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HEAT WEEK 2025





Extreme heat is no longer a distant climate threat—it’s a daily reality for all of us.

2024 was the hottest summer on record. The past 10 years (2015-2024) have been the 10 warmest years on record. From industrial laundry workers and airport staff to fast food workers and healthcare workers, our members are on the frontlines of a worsening crisis. This summer has been one of the hottest on record, with dangerous temperatures, wildfires, and storms putting lives and livelihoods at risk. A June heat dome saw extremely high temperatures, with over 2,800 records set during the wave.

Last month, SEIU's Heat Week 2025 generated significant national and local media attention as service workers across multiple industries escalated their demands for workplace heat protections. The campaign brought together fast-food workers and airport service workers to highlight dangerous working conditions during extreme temperature events.

During the heat week kickoff call, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Rocío Sáenz joined SEIU members and elected officials from around the country to talk about what they’re fighting for during Heat Week 2025 to make sure that every worker has a safe and healthy workplace. Congressional support added political weight to the coverage, with Congresswoman Judy Chu's participation lending federal legitimacy to workers' demands. Chicago Alderwoman Maria Hadden's involvement signaled growing municipal interest in heat protections where federal action has stalled.

California fast-food workers released a damning report showing three out of five workers faced excessive heat despite state protections, followed by coordinated strikes. The Los Angeles Times led coverage as the Southland heat wave hit, with Suhauna Hussain reporting on union claims that safety rules aren't being properly followed. KQED's Brian Krans amplified the workers' voices with the stark "3 Out of 5 Fast Food Workers Say They've Faced Excessive Heat" headline, while Bay Area outlets ABC 7 and KRON 4 covered the San Jose walkouts at El Pollo Loco. 

Airport service workers targeting AGI generated an intensive local media blitz, with coordinated actions at LaGuardia and Newark airports producing wall-to-wall coverage. New York outlets dominated the story: Spectrum NY1, 1010WINS Radio, WABC-TV, and WNBC-TV all covered the rallies, with workers demanding action on both heat safety and alleged wage theft. The story gained national attention when Men's Journal framed it as workers "officially raising alarm" on workplace dangers.

New Jersey outlets provided detailed coverage of worker conditions. Insider NJ highlighted the $2 million wage theft allegations alongside heat safety violations, while Patch New Jersey captured workers' lived experience with the compelling headline "It's Like An Oven." TAPInto Newark focused on workers getting "sick from the heat," and the story reached Spanish-language audiences through Hispano New Jersey's coverage.

The campaign successfully elevated personal testimonies alongside policy demands. Workers shared harrowing accounts of fainting from heat, working with broken air conditioning reaching 102 degrees, and passing out in cargo holds. These individual stories, amplified by outlets like amNY, humanized the broader policy fight and created compelling hooks for reporters.



Federal Update

What did the "Big Bad Bill" mean for the environment and clean energy jobs?

  • Senate Republicans voted to jack up energy bills and kill clean energy jobs, and to fund more tax breaks for billionaires.

  • This bill will increase the average family’s power bill by $110 next year and as much as $400 per year by 2035.

  • In fact, Trump’s attacks on clean energy in the first quarter of 2025 have already canceled or threatened more than 90,000 clean energy jobs. Now Republicans are putting 400,000 more jobs at risk.


Green Janitor program updates

2025 is far from over, but we've already graduated more Green Janitors than we did in all of 2024! Keep up the good work!

Minneapolis

  • Congrats to new Green Janitors! Fourteen SEIU Local 26 members cleaning Hennepin County space for ABM graduated in early June.

Chicago

  • 62 Janitors started the course at The CME Center and The Franklin Center (both owned by Tishman Speyer), with instruction in Spanish, English, and Polish for Local 1 members.

Seattle

  • The six Janitors in SEIU 6's pilot course at Seattle Municipal Tower passed their midterm exams with flying colors, and were presented certificates at their graduation ceremony last month!



ABOUT

Working people, including SEIU members, their families and communities are directly and too often disproportionately affected by the threats of air and water pollution, climate change and extreme weather events. They are also more likely to be confronted with environmental and health hazards at work—and less likely to receive adequate protection from them.

As SEIU members know well from their own communities, climate change is real and poses significant threats to people’s health and livelihood, and disproportionately affects working people, the poor and people of color.

SEIU members passed a resolution at their 2016 convention- demanding that something be done.  Since then, SEIU members have risen to the occasion, driving action at local, state, and federal levels - from legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at hospitals in Florida to building more resilience in communities in Massachusetts.  We partner with green groups in various states to win legislation that advances all of our interests. Through our networks, we took action to win historic investments to combat climate change in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and broadened our workplace training programs such as Green Janitor and the Caregiver Resiliency Project.  In addition,  our members in Florida continued their groundbreaking efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals.