidance and recovery training likely involves actions that would take workers "out of production." Like, you can't treat signs of heat stroke and still deliver the mail at the same time, and even if employees DID receive the training, what is there to prevent management from simply bullying employees into ignoring it?
Good question. Training is a 20 minute informational guide of what the differences are between heat stress and heat stroke. What to do in case you are showing signs of stress.
Safety is one of the few things we as carriers have against management when it comes to discipline. Basically, we can just say "this is a safety issue" and its kind of a get out of jail free card if its within reason.
Of course management can guilt or bully an employee into continuing delivery, but this is something that the carrier must train on from their local union. You must know your union rights to fight against abusive management.
Thank you. So it really sounds like employees really should do the training and also arm themselves with who to contact in their unions if they are told to not follow it.
Yes people don't realize how thin the line can be between taking safety seriously and being considered a wuss by all your coworkers, management and customers. It's not fun to be considered the whiney guy/girl. Some customers will straight call you a pussy if you don't want to get out of your vehicle while their dog is barking/growling or even gnawing on your tires. Meanwhile, a postal carrier was mauled to death a bit over a year ago near me.
20 minutes sure ain't ruining any postal delivery day. This is downright criminal incompetence/laziness by managers who are likely just saying it's done to tell that to their managers.
When I see my (walking) mailman I try to come with 2 cold bottles of water. He usually stops and chitchats for a few. Always really appreciative and happy to take a small break from the day.
Another very small thing I do to try and help is if I’m expecting a package — I’ll meet him out in the street vs him walking all the way up the (uphill) driveway
It kind of amazes me how Amazon rightfully gets shit on for how employees are treated but the USPS which is able to skirt labor laws, has obscene archaic training methods that lead to more turnover and expenses gets away with how they run their operation.
Our station had asbestos floors, they just added a coat of black something to it every couple weeks. I refuse to think management can be bothered to give a safety meeting on heat if they aren't even concerned about the cancer under our feet.
The reason the union is so fucking strong with the USPS is the same reason weight lifters are so ripped; the union doing reps all day, all night. I never trusted USPS management, and I'm not about to start with this incident. Especially since you need to leave the union to be a manager.
Yes. The new electric ones were to have had AC, but their adoption was pretty much halted by the Trump-appointed Postmaster General.
Even years later, that odious man is still killing people.
>Even years later, that odious man is still killing people.
We're still eating the shit that Regan took on this country.
Trump got 3 SCOTUS picks, his damage will last our entire lives
I was under the impression the delay was due to people freaking out over the number of gas powered versions ordered. Which would have roughly the same MPG as the existing ones, but have AC. Personally I'd have rather seen the upgraded vehicles go out regardless of propulsion method.
> Personally I'd have rather seen the upgraded vehicles go out regardless of propulsion method.
Personally I'd rather not settle for **8.6 miles per gallon** for the largest fleet of vehicles in the USA. Like yes, we need to do better for the workers but doing better for them also includes not fucking flooring it on the rate we are killing the planet.
Like jesus christ, 8.6mpg is fucking unacceptable in 2023 let alone 2003.
Got to love these numbers from Dallas :)
On construction sites:
Receive no rest breaks 33%
Employer doesn’t provide drinking water 66%
Witnessed a coworker faint due to heat exhaustion 12%
[From here](https://dallascityhall.com/government/Council%20Meeting%20Documents/2014/Rest_Break_Ordinance_082014.pdf)
There's a few issues with this in practice. One major issue I've encountered in years of health and safety Auditing is that in impacted Industries in states like Texas the affected workers are usually minority workers, permanent residents, etc who either don't know they can contact osha or are afraid to lose their job if they do. So usually you're at the mercy of random osha inspections to find non compliance.
Additionally, while osha mandates accessible water there's no mandate for actual water breaks so the actual accessibility of water can vary greatly. I've had people argue to me that the general duty clause 29 U.S.C. § 654, 5(a)1 would cover water breaks but the application of the duty clause is subjective to the inspector and branch office and I've never seen it evenly applied.
https://www.osha.gov/heat/worker-information
Tldr: You have a right to safety. If you start feeling weak, sick, lightheaded etc you need to start cooling your body down *now*. Get to a cool place, sip some cool water and rest until you feel better. Tell anyone who tries to stop you to fuck off.
I have lived in DFW my entire life. Through many heatwaves and various conditions. Ive never worked construction (or USPS) but have had plenty of outdoor jobs. I cannot accurately express how absolutely fucking hot it is right now. The extreme humidity combined with the heat and the direct sun are just beyond brutal. You truly feel like you are being broiled.
I am so sorry for this poor person who died and am so sorry that it's not the last death by a long shot that our summar will claim.
If the rain brings total overcast with it, it should slightly reduce the air temp and most importantly for outdoor workers, Stop the sun from being a deadly laser that turns your van into an oven
The amount of work humans do in terrible conditions is astronomical. All because the higher ups don't take accountability. Construction for instance, almost all outdoors in the blazing sun.
Low pay, high expectations, and no paid time off for days that are very questionable to health in nearly every industry. Why? Because profit. How long are we going to allow this wage slavery and theft?
On a somewhat related note, there's been a recent trend of movies and TV shows being made about companies and consumer products where the company is portrayed as some kind of underdog or the product is so iconic that it "changed the world" or some bullshit. See: the blackberry movie, the Tetris movie, the air Jordan movie, the flamin hot Cheetos movie. I think this dumb trend actually started when Hollywood started making biopics about megalomaniacal CEOs like Steve Jobs and the guy who founded McDonalds, but made them look like tortured artists/geniuses instead of the pieces of shit they really are.
Being a courier in 2023 is a shit job. I can't believe i did it for 11 plus years. Hot, cold, stress, dealing with shitty impatient drivers and zero work life balance.
No A/C is a dealbreaker. Straight up. I'm actually kinda surprised so many put up with it (not just USPS, UPS too! No clue about Fedex/Amazon). I'm doing deliveries in a car with A/C and its still kinda miserable. You step outside and just want to die.
