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Stronger Summertime Safeguards Are Needed

Report Features Health, Safety, Transportation and Worker Protections Needed to Check Corporate Greed, Safeguard Summer

By the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Stronger public protections are needed to keep summertime safe, healthy and affordable, according to a report from the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards released today. “Safeguarding Summer” features 11 worker, health, safety and transportation standards needed to check corporate greed and ensure that summertime is a relaxing, fun time of year for families across the country.

“Summer is supposed to be when we take time off from work to spend with family and friends, enjoy picnics, barbeques and cookouts, lay out by the pool, head to the beach, take road trips across the country or fly to far-flung places,” the report reads. “But what happens if you’ve been deprived of the wages needed to take time off or travel, if road trips, flights and tour boats are potentially dangerous, if it’s way too hot to work or play outside, and there’s a good chance the food and water may be hazardous to your health? Suddenly, summertime looks less like a dreamy vacation and more like a scorching hot nightmare.”

 

This frightening version of summer is far closer to reality than it should be. That the standards called for in the report aren’t already in place is the result of a decades-long war on public protections that has escalated in recent years – led by regulated industries and their deep-pocketed astroturf organizations, the Trump administration and conservatives in Congress. As the report shows, this war on regulation has an extremely high cost – one borne by workers, families, businesses and local communities across the country.

“Safeguarding Summer” was authored by leading groups in the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards – an alliance of more than 160 labor, scientific, research, good government, faith, community, women’s, public health, consumer, civil rights, environmental and public interest organizations committed to defending and advancing our system of public protections. Experts on each safeguard are listed in the report and are available to speak with journalists.

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