Michael Hiltzik: Employers and governments aren't protecting workers from extreme heat. Unions might

In the summer of 2022, UPS driver Esteban Chavez Jr. died from what his family maintains was heat stroke suffered while delivering packages in Pasadena, California. In June, Postal Service letter carrier Eugene Gates Jr. collapsed during his route, and later died at a hospital.

Farmworker Efraín López García died last month after working the fields in South Florida. Also last month, a utility lineman collapsed and died in Marshall, Texas, after working in a heat and humidity environment equivalent to 100 degrees.

Those are dispatches from the battle against the punishing heat that has enveloped much of the United States this summer. It's a battle in which men and women with no choice but to work outdoors are on the front lines. In many occupations and many parts of the country, they're likely to be taking serious casualties.

Figures for this summer and last haven't yet been published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but is horrifying enough: 436 workplace deaths over that 11-year period, including 36 in 2021.