As Temperatures Climb Across the Country, Workers Will Suffer

On June 20, cities across the Southwest and into Nevada reached all-time triple-digit highs. Meanwhile, every single state experienced spring temperatures above average, with some in the Northwest reaching record highs. These temperatures have already proved deadly, killing five hikers in Arizona earlier this month. Triple-digit heat earlier that same week is also being blamed for the deaths of two construction workers, 49-year old Dale Heitman in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 15 and 55-year old Thomas F. "Tommy" Barnes on June 14 at the Monsanto campus in nearby Chesterfield, Missouri.

"I've been around since 1973 and we've never seen anything like this," David Zimmermann, president and business manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, told the St. Louis-Southern Illinois Labor Tribune. "With these new buildings, once they close them in, with the guys working in there, it's like working in a big oven"