The United States Postal Service wants to boost its efficiency and service, but a new investigation claims the national mailing service might be falling short in protecting workers from extreme heat.
An investigation by the Texas Observer and the Nation showed that workers are reporting not having gone through the USPS’s Heat Illness Prevention Program, even though on the backend workers are marked as having completed the training, sometimes on days they were not scheduled to work. It’s a shocking discrepancy, and it can have deadly consequences.
La Isla Network finds these developments disturbing. When we witnessed heat-driven death in a sugar mill in Nicaragua, we acted. Our and our partners’ combined efforts saved workers’ lives and made the sugar mill, Ingenio San Antonio, a standard-bearer of worker safety, far out-competing any other company worldwide.
For over a decade La Isla Network has protected workers from illness, injury and death driven by exposure to extreme heat. What we witnessed years ago is what continues to drive our work today.
Heat-driven illness, injury and death is horrible, causing affected workers to suffer. It corrodes the social fabric of entire communities, workforces and countries. When workers fall ill, they exit the workforce and enter the healthcare system, creating a double burden where work becomes more costly as does healthcare. It’s a dangerous cycle, and yet it’s completely preventable. Not only have La Isla Network’s worker protection protocols been shown to protect workers by reducing the incidence of heat-driven illnesses, injuries and deaths, they also bolster the companies for which they work by generating an ROI and increasing productivity.
La Isla Network has always held a steadfast stance on this issue. You cannot increase productivity while skirting the safety of your workforce. It’s bad business and it tears at the fabric of our shared humanity. As the world becomes hotter, the cost of acting in this way will only increase.
Now, we need to bring home these life-saving protocols to the United States and Europe. There’s no better time to act than now. La Isla Network applauds Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan “Delivering for America,” aiming to achieve good business and service. But if the USPS continues to put worker safety from extreme heat second, then that plan might fall short.
For more information contact La Isla Network at in**@la***********.org.
