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Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

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Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#41

Post by colechristensen »

embedding-shape wrote: post #24
trumbitta2 wrote: post #19

That's not going to work in the South. Demand adapted buildings, housing, and AC where applicable.

It's specifically for "jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction", not sure better buildings will help the workers out on fields and construction sites much. Although one temperature threshold probably don't make much sense, a strict 30C across the entire continent would mean massively different things in different countries, in many countries that mean basically the entire summer off, every year.

It matters when the heat stress continues when you're not at work. You can tolerate a lot more if your body gets actual breaks from the heat.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#42

Post by jltsiren »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

Things are already much better than they used to be. The 2003 heatwave killed ~70k. This year's heatwave was worse, but the number of deaths probably didn't go much beyond 20k.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#43

Post by raverbashing »

sergiosgc wrote: post #38
raverbashing wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most places in the south already have AC And the ones that don't have it, oh well, too bad :)

Read the article. This applies to outdoor jobs only.

Yes, outdoor work should already have had this!

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#45

Post by bryanlarsen »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

Even in new build homes? IIUC, many people in Europe were taking advantage of the incentives to install heat pumps as a back door mechanism to install A/C. After all a heat pump is essentially just A/C with a reverser switch.

But that only works in homes with forced air heating. Most of Europe doesn't use forced air heating. You can replace a boiler with a heat pump, but if you do you don't magically get A/C too.

In 2026 it seems silly to do new builds in a cold climate with anything but a forced air heat pump.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#46

Post by zarzavat »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

It's nothing new. In 2003 there was a huge heatwave and thousands of people died:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave

The reason is simple to understand. For the majority of the time the AC would sit idle. Some years AC is not required at all because the summer is mild. It's hard to get people to spend money on things that they don't need most of the time, it's like buying insurance.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#47

Post by vrganj »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

It's mostly about the perception that AC is a band-aid that doesn't just stall fixing the root cause of climate change caused by excessive energy consumption, but actively makes it worse.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#48

Post by rwmj »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

Which bit of Europe are you talking about? Italy and Spain have AC everywhere.

Further north it hasn't been necessary until very recently, and now people are fighting in shops to buy portable units and there are going to be loads of permanent installations once things settle down later this year.

Re: Europe's Largest Unions Demand Right to Cancel Work on Days Above 30C

#49

Post by exe34 »

petcat wrote: post #32

I think this whole heat wave crisis has been shocking to the rest of the world to see that apparently Europeans refuse to install AC even in new-build homes and it is causing enormous numbers of deaths. What is the reason for this? Is it just because it's expensive and energy costs are so high? It seems like a basic safety requirement that they are refusing to acknowledge and are now apparently just refusing to go to…

We'll just sweat it out and complain. It's more fun!
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