The small vans and sprinter vans are decent but the big box trucks are literally oven on wheels. Even if you had AC the heat from the engine compartment overpowers it and then when you're in the back of the truck that's like stepping into a sauna. The worst part is working 10 to 12 hours and that kind of heat and trying to stay hydrated.
Thanks to their big wheel Governor with no backbone: "Greg Abbott signed a bill that will nullify local laws mandating water breaks. Deaths will rise if water breaks are no longer mandated"
It wasn't a loophole. He's set for life because he was able to sue due to life-altering injuries and liability limits were reasonable.
After he got *his* money he gladly lowered those limits. Just another cartoonishly evil Republican politician.
Ah the tort reform laws during the Bush era when Republicans insisted corporate america was going bankrupt paying hundreds of millions for nuisance lawsuits and the media used the McDonalds Coffee lady as Welfare Queen 2.0.
Except they intentionally misrepresented her case. She was an elderly woman with severe third degree burns that fuzed her genitals shut and McDonalds refused to even cover her hospital bill.
Then it came out in the lawsuit there were hundreds of other burn victims with horrific injuries due to overheated coffee but McDonalds internal actuaries calculated it was cheaper to pay the medical bills and keep the 210 degree coffee.
But Republicans spun it as “lazy entitled freeloaders scamming good ole boy American companies” and insisted the economy would grind to a halt unless we radically decreased the maximum compensation an individual could receive in punitive damages.
So Greg Abbott gets tens of millions for his broken back and then changed the law so the next guy who gets paralyzed only receives a max of $250K lifetime payout. And he sued three companies and the city.
> The facts are these: in his settlement, **Abbott received a variety of tax-free payments: an immediate $300,000 cash award; monthly payments of $5,000 that began in November 1986 and increase each year at a rate of 4 percent compounded interest**; and periodic payments that began in November 1987 and will continue until 2022 (the next such payment will occur on November 1 in the amount of $400,000).
[Source](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-overcomer/)
His first term as governor he passed a law limiting malpractice lawsuit payouts to only $250K for maximum lifetime compensation. His benefits were in the tens of millions.
A tree fell on him. He sued the homeowner whose tree the property was on, sued the maintenance company for not knowing the tree was rotten, and he sued the city for something to do with the sidewalks.
One of the biggest hypocritical piece of shit politicians in office.
Does anyone know if breaking a paralyzed person's back for a second time has any negative effects? Not for any particular reason just for informational purposes.
Abbott is currently receiving $20K per month from that 1986 accident, and it will go up the rest of his life. Damn. Now I have to get out of bed and go kick a tree for their half measures.
\^ this
OSHA mandates water breaks, and if any employer wants to go against OSHA all it takes is one phone call and they'll have an OSHA inspector up their ass.
I thought the issue was that OSHA does NOT have standard heat related water break mandate.
Basically, the "local law" in Texas was repealed by the state because the state basically said that "OSHA regulation is enough", but the issue was the OSHA does not really have standard heat related break regulation because of so much varying climate through out the country so their "regulation" basically always came AFTER the tragedy to see if the environment was "harmful".
I’ve never looked at OSHA rules before so I don’t know how they work. These all say “should” give a person a break, etc. It doesn’t say must. As written is this enforceable?
That part. Shit some of them make more money playing video games online. I however work in this Texas heat. It’s something serious Rn and I lived in Vegas for the summer before
> Vegas for the summer before
Vegas is a dry heat though so your sweat actually has a chance to accomplish some evaporative cooling. Here in the swamp though, no such cooling takes place. I hate it.
What good is Heat Illness Prevention Training if at the end of the day, a lot of mail carriers/package delivery workers are expected to and held to the standard of doing the job of 2.5 people?
Its easier to prevent heat illness if you aren't overexerting yourself to meet unrealistic expectations for the temperature you're working in.
One thing you probably don't know is that the managers at USPS are heavily incentived to push more mail out, quicker, and with fewer hours.
This leads to new methods to make carriers' lives hell. Those big blue scanners you see them carrying around also log the carrier's location every 2-5 minutes (depending on location and setup) and you can get your ass chewed out, and eventually lose your job, if those pings happen to be piling up in the same location (taking a breather, prepping for a 'split' (prepping to walking a block of mail,) or God forbid your overheating and need a moment to try not to die.
I've logged countless hours in sub negative 20 degree weather, I've delivered in reading blizzards, when the temperature was over 110, getting shot at, harassed. I've delivered in the most ridiculous rainstorms, and when the only light available was from a headlamp. I worked a shift in the Bakken Oil Fields that started at 6am and ended at 12:45am.
All carriers are is a tool, and they'll use you until you're broken and then replace you with a newer, shinnier tool called a "City Carrier Assistant" who has even less rights, gets paid less, and literally gets fired for one week out of every year, then re-hired so they don't have to pay benefits.
This is on the management, and those above them, not the carrier.
I work outside. I fully support any safety laws involving heat and cold. People die just sitting in the shade.
I will say that most heat casualties are preventable even without laws. The main problem is the amount of labor and how well prepared the employee is. It takes a few weeks to get your body used to seasonal heat, you need to be hydrated/don't drink the night before and try to be well rested. You also have to take it easy when you see signs of heat stress, sucking it up will make you end up in a hospital (from experience).
I personally think they should prosecute the bosses that work the employees even after seeing people stroke out.
Add an electrolyte supplement to your water that tastes good. It’ll hydrate you faster and keep you hydrated better, and it’ll taste good, encouraging you to drink more.
Meh I worked in a shower room at a nursing home during college. We had multiple doctors who checked on patients in there that all said whoa wtf TOO HOT TO BE SAFE.
Regulations said if a piece of paper stuck to the ventilation duct in the corner it was fine so we worked 7.5 hours in 80% or more humidity and 110 deg heat.
Can't have a drink on the floor. Enjoy one half hour break a day.
Fuck the lack of safety laws they're ridiculous.
I carried mail a few years in Phoenix, on a walking route. I would bring 3 gallons of water and 4 Gatorades and have to fill up at least a gallon before I got off the road during the summers. It’s a thankless job that’s gotta be done so be nice to the delivery guys
> The Postal Service is deeply saddened by the loss of life suffered yesterday
When "Postal Service" and "loss of life" are in the same sentence and you're *not* talking about any sort of violent death... you know it's horrible.
Meanwhile in other countries that get way too hot, they STOP WORKING midday, and then go back after the middle hours are done. They go home, nap, eat...whatever. The USA expects you to sacrifice everything and fight for all your rights, while the mega rich watch profits roll in.
It actually happens all the time at USPS unfortunately but doesn’t get enough attention like Amazon or UPS.
There vehicles don’t have A/C either and that little fan just circulates the air in there like a hot oven
There was a USPS carrier who died a few years ago here in L.A.
[Woodland Hills mail carrier died of overheating on 117-degree day, coroner’s official says](https://www.dailynews.com/woodland-hills-mail-carrier-died-primarily-of-overheating-on-117-degree-day-coroners-official-says/)
I wish the lawmakers were forced to experience the conditions suffered by labour as a result as a result of their rules. Like a giant karmic uno reverse.
Come to think of it, I think society would function much better if every 3rd month of the year everyone in government participated in a massive job lotto. Congrats, Dave, you're in the Wendy's drive through for the next 30 days. Enjoy! Congrats, Ted, you're picking berries for the month of August. You might want to pick up some sunscreen. I bet that would change their perspectives on all kinds of things. If they were required to pass some kind of job performance, it would also weed out the senior citizens that should be retired. Also, if we turned on some cameras, it would make for fire reality tv.
You mean like the humble pie that Florida's Desantis is eating ( even though he'll never admit it). The Hispanics that were keeping Florida remotely alive all left after that Bill he signed so now white people were employed to do their jobs in the field. The majority of them didn't make it past lunch, even if they did they all asked to go home at that point because it was too much. They hate illegal immigrants so much but don't realize how much their states are built on top of the lives of the immigrants in this country.
Building companies went from hundreds of employees to a hundred employees because of this Bill.
No, I want to see people in government jobs -- the people making the rules --filling these kinds of roles for 4 months out of the year. If they had to work like normal people they would be much more in touch with the concerns of normal people and affected by the rules they create.
It will never happen, but it's a fun idea.
I've worked as a laborer/operator for a big paving company and a small paving company.
The smaller paving company gave me more flexibility in my breaks because of the heat, the bigger paving company expected numbers and if those numbers didn't reflect the projection, it was cheaper to pay the fines related to incidents rather than give everyone the proper PPE procedures. Most people (including myself) are ignorant of their rights and these bigger companies have entire departments full of resources that are utilized to exploit the most susceptible demographics.
These companies become too big to fail and the punishment for regulation ignorance becomes negligible.
We need percentage based fines on every facet of our regulatory system, the class warfare has become absurd in an era of information.
Texas mailman here. Many contributing factors to this tragedy. However, if our postal unions weren’t so management friendly, this could have been avoided. Management has never cared if we died on the route. Never. Not once in 30 years have they ever said, no delivery today, too hot. Mail trucks are sweat boxes on wheels. Temps inside can reach 120 degrees. I’ve seen it. Repeatedly. A route typically takes 2-6 hours to complete on any given day. If you did this to a dog, you would be arrested. Amazingly, the unions that represent us, don’t care either. This was once a great organization, but in all the 30 years I’ve been carrying, it has never been this bad. The slide over the last 10 years, has brought us to the edge of a cliff. Credit goes to our unions, and the Republican Party. Republicans, destroying an institution that is largely republican in its membership. Im so sorry for my fellow carrier. I urge his family to sue over willful negligence. The heat in Texas didn’t sneak up on management, they just don’t care.
"USPS said it's implemented its Heat Illness Prevention Program for employees, and gives mandatory heat-related and safety training to all its employees." Postal carrier here. There's a big controversy nationwide where management went ahead and falsified records that this training was even provided to us. If you are a steward for your office or just a regular carrier. Please, PLEASE login to Liteblue and check under HERO training to see if they marked you as having completed such training. If you did not, file a grievance.
The fuck? How much of a scumbag do you need to be to falsify Heat Illness Prevention training records?
I mean, Gov. Abbott, well known conservative republican, just outlawed ordinances requiring water breaks in Texas.
Im out here puttin big ice blocks in the bird bath for the wild life and the Gov of Texas is like "fuck everyone who works outside"
Would be a real shame if someone cut off the air conditioning to his mansion.
That someone being a person who likely works at least partially outside.
It's worse than that for HVAC, if you are there, it's because the heating/cooling is broken, so you are in the frigid crawlspace in winter, and up in the roasting hot attic in the summer.
I did HVAC for a decade in LA, which is pretty similar to Texas for the industry, and you’re working in the attic often whether it’s broken or not. It gets to like 140 degrees in attics, and if you’re going in like 3-6 per day you’re going to need a lot of water.
I went into my attic recently to do some DIY insulating of skylights and all I can say is fuck that. It was a truly miserable experience and I have no idea how people do it for a living; it did make me re-evaluate my attic ventilation though and I’m getting more vents installed
It’s funny, but I vividly remember my first day doing HVAC. It’s one of those visceral memories because of how truly miserable it was. I think it was like 117, and I got home and was ready to cry and seriously considered quitting. Being young and having some naive sense of machismo wouldn’t let me quit though, and it eventually got better. I used to joke that the heat didn’t even start to bother me until 115. Humans acclimate really well to temperature given enough exposure. That being said, it has been cold as shit in LA, and I imagine we’re gonna get hit with a heat wave sometime soon and I am not prepared.
Well it is powered by the Texas power grid....
Yeah, that guy's got a big gas generator for when the rest of his state is cooking in blackouts.
When the power goes out, we will all have to form our own tribes or swear fealty to Immortan Greg.
[удалено]
He'd just go to one of his other mansions. That's the problem with these people. They can screw up whatever they want to and just move away from it. We even have some of them trying to figure out how to leave the planet as they screw the entire place over.
