There's a reason we don't give some states powers like this: because they abuse the powerless. We've seen it in voting, slavery, marriage equality, and women's rights, among other social issues. Your scenario - don't kill workers - is a nice ideal, but in manual labor, the number of hands means more than the skill of hands, so if one worker dies, they can find another. Hell, they'll grab one from a prison, if necessary. And they'll put more hands in prison just so they can have a supply to tap.
So "Texas took their power back" is being disingenuous.