Incarcerated workers aren’t considered “employees” under federal or state law, so they lack the rights to organize or collectively bargain granted by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which protects other workers but excludes prisoners, The Texas Observer reports. Further, incarcerated laborers lack the right to file an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) complaint, and they generally cannot sue over job-related discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Julio "Alex" Zuniga, a 44-year-old activist from San Antonio, has played a pivotal role in organizing incarcerated workers at the Memorial Unit prison in Texas by advocating for labor rights and safety through the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). Zuniga's efforts have been supported by IWOC's non-incarcerated members, such as Courtney Montoya. Montoya works with prisoners nationwide but said she often hears from Texans about being forced to work while sick or in unbearable heat.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) does not track which work areas are air-conditioned, but many job assignments, including agriculture and maintenance, take place at least partially outside, where workers are subjected to increasingly hotter average annual temperatures. According to TDCJ data, 2,323 prisoners were injured on the job in 2023, more than half in food service. That figure is likely incomplete, as prisoners say they often receive disciplinary cases if they report injuries, so they’re less likely to report on-the-job accidents. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery—except as punishment for a crime. This legally permits Texas to force the incarcerated, including more than 40,000 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, to work for no pay under threat of punishment. Texas is one of only seven states that takes advantage of this free forced labor. While TDCJ keeps general statistics on work-related injuries, the same isn’t true for deaths. Although the agency reports all in-custody deaths to the state attorney general’s office, it is not required to say whether any deaths were due to work-related injuries, including heatstroke.
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