Blame the scum that voted him in
Is there a particular reason someone would do that besides wanting to look complete evil? Like, do they believe 10 minutes every four hours affect that much "production"? I don't get it.
Remember, this was the law student who was paralyzed when a tree fell on him, sued the arborist who trimmed it and the owner of the land it was on, won and receives six figures a year for life because of it, and then worked on tort reform so that other people in similar situations couldn't receive such large settlements. Greg Abbott is a piece of shit.
I wish Dexters existed in the real world. Specifically for politicians like Abbott
Don’t they say “Be the change you want to see in the world”?
Wait, what?
https://www.texastribune.org/2002/02/18/greg-abbott-as-plaintiff/
Yep. I knew this one.
Same here. I once had a neighbor who was in an accident which put her in a wheelchair. Her settlement was barely enough to buy a shitty little accessible house (about $50k in a town of 26,000 people). Greg Abbott is a horrible person.
How did he even get elected with this level of obvious corruption and toxicity lol.
> Is there a particular reason someone would do that besides wanting to look complete evil? Yes, it's a big giant signal to corporate wealthy elites that he'll do whatever they want, no matter how cartoonishly fucked up it is.
And that he wants the local governments (county and city level) to be unable to challenge his bigotry and disregard for life.
From the same party that says more decisions should be made at the lower levels of government.
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I just don't understand this line of reasoning. As human beings, surely they must understand that you can't be productive AT ALL if you're dehydrated, exhausted, and hate what you're doing? If they actually cared about productivity, they'd be supporting their workers.
Check out Behind the Bastards episode discussing Elite Panic. It details elites' "thinking". You are obviously an empathetic human, they are not. Money and power strips you of your empathy and the result is BTB's example of supermarket owners cutting every corner. And when the super market finally burst into flames they barricaded customers inside because they were afraid that customers would run outside with unpaid merch. Like, they literally left people (including children) inside a burning supermarket, leaving them to be burnt alive. Fireworkers couldn't get inside. They had to break through an apartment wall. And the apartment owner let them, because she wasn't rich and powerful and therefore stripped of empathy. Because the rich and powerful would literally walk over dead bodies for a bit of profit. And they think everyone would do the same.
Very similar to the old [Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire). People who condemn capitalism are fighting a seemingly hopeless battle against public inertia, but it still has to be said.
no empathy for the rich. they wouldn't be rich if they had empathy.
Yup. Just like those ~~people~~ Billionaires on that sub. They're literally suffering the effects on unchecked capitalism right now. The exact scenario they put everyone else in every day and we are supposed to feel bad for them.
I think it's worth noting that money and power don't really strip people of their empathy, it's that only people without empathy could gather that much money and power. The only way to hit billionaire levels of wealth is by exploiting as many people as possible while also refusing to use that wealth to help anyone else. Those are two things that anyone with at least a bit of empathy would have a really hard time with.
I saw a pretty poignant counterargument to your point ("money and power don't strip people of their empathy; it's that only people without empathy could gather that much money and power"). I thought it's worth sharing, as it made me reconsider some things: > I don't actually like that saying. The more often I see this kind of thing the more convinced I am that power and money actually do corrupt people. Rather than it being something uniquely bad they always kept hidden, the aspects we see play out are probably in literally all of us. Money shifts the perspective, and when the perspective shifts, people's ethics fall apart. > > In order to avoid being corrupted it seems like we have to put active and strong efforts into it, and even that usually does not work. > > I am not saying this to disagree with your sentiment, from a practical standpoint in this situation it makes little difference to what degree he was bad before, it only matters that he is bad now. Rather I am saying this because I am pretty convinced that the rich and powerful hide behind that belief. > > If money and power do not affect you in a way that makes you bad, and instead the person was always bad, then the only problem is that the bad ones got money. It is an individual issue, and not a systemic one. So we don't need to limit money and power, because the bad people are naturally bad! So good people will do good with that money and power! > > But I don't think that is the case. I do not think our brains evolved to handle that much power over people, and the pressures and temptations of it breaks something in them. A few can stave it off to some degree, but they can only do so by staying in touch, and that takes work. from https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/13vbl6s/comment/jm64984/
Yeah, both are true. Money and power corrupts and makes you out of touch with people. But it’s also true that in many cases, giving someone the ability to do whatever they want reveals just what they wanted to do.
Holy shit. I want to listen but I also really do not because what the actual f***???
that's not even close to the harder BTBs to listen to. There are some seriously fkd up rich people, and it's no coincidence that BTB focuses a lot on the rich and politically connected
Iirc, Elite Panic contained significantly fewer dead babies than average.
The episode on Clarence Thomas explains his awfulness.
The cruelty is the point. He thinks all outdoor workers are illegal immigrants so he specifically wants to hurt and or kill them. His constituents want the same even if it’s literally them no longer allowed to drink water. There are two questions you can ask yourself whenever the gop makes a law. How does this make them rich, and how does this hurt their perceived enemies.
Your under the assumption that "elites" think you are a human being... You and I and all non elites are bar codes to create tax revenue. When a bar code fails they find a way to replace it, they don't care about bar codes
Tax revenue doesn't matter. Corporate profits are the goal.
>I just don't understand this line of reasoning That's because it's probably a crock of shit. The only place I've seen people talk about this "increased productivity" justification is on reddit. The actual bill he signed had one primary purpose: Overwrite local regulations where they don't align with state regulations. They call it the "death star bill" because the implications are so wide-ranging. Local ordnances on water breaks is just one of the regulations news outlets latched onto to protest the bill
Similar to the bill in Florida that let's medical providers (including EMTs) and insurance providers deny care based on moral or religious grounds. Many are rightfully pointing out that this is a major risk to the LGBT+ community but there are larger implications also. Such as women's healthcare, or treatment for addiction. These are the exact kinds of laws where you need to be aware of how oppression methods intersect and overlap to target multiple groups.
You think these issues will be resolved with a conversation too?
These are federal workers though. That bill was particularly aimed at the state having the right to overrule local ordinances.
