Texas construction workers protest after Greg Abbott axed mandated water breaks, calling it 'the law that kills'

The law has coincided with a punishing summer heat wave. Some areas of Texas are reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit daily.

• Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law nixing mandated water breaks across the state.
• Now construction workers and their allies are protesting the move, calling it "the law that kills."
• The law has coincided with a punishing summer heat wave. Some areas of Texas are reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit daily.

Workers in Houston protested a statewide law on Friday that will eliminate water break mandates for construction companies across Texas.

The law — signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June — will go into effect Sept. 1. It eliminates several local ordinances that supporters say negatively impact businesses, and particularly targets ordinances that establish minimum break requirements for employers, which includes mandates for water breaks, according to the Texas Tribune.

As a result, construction workers and their allies are calling it "the law that kills," the Texas Tribune reports.

"We really need to be allowed to work without problems, without any barriers," Luz Martínez, a Texas construction employee who was at the protest, told the Texas Tribune. "Believe me, we are dying inside those buildings when they take away our water and our [break] time."

Just three days after Abbott signed off on the law, a 46-year-old construction worker named Felipe Pascual died in Houston from heat stroke, a local ABC news station reported. Workers who protested in Houston on Friday set a pair of work boots on the ground in front of their demonstration to honor Pascual, the Texas Tribune reported.

Earlier this month, Houston city officials sued the state to block the law, arguing that it weakens its ability to self-govern, the Texas Tribune reported.

The new law has coincided with a punishing summer heat wave. Some areas of Texas are reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit daily, CNN reports.

There have been 42 heat-related workplace deaths in Texas since 2011, the most of any state, according to the Texas Tribune. About 25 of those deaths happened in the last six years, data from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration shows. However, this number is likely higher given that heat exposure can cause other underlying conditions to worsen — causing the misclassification of heat-related fatalities, the New York Times reported.