Protecting Workers in a Warming Climate

Jul 12, 2024

As extreme heat envelopes large swaths of the western United States this summer—in line with predictions that climate scientists have been making for years—workers are facing deadly risks. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published the text of a proposed rule that, if it were to become official, would be the first-ever federal regulation protecting millions of workers from heat-related stress.

Alex Press, a staff writer at Jacobin covering labor issues, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the proposed heat protections. She also discussed the legacy of the late labor strategist and organizer Jane McAlevey, who recently passed away from cancer, and was a friend and mentor to Press.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.