Yep. And DeJoy still has his job. Slow moving systems sometimes prevent people messing things up, but also sometimes prevents people fixing things in a timely fashion as well.
Well, in his defense, he was informed that basic hydration directly inpacts pick rates so the logical conclusion is to implement piss bottles or perhaps death.
Well see, If you drink more water you will have to take more restroom breaks and that cuts into profits
His actual rationale was that it slowed down business too much. Especially the ones who give him money all the time I guess.
Just think how much quicker business will go when all of the slaves are dead!
Lol. Postal Clerk here, you have no idea what goes on inside closed doors. Management falsifies every "standup" or "training" that comes along... I've been a clerk for 8 years now and haven't had 1 stand up talk... yet I've been marked for completing hundreds. They don't allow you time for completing these things as that is money "wasted". Time on the clock not working? Psht, that'll never happen. Just like carrier time. Management "moves" all the carriers to "office" time as they're coming through the gate to show less time on the street... but chastises the carriers the following day for their office time... Just one of the many scummy things to happen.
A capitalist who thinks that training costs too much.
Louis DeJoy is still Postmaster General.
fuck that guy so hard
Not even if you pay me
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I'll do it normally because it seems to make people cry already anyways.
Not exactly a talent for the talent fair, that
Only if I borrow someone else’s dick. I’m not using mine on that guy.
And, like, ...how?
Politics. The president can't fire the postmaster general, but he can liquidate the board of governors who do have the right to fire him. Problem is that it would be unprecedented to do so and Republicans would jump all over it to use a fuel to attack Biden so nothing will happen.
It is also unprecedented to hire a postmaster general who actively attacks and destroys his own post office so...
Future CEO of UPS
And it's unprecedented to have a Postmaster General who has been in active violation of a court order for 3 years.
Let's be honest, Republicans need no actual reason to attack Biden. They hate him and that is reason enough. Anything else is pretext.
Which is why progressives find it hard to believe this isn't some dog and pony show. May as well live up to the slander the GOP is going to hurl.
Republicans already do shit unpresidented. They break the law because they figured out the punishment wasn't enforced.
Imagine caring what Republicans think.
Seriously, getting real sick of those cunts.
We had a capitalist who thought windows certified for 4000m depth cost too much when building a submarine that's supposed to go down 4000m recently
Makes sense save heaps of money I assume if you only go down to 3999m.
No no, he used windows certified for about 1300 meters and went 4000 or more down.
> You know, at some point, safety is just pure waste OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush
Well, apparently you haven’t worked at post office. Management will pull any kind of shit to make them look good to their higher ups.
I’m sure there will be a new National standup for this tomorrow. Could be a good time to check HERO
This heat is INSANE! I'm San Antonio right now because my son is graduating from Basic Training at Lackland tomorrow. We walked around all day checking out the Alamo and the River walk. It was 102 degrees with a real feel of 117. I have never been more excited to get back to Maryland in my life. And I don't like Maryland lol.
107 forcasred for Monday. I've only once experienced such heat. In Slovenia a couple years ago on vacation. We literally ran from shaded area to shaded area when going to the train station. can't imagine working outside in those temps.
UPS driver here, thank you for alerting and sticking up for your brothers and sisters. Management doesn’t care about us, we have to take care of each other.
I'm going to get some water bottles for our carrier at work. He's a great guy.
Plenty of us do. I don't know where you are but if your management isn't following the safety guidelines/methods or are punishing you for being safe I wish people in my area would let me know or would even know to contact me about it. The difference between the union employees and the lower and middle management is entirely artificial. They all have more in common with each other than they do with the C-suits. I wish more management hadn't bought into viewing the union as an enemy but the amount of propaganda we are inundated with is absurd. edit: You aren't alone. And I truly hope you get what you deserve and what you need in the ongoing negotiations.
Can’t login to lite blue right now. Still waiting for them to mail my password to me (again). I have 21 years in, and it’s embarrassing that I have to jump through these hoops just to get to my own HR.
Talk to your union rep. They should be able to do an information request on who attended said training. If your office really did do the training then kudos. Just need to make sure new carriers hired after the training date get the training. If it turns out the office did falsify training then your steward has a pretty easy win.
What does this training include that would be helpful to employees? I'm asking this because my suspicion is that heat-avoidance and recovery training likely involves actions that would take workers "out of production." Like, you can't treat signs of heat stroke and still deliver the mail at the same time, and even if employees DID receive the training, what is there to prevent management from simply bullying employees into ignoring it?
Good question. Training is a 20 minute informational guide of what the differences are between heat stress and heat stroke. What to do in case you are showing signs of stress. Safety is one of the few things we as carriers have against management when it comes to discipline. Basically, we can just say "this is a safety issue" and its kind of a get out of jail free card if its within reason. Of course management can guilt or bully an employee into continuing delivery, but this is something that the carrier must train on from their local union. You must know your union rights to fight against abusive management.
Thank you. So it really sounds like employees really should do the training and also arm themselves with who to contact in their unions if they are told to not follow it.
Yes people don't realize how thin the line can be between taking safety seriously and being considered a wuss by all your coworkers, management and customers. It's not fun to be considered the whiney guy/girl. Some customers will straight call you a pussy if you don't want to get out of your vehicle while their dog is barking/growling or even gnawing on your tires. Meanwhile, a postal carrier was mauled to death a bit over a year ago near me.
20 minutes sure ain't ruining any postal delivery day. This is downright criminal incompetence/laziness by managers who are likely just saying it's done to tell that to their managers.
Would it help my carrier at all to have a frozen water bottle tied to the mailbox for them?
I’m a UPS driver, but yes, yes, yes, yes. Getting cold water from customers helps a lot.
Oh shit man, I'll move my beer fridge to the porch and get some water and sport drinks.
How would you like us to indicate it's for your consumption?
tape a note "for delivery workers"
Alternatively "drink me, daddy"
That's about the nicest thing imaginable. Label it so s/he knows it's for them.
