Heat stress rules have been in place for about 10 years now. The employer is responsible to provide protection to the workers by providing cold water, air conditioning, reduced work zone time to provide cooling periods.
In Eastern Washington its gets hotter than blazes and regardless of these rules I always made it a point to make sure my staff was staying hydrated and cool.
I remember buying new vehicles when I replaced my fleet that all had air conditioning and my hardcore anti-government self professed Reagan Republican city council members complaining that guys would just drive around in the trucks all day and never get out and work. This was in 2005. They wanted to treat these men as worthless slaves and it was enough that they even had a job with the City.
I'm in the (outdoors) home improvement business, and only wish we could provide that kind of thing for our guys during the summer months.
We cope with similar, but different methods, as is practical. We wear wide brimmed hats, stay hydrated with cold water, take cool off breaks as needed, hose off now and again, and take sea salt tablets to mitigate the killer effects of heat sickness.
Those simple techniques have gotten me and my employees through decades of brutal southwest summers.
I used to do a lot of work over at the Hanford site in Eastern Washington. The buddy system is pretty critical too to keep an eye on the other guy. Some of the young guys I would have to MAKE go sit in the shade and drink water and take a break. Young, from the area and think they are tough and “used to it”. And of course this mail carrier didn’t have a buddy watching her.