NALC – 1/13/25 – Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a proposed rule on heat injury and illness prevention. The agency accepted public comments on the proposed rule through Jan. 14. NALC submitted comments that are available here.
An informal public hearing on the proposed rule is scheduled for June 16. The complete proposed rule is available in the Federal Register.
“NALC has fought for years to protect letter carriers from the increasing dangers of excessive heat,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. “This proposed national standard is the ultimate solution to achieve that protection for letter carriers and other workers who are exposed to heat while on the job. We appreciate OSHA’s commitment to this necessary regulation and stand ready to help in any way possible to move this proposed rule forward.”
Sad to say, but this is more crap from the NALC. Just like the phantom “committees” every contract to improve the work floor environment that they’ve going to “study.” All the while management sends don’t slow down texts to carriers when it’s over 90 degrees. They also refuse to let carriers start earlier, which would help. Then when carriers die, as some do every summer, they fight OSHA to reduce the paltry fines they receive. To the best of my knowledge, the NALC has never even advocated for an extra break when it’s hot while carriers get PDI’D for stopping due to extreme heat. But hey, maybe they’ll study this the next contract.