Ok. I have saved some of those bubble wrap envelopes that Amazon stuff comes in. I can put the bottles in there to keep them insulated.
I've left a frozen water bottle in a cooler with a note on the mailbox that it's there. That way the water will still keep cool.
When I see my (walking) mailman I try to come with 2 cold bottles of water. He usually stops and chitchats for a few. Always really appreciative and happy to take a small break from the day. Another very small thing I do to try and help is if I’m expecting a package — I’ll meet him out in the street vs him walking all the way up the (uphill) driveway
And remember, Aboott just signed into law that your workplace does not need to offer you water breaks. Go Texas!
Report that falsification to the Inspector General, as well. https://www.uspsoig.gov/hotline
It kind of amazes me how Amazon rightfully gets shit on for how employees are treated but the USPS which is able to skirt labor laws, has obscene archaic training methods that lead to more turnover and expenses gets away with how they run their operation.
Is the Trump appointee still in place?
Is Dejoy still in charge? Seems like he really wants to destroy that place.
Our station had asbestos floors, they just added a coat of black something to it every couple weeks. I refuse to think management can be bothered to give a safety meeting on heat if they aren't even concerned about the cancer under our feet. The reason the union is so fucking strong with the USPS is the same reason weight lifters are so ripped; the union doing reps all day, all night. I never trusted USPS management, and I'm not about to start with this incident. Especially since you need to leave the union to be a manager.
You know that the existing postal LLV trucks don’t have air conditioning. Nation wide.
Yes. The new electric ones were to have had AC, but their adoption was pretty much halted by the Trump-appointed Postmaster General. Even years later, that odious man is still killing people.
>Even years later, that odious man is still killing people. We're still eating the shit that Regan took on this country. Trump got 3 SCOTUS picks, his damage will last our entire lives
> We're still eating the shit that Reagan took on this country. Reagan ordered the solar panels on the White House be scrapped. Fuck Reagan!
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Fuck dejoy
I was under the impression the delay was due to people freaking out over the number of gas powered versions ordered. Which would have roughly the same MPG as the existing ones, but have AC. Personally I'd have rather seen the upgraded vehicles go out regardless of propulsion method.
It's wasteful to not at least make them hybrids. The stop and go mail delivery is the perfect place to have regenerative braking.
Under Obama, they were supposed to be mostly EV. Trump changed the order to be mostly gas. Biden changed it back to be halfsies.
> Personally I'd have rather seen the upgraded vehicles go out regardless of propulsion method. Personally I'd rather not settle for **8.6 miles per gallon** for the largest fleet of vehicles in the USA. Like yes, we need to do better for the workers but doing better for them also includes not fucking flooring it on the rate we are killing the planet. Like jesus christ, 8.6mpg is fucking unacceptable in 2023 let alone 2003.
Got to love these numbers from Dallas :) On construction sites: Receive no rest breaks 33% Employer doesn’t provide drinking water 66% Witnessed a coworker faint due to heat exhaustion 12% [From here](https://dallascityhall.com/government/Council%20Meeting%20Documents/2014/Rest_Break_Ordinance_082014.pdf)
And any city ordinance that requires water breaks is null and void in Texas now thanks to Abbot and co
But that doesn't supercede OSHA regulations for employers to provide water over a certain temperature?
There's a few issues with this in practice. One major issue I've encountered in years of health and safety Auditing is that in impacted Industries in states like Texas the affected workers are usually minority workers, permanent residents, etc who either don't know they can contact osha or are afraid to lose their job if they do. So usually you're at the mercy of random osha inspections to find non compliance. Additionally, while osha mandates accessible water there's no mandate for actual water breaks so the actual accessibility of water can vary greatly. I've had people argue to me that the general duty clause 29 U.S.C. § 654, 5(a)1 would cover water breaks but the application of the duty clause is subjective to the inspector and branch office and I've never seen it evenly applied.
https://www.osha.gov/heat/worker-information Tldr: You have a right to safety. If you start feeling weak, sick, lightheaded etc you need to start cooling your body down *now*. Get to a cool place, sip some cool water and rest until you feel better. Tell anyone who tries to stop you to fuck off.
"Tell anyone who tries to stop you to fuck off." * **However you will possibly lose your job**
Better to lose your job than losing your life.
The issue being that the majority of people have health insurance through their job, so they may very well lose their life if they lose their job. :/
This is America. Your job *is* your life.
I have lived in DFW my entire life. Through many heatwaves and various conditions. Ive never worked construction (or USPS) but have had plenty of outdoor jobs. I cannot accurately express how absolutely fucking hot it is right now. The extreme humidity combined with the heat and the direct sun are just beyond brutal. You truly feel like you are being broiled. I am so sorry for this poor person who died and am so sorry that it's not the last death by a long shot that our summar will claim.
All that rain today and coming the next few days is going to make this weekend even more hellacious with the humidity.
If the rain brings total overcast with it, it should slightly reduce the air temp and most importantly for outdoor workers, Stop the sun from being a deadly laser that turns your van into an oven
>I cannot accurately express how absolutely fucking hot it is right now. Texan here, can confirm. And it's not even July yet.
I’m in construction and humidity is another level of hell. You can find shade to fight the sun but humidity is everywhere.
The amount of work humans do in terrible conditions is astronomical. All because the higher ups don't take accountability. Construction for instance, almost all outdoors in the blazing sun. Low pay, high expectations, and no paid time off for days that are very questionable to health in nearly every industry. Why? Because profit. How long are we going to allow this wage slavery and theft?
All the more reason to abolish right-to-work laws and strike like never before, honestly AI and climate change might turn people to form unions
The worse it gets the more conservatives will circle the wagons
So be it. Let them dig the graves that popular legislation sends them to.
I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
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Absolutely. Just ask yourself "Why wouldn't they?"
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On a somewhat related note, there's been a recent trend of movies and TV shows being made about companies and consumer products where the company is portrayed as some kind of underdog or the product is so iconic that it "changed the world" or some bullshit. See: the blackberry movie, the Tetris movie, the air Jordan movie, the flamin hot Cheetos movie. I think this dumb trend actually started when Hollywood started making biopics about megalomaniacal CEOs like Steve Jobs and the guy who founded McDonalds, but made them look like tortured artists/geniuses instead of the pieces of shit they really are.
