08/13/2026
One morning, when Jacob started his 9 a.m. shift as a UPS driver in Minnesota, he noticed it was hazy outside. It was July 16, and wildfires raging across northeastern Minnesota and southern Canada had unleashed acrid, hazardous smoke across much of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was urging people to stay indoors. But Jacob was expected to work an estimated 9- or 10-hour shift, getting in and out of his vehicle delivering packages.
Management hadn’t provided any protective measures, like masks, he says, and he was inhaling the toxic smoke for hours. “The worst part about driving and working outside is we don’t have air conditioning or anything,” he says over the phone. “On that day it was extremely hot as well as humid, so we drove with both doors open on the highway or just in our delivery area. We were exposed to the air.” (Jacob is a pseudonym, and I’m not identifying his specific work location within Minnesota, to protect him from retaliation.)
Three hours into his shift, he felt a tightness in his chest. “I didn’t pay it no mind until I started to get light-headed,” he tells me. Determining it was unsafe to keep driving, Jacob sought medical attention. After hours of observation and tests, he was eventually cleared for release, but the experience left him unsettled. Wildfires are growing larger and more destructive due to human-made climate change. “It’s a little scary knowing that you’re breathing in toxic air and still needing to service your community, and that there isn’t anything in place that protects you or your wellbeing,” he says.
As climate change intensifies, worsening fires and extreme weather are creating increasingly hostile conditions for workers like Jacob. Alongside fighting for healthcare, wages and better treatment, these workers now find themselves fighting for protections from dangerous heat, smoke and storms—the severity of which is only expected to worsen if the status quo continues. Our warming planet, in other words, is defining the terrain in which workers must organize.
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One morning, when Jacob started his 9 a.m. shift as a UPS driver in Minnesota, he noticed it was hazy outside. It was July 16, and wildfires raging across northeastern Minnesota and southern Canada had unleashed acrid, hazardous smoke across much of the state. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency....
