PORTLAND, Ore. — When a record-breaking heat wave settled over the Pacific Northwest in late July, it didn't take long for high temperatures to test the effectiveness of new state safety rules aimed at addressing the effects of climate change on both indoor and outdoor workers.
As temperatures exceeded 95 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a week in Portland and shot even higher in other parts of the state, people who work outside experienced "a bit of a mixed bag," said Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, a farmworker's union that represents thousands of agricultural workers in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
"We heard some folks were following the rules, and they were getting water and additional breaks," Lopez said. "But we were hearing a lot of mixed reviews around the shade structures and having shade available to workers, especially folks that were in kind of more remote places."