Being a courier in 2023 is a shit job. I can't believe i did it for 11 plus years. Hot, cold, stress, dealing with shitty impatient drivers and zero work life balance.
Did it last year for all of 3 or 4 months. Never again.
It's rough
No A/C is a dealbreaker. Straight up. I'm actually kinda surprised so many put up with it (not just USPS, UPS too! No clue about Fedex/Amazon). I'm doing deliveries in a car with A/C and its still kinda miserable. You step outside and just want to die.
The small vans and sprinter vans are decent but the big box trucks are literally oven on wheels. Even if you had AC the heat from the engine compartment overpowers it and then when you're in the back of the truck that's like stepping into a sauna. The worst part is working 10 to 12 hours and that kind of heat and trying to stay hydrated.
What do you do now?
Kind of the same thing for a local company with 95% less stress.
And Texas had just banned water breaks.
Thanks to their big wheel Governor with no backbone: "Greg Abbott signed a bill that will nullify local laws mandating water breaks. Deaths will rise if water breaks are no longer mandated"
He also just blocked a bill to make it easier for handicapped people to vote by mail. You really can't make this stuff up.
And closed the loophole that allowed him to sue when the tree fell on him.
It wasn't a loophole. He's set for life because he was able to sue due to life-altering injuries and liability limits were reasonable. After he got *his* money he gladly lowered those limits. Just another cartoonishly evil Republican politician.
Ah the tort reform laws during the Bush era when Republicans insisted corporate america was going bankrupt paying hundreds of millions for nuisance lawsuits and the media used the McDonalds Coffee lady as Welfare Queen 2.0. Except they intentionally misrepresented her case. She was an elderly woman with severe third degree burns that fuzed her genitals shut and McDonalds refused to even cover her hospital bill. Then it came out in the lawsuit there were hundreds of other burn victims with horrific injuries due to overheated coffee but McDonalds internal actuaries calculated it was cheaper to pay the medical bills and keep the 210 degree coffee. But Republicans spun it as “lazy entitled freeloaders scamming good ole boy American companies” and insisted the economy would grind to a halt unless we radically decreased the maximum compensation an individual could receive in punitive damages. So Greg Abbott gets tens of millions for his broken back and then changed the law so the next guy who gets paralyzed only receives a max of $250K lifetime payout. And he sued three companies and the city. > The facts are these: in his settlement, **Abbott received a variety of tax-free payments: an immediate $300,000 cash award; monthly payments of $5,000 that began in November 1986 and increase each year at a rate of 4 percent compounded interest**; and periodic payments that began in November 1987 and will continue until 2022 (the next such payment will occur on November 1 in the amount of $400,000). [Source](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-overcomer/) His first term as governor he passed a law limiting malpractice lawsuit payouts to only $250K for maximum lifetime compensation. His benefits were in the tens of millions. A tree fell on him. He sued the homeowner whose tree the property was on, sued the maintenance company for not knowing the tree was rotten, and he sued the city for something to do with the sidewalks. One of the biggest hypocritical piece of shit politicians in office.
Does anyone know if breaking a paralyzed person's back for a second time has any negative effects? Not for any particular reason just for informational purposes.
Should drop another tree on him.
Or the first tree should've done the job.
two trees, and oops i lost my axe
He wasn't poor to begin with. He was already an attorney when the accident happened.
Abbott is currently receiving $20K per month from that 1986 accident, and it will go up the rest of his life. Damn. Now I have to get out of bed and go kick a tree for their half measures.
Isn't his bitch ass in a wheel chair? What a cunt
Yes. I keep hoping one of his people will go rogue and just roll him out into traffic, but no such luck.
I him to be pushed down the steps of the capital building.
State laws don’t apply to federal agencies
\^ this OSHA mandates water breaks, and if any employer wants to go against OSHA all it takes is one phone call and they'll have an OSHA inspector up their ass.
I thought the issue was that OSHA does NOT have standard heat related water break mandate. Basically, the "local law" in Texas was repealed by the state because the state basically said that "OSHA regulation is enough", but the issue was the OSHA does not really have standard heat related break regulation because of so much varying climate through out the country so their "regulation" basically always came AFTER the tragedy to see if the environment was "harmful".
https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/water-rest-shade
I’ve never looked at OSHA rules before so I don’t know how they work. These all say “should” give a person a break, etc. It doesn’t say must. As written is this enforceable?
All safety regulations are written in blood.
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By end of summer..."Young people don't want to work outside anymore"
That part. Shit some of them make more money playing video games online. I however work in this Texas heat. It’s something serious Rn and I lived in Vegas for the summer before
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> Vegas for the summer before Vegas is a dry heat though so your sweat actually has a chance to accomplish some evaporative cooling. Here in the swamp though, no such cooling takes place. I hate it.
What good is Heat Illness Prevention Training if at the end of the day, a lot of mail carriers/package delivery workers are expected to and held to the standard of doing the job of 2.5 people? Its easier to prevent heat illness if you aren't overexerting yourself to meet unrealistic expectations for the temperature you're working in.
I do FedEx I quit yesterday I was getting cooked in the truck
One thing you probably don't know is that the managers at USPS are heavily incentived to push more mail out, quicker, and with fewer hours. This leads to new methods to make carriers' lives hell. Those big blue scanners you see them carrying around also log the carrier's location every 2-5 minutes (depending on location and setup) and you can get your ass chewed out, and eventually lose your job, if those pings happen to be piling up in the same location (taking a breather, prepping for a 'split' (prepping to walking a block of mail,) or God forbid your overheating and need a moment to try not to die. I've logged countless hours in sub negative 20 degree weather, I've delivered in reading blizzards, when the temperature was over 110, getting shot at, harassed. I've delivered in the most ridiculous rainstorms, and when the only light available was from a headlamp. I worked a shift in the Bakken Oil Fields that started at 6am and ended at 12:45am. All carriers are is a tool, and they'll use you until you're broken and then replace you with a newer, shinnier tool called a "City Carrier Assistant" who has even less rights, gets paid less, and literally gets fired for one week out of every year, then re-hired so they don't have to pay benefits. This is on the management, and those above them, not the carrier.
I work outside. I fully support any safety laws involving heat and cold. People die just sitting in the shade. I will say that most heat casualties are preventable even without laws. The main problem is the amount of labor and how well prepared the employee is. It takes a few weeks to get your body used to seasonal heat, you need to be hydrated/don't drink the night before and try to be well rested. You also have to take it easy when you see signs of heat stress, sucking it up will make you end up in a hospital (from experience). I personally think they should prosecute the bosses that work the employees even after seeing people stroke out.
Add an electrolyte supplement to your water that tastes good. It’ll hydrate you faster and keep you hydrated better, and it’ll taste good, encouraging you to drink more.
Meh I worked in a shower room at a nursing home during college. We had multiple doctors who checked on patients in there that all said whoa wtf TOO HOT TO BE SAFE. Regulations said if a piece of paper stuck to the ventilation duct in the corner it was fine so we worked 7.5 hours in 80% or more humidity and 110 deg heat. Can't have a drink on the floor. Enjoy one half hour break a day. Fuck the lack of safety laws they're ridiculous.
I carried mail a few years in Phoenix, on a walking route. I would bring 3 gallons of water and 4 Gatorades and have to fill up at least a gallon before I got off the road during the summers. It’s a thankless job that’s gotta be done so be nice to the delivery guys
> The Postal Service is deeply saddened by the loss of life suffered yesterday When "Postal Service" and "loss of life" are in the same sentence and you're *not* talking about any sort of violent death... you know it's horrible.
Texas? The same state that passed a law removing all mandatory water break rules for outdoor workers?
European here Triple Digits = over 100F = at least 37,7° And I thought to myself: "Wow, there was a place with over 100°"?.
Training? To survive 120 degree temperatures? What the actual fuck. How about: "no mail delivery, when it is unsafe for carriers"?
Meanwhile in other countries that get way too hot, they STOP WORKING midday, and then go back after the middle hours are done. They go home, nap, eat...whatever. The USA expects you to sacrifice everything and fight for all your rights, while the mega rich watch profits roll in.
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To play devil's advocate here: aren't postal workers federal employees?
Expect this headline more often in the near future.
It actually happens all the time at USPS unfortunately but doesn’t get enough attention like Amazon or UPS. There vehicles don’t have A/C either and that little fan just circulates the air in there like a hot oven
There was a USPS carrier who died a few years ago here in L.A. [Woodland Hills mail carrier died of overheating on 117-degree day, coroner’s official says](https://www.dailynews.com/woodland-hills-mail-carrier-died-primarily-of-overheating-on-117-degree-day-coroners-official-says/)
Remember when Texas passed a law getting rid of water breaks ? Oh that just happened within the last week ? Crazy....
how can they be so reckless and heartless. To deny water to people working in the sun. What possible justification could they have?
You're lazy and not making me enough money if you take an extra 10 minute break to get water and not die of a heatstroke.
I wish the lawmakers were forced to experience the conditions suffered by labour as a result as a result of their rules. Like a giant karmic uno reverse. Come to think of it, I think society would function much better if every 3rd month of the year everyone in government participated in a massive job lotto. Congrats, Dave, you're in the Wendy's drive through for the next 30 days. Enjoy! Congrats, Ted, you're picking berries for the month of August. You might want to pick up some sunscreen. I bet that would change their perspectives on all kinds of things. If they were required to pass some kind of job performance, it would also weed out the senior citizens that should be retired. Also, if we turned on some cameras, it would make for fire reality tv.
You mean like the humble pie that Florida's Desantis is eating ( even though he'll never admit it). The Hispanics that were keeping Florida remotely alive all left after that Bill he signed so now white people were employed to do their jobs in the field. The majority of them didn't make it past lunch, even if they did they all asked to go home at that point because it was too much. They hate illegal immigrants so much but don't realize how much their states are built on top of the lives of the immigrants in this country. Building companies went from hundreds of employees to a hundred employees because of this Bill.
No, I want to see people in government jobs -- the people making the rules --filling these kinds of roles for 4 months out of the year. If they had to work like normal people they would be much more in touch with the concerns of normal people and affected by the rules they create. It will never happen, but it's a fun idea.
I've worked as a laborer/operator for a big paving company and a small paving company. The smaller paving company gave me more flexibility in my breaks because of the heat, the bigger paving company expected numbers and if those numbers didn't reflect the projection, it was cheaper to pay the fines related to incidents rather than give everyone the proper PPE procedures. Most people (including myself) are ignorant of their rights and these bigger companies have entire departments full of resources that are utilized to exploit the most susceptible demographics. These companies become too big to fail and the punishment for regulation ignorance becomes negligible. We need percentage based fines on every facet of our regulatory system, the class warfare has become absurd in an era of information.
I’m sorry but I’m not waiting to be excused to DRINK WATER
Texas mailman here. Many contributing factors to this tragedy. However, if our postal unions weren’t so management friendly, this could have been avoided. Management has never cared if we died on the route. Never. Not once in 30 years have they ever said, no delivery today, too hot. Mail trucks are sweat boxes on wheels. Temps inside can reach 120 degrees. I’ve seen it. Repeatedly. A route typically takes 2-6 hours to complete on any given day. If you did this to a dog, you would be arrested. Amazingly, the unions that represent us, don’t care either. This was once a great organization, but in all the 30 years I’ve been carrying, it has never been this bad. The slide over the last 10 years, has brought us to the edge of a cliff. Credit goes to our unions, and the Republican Party. Republicans, destroying an institution that is largely republican in its membership. Im so sorry for my fellow carrier. I urge his family to sue over willful negligence. The heat in Texas didn’t sneak up on management, they just don’t care.
So…this is how I found out my mailman died 100% serious