Each of the last ten years ranks among the hottest on record, with 2024 taking the top spot. As the world heats up, nearly a third of the workforce is at risk, especially workers in groundskeeping, construction, and agriculture. But it isn’t just outdoor workers who face danger. Many of the drivers and warehouse workers who form the backbone of our on-demand economy spend their days in hot vans and warehouses, without air conditioning or sufficient breaks. Workers from minority backgrounds are most affected by excessive heat, with more than half of Black, Latino, and immigrant workers employed in “exposed” jobs, all while being less likely to have employer-sponsored health insurance.
Researchers have found that the rate of occupational injury and accidents increases steadily as temperatures go up, and as many as 2,000 workers die every year due to heat. Low-wage workers often can’t pay for basics such as food or shelter if they miss a day’s pay, so they keep working even when they know it’s too hot. And as heat harms workers’ health, making it more difficult for them to carry out their tasks, productivity is impacted. For the benefit of workers, businesses, and our society, we need to build workplace heat safety into our culture, policies, and practices if we are to adapt to our warming planet.
In this event — hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program on July 30, 2025 — we learn how the warming climate is affecting workers, and what policymakers, businesses, and labor are doing to keep workers safe. Our speakers include Jon Esformes (Sunripe Certified Brands), Sheheryar Kaoosji (Warehouse Workers Resource Center), Reyna Lopez (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste), Rosemary Sokas (Georgetown University), and moderator Dorany Pineda (Associated Press).
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Resources
Blogs, Articles, Tools, and Publications
- “Commissioner Lara Releases Pioneering Analysis On Hidden Costs Of Extreme Heat In California.” California Department of Insurance. July 3, 2024.
- Cossette, Sophia. “‘People Are Afraid’: Farmworker Anxiety, PCUN’s Support Rises Amid Immigration Crackdowns.” Woodburn Independent. June 20, 2025.
- Magaña, Marcos. “Fear of ICE Raids Is Making Heat Intolerable For Immigrant Families.” Los Angeles Times. July 25, 2025.
- “Oregon Woman And Farmworkers Advocate Reflects On Mexican Parent’s Journey to US.” KGW8 News. October 9, 2024.
- Pineda, Dorany. “Wildfires Are Growing Under Climate Change, And Their Smoke Threatens Farmworkers, Study Says.” AP News. August 15, 2024.
- Pineda, Dorany. “Extreme Heat, Wildfire Smoke Harm Low-Income And Nonwhite Communities The Most, Study Finds.” AP News. February 2, 2024.
- Pineda, Dorany, and Kendria LaFleur .“How Employers Are Taking Steps To Safeguard Workers From Extreme Heat.” AP News. July 23, 2024.
- Pineda, Dorany. “Weather Extremes Influence Illegal Migration And Return Between The U.S. And Mexico, Study Finds.” November 8, 2024.
- Rubin, April. “We Don’t Want More Death; We Don’t Want More Sadness’: Man Who Yearned To Become Parent Died Of Heat Working To Provide Oregonians With Food, Shade.” The Oregonian/OregonLive. July 3, 2021.
- Sokas, Rosemary K., and Emily Senay. “Preventing Heat-Related Illness among Outdoor Workers — Opportunities for Clinicians and Policymakers.” New England Journal of Medicine. August 30, 2023.
- Walling, Melina, and Dorany Pineda. “The ‘greenhouse effect’: How An Oft-Touted Climate Solution Threatens Agricultural Workers.” AP News. July 17, 2024.
Videos
- Jon Esformes and Gerardo Reyes Chávez: How farmworkers are fighting extreme heat | TED Talk
- Learn the Basics of Heat Illness – Warehouse Worker Resource Center
Websites and Additional Resources
- About Us – Warehouse Worker Resource Center
- Coalition of Immokalee Workers
- MD heat protections – Google Drive
- PCUN | Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste
- The Fair Food Program – Consumer Powered, Worker Certified
- Sunripe Certified Brands – Tomato Grower
- WetBulb Globe Temperature
Speakers
CEO and Operating Partner, Sunripe Certified Brands
Jon Esformes is CEO and operating partner for Pacific Tomato Growers DBA Sunripe Certified Brands, a premium tomato farming operation committed in the areas of sustainability, social responsibility, food safety, and quality. Jon is the fourth generation of family leadership for the Esformes family, serving customers from coast to coast year-round with an extensive line of field-grown tomato varieties.
Between managing farming, packing, and marketing operations in both the United States and Mexico, Jon also dedicates time to collaboration on industry projects. Jon participated in the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement negotiation, testified to the International Trade Commission, is active on the board of the Florida Tomato Committee, Florida Tomato Exchange, and Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, and served on the Florida Farmworker Advisory Council in 2022. Jon participated as a panelist discussing labor issues in the 2023 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, which was moderated by US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Most recently, Jon delivered a powerful address at the TED Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series: The Future of Food. His talk spotlighted a collaborative model focused on improving health and safety standards for agricultural workers — particularly addressing the growing threat of heat stress. He offered a forward-looking blueprint for building a more humane and resilient global food system.
As operating partner of Pacific Tomato Growers, Jon is an outspoken advocate for farmworker rights and protections. In 2010, Pacific Tomato Growers was the first large company to sign a direct agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Fair Food Program with commitment to social responsibility, the employees, and bringing more resources and opportunities to each individual at every level of their operations. From the hand that picks the produce to the team member that packs the food safety-certified fruits and vegetables, Pacific Tomato Growers continually increases its efforts to support its evolving program and the people who have helped build it.
Executive Director, Warehouse Workers Resource Center
Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC), has spent 20 years developing research, policy and campaign strategies to support sustained organizing among the most marginalized communities in California, including families facing displacement in San Francisco, farm workers in the state’s agricultural valleys, misclassified truck drivers at the Port of Los Angeles, and workers and communities affected by the massive warehousing and logistics sector of Inland Southern California. He was behind the WWRC’s innovative campaign model to organize workers in supply chains of some of the largest companies in the world to demand a sustainable and just goods movement sector in Southern California.
Executive Director, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste
Reyna is a proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico, who came to Oregon in the late 1980s following the migration of farm work in Marion County. She is currently the president/executive director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), which was started by farmworkers and is now one of Oregon’s longest-standing Latinx-led organizations. Reyna grew up in Salem, Oregon. For more than a decade, she has been a fierce leader, organizer, and advocate for BIPOC and Latinx communities. Reyna has been recognized for her work throughout the state receiving the Immigrant Award from the American Association of Immigration Lawyers of Oregon, Willamette University’s Young Alumni of the Year Award, Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Young Visionary of the Year Awards from Ecumenical Ministries, Housing Oregon’s Gretchen Kafoury Award, Latina Leadership Award from Adelante Mujeres, and the Rey España Aguila Award from Latino Network for her work in social justice causes, political campaigns, movement and coalition building. Today, she is leading national coalitions and boards through the Popular Democracy Action Board of Directors, Farmworker Justice Board, and the Equitable Food Initiative.
Throughout Reyna’s tenure at PCUN, she has led the organization through some of its historic victories, including access to driver’s licenses for all Oregonians, Farmworker Overtime, Heat and Smoke Protections for outdoor workers, and the Oregon Worker Relief Fund.
Rosemary Sokas, MD
Professor Emerita of Human Science and Family Medicine, Georgetown University
Dr. Rosemary K. Sokas is professor emerita of human science in Georgetown University’s School of Health. She has practiced primary care medicine in rural Puerto Rico and in the Bronx and has held faculty positions in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Science, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she directed the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She served as associate director for science at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and as director of the Office of Occupational Medicine for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. She is currently a member of the board of directors for Farmworker Justice and a member of the Technical Advisory Board for the Center for Construction Research and Training. Her research focuses on high-risk, low-wage working populations, with an emphasis on occupational health disparities.
Moderator
Dorany Pineda
Journalist, Associated Press
Dorany Pineda is a reporter with the Associated Press, where she covers the intersection of Latino communities, water, climate and the environment across the U.S. She was previously a reporter with the Los Angeles Times.
About Opportunity in America
Opportunity in America, an event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, considers the changing landscape of economic opportunity in the US and implications for individuals, families, and communities across the country.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
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