Covid-19 Webinars

This week’s topic, Protecting and Celebrating Facility and Manufacturing Workers During Covid-19 welcomed a panel of guests who represent property service, essential manufacturing, and facility operations workers who have worked hard to keep public and private buildings functional during the pandemic. Aaron Jones and Carla Thomas, Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ (SEIU); Mike Fisher, Sub-District Director, United Steelworkers (USW); and Frank James, Financial Secretary, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 68 (IUOE) spoke to the occupational safety and health challenges confronting workers during the COVID-19 health crisis. Our panelists shared their members’ struggle to access and maintain a stable supply of PPE as well as grave concerns regarding health and job security. These essential workers rose to the occasion from the start of the COVID-19 crisis, at times remaining quarantined within facilities to do the work necessary to keep buildings running. We learned how workers have adopted new health and safety protocols, including wearing PPE, intense cleaning, temperature checks and health screenings. Keeping these workers safe is essential to keeping our facilities operational. Here is the presentation from SEIU 32BJ. More than 60 people attended this webinar.

This week’s topic focused on student and worker safety in the tumultuous and ever-changing landscape of higher education. We heard from three inspiring women who have been organizing higher education faculty and staff across departments and sectors for conditions where every single worker can work safe and receive just compensation. Christine O’Connell, President of the Union of Rutgers Administrators (URAAFT), began our panel with the story of the Rutgers Coalition of Unions, a network of all unions representing Rutgers employees which formed to help workers support one another across union lines. The Coalition has put forward a joint proposal that includes no layoffs, continued health benefits for furloughed employees, and hazard pay for those who worked through the crisis. Successes achieved so far, including the statewide closing of libraries, demonstrate the power of organizing around common demands that address the needs of all workers across union, department or sector. Here is the presentation. Rebecca Kolins Givan, Vice President of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers, shared her experience organizing alongside Christine with the Rutgers Coalition of Unions. “We’ve made things non-negotiable by having a coalition of 20,000 workers rather than chipping away at things separately,” said Rebecca. Rebecca also emphasized the importance of organizing both at the bargaining table and in the political arena, pointing out that many recent victories have been signed off on not [...]

This week’s topic, Update on the Updates, we checked back in with several of our previous webinar participants for a roundtable discussion. We were joined by Marcia Kleinz, Field representative for Higher Education, NJEA, Barry Kushnir, President, IFPTE Local 194, and Hudson County Central Labor Council and Nancy Miller, membership assistance program coordinator, UFCW Local 1262. They gave updates on the continued challenges COVID-19 presents for their members in higher education, Turnpike toll takers and retail. Nancy discussed UFCW’s ongoing campaign to support Covid 19 Hazard Pay for essential grocery store workers, and encouraged attendees to let management at their local union supermarkets know that they support stores’ continuing hazard pay for workers. We also wished Mike Merrill, PH.D, director at Rutgers LEARN a happy retirement, and heard touching stories about Mike’s career from a few colleagues. Mike stressed the importance of continued labor education and the importance of forums like this to bring workers and community members together to have conversations and learn from each other. Thank you, Professor Merrill and best of luck to you!  More than 96 people attended this webinar.

This week 110 participants joined the discussion focused on access to affordable quality childcare. As child daycare and early childhood programs reopen, we must address the complex issues surrounding capacity, safety, staffing, economic viability, and program effectiveness under new, ever changing guidelines. Debra Lancaster, Executive Director, Rutgers Center for Women and Work co-moderated the following speakers: Meghan Tavormina. President of the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children and the Executive Director of the Learning Path in Chatham. Ms. Tavormina highlighted the importance of childcare as our NJ families head back to work and our childcare centers reopen. Meghan spoke about the intense demand for childcare, and the difficulties in providing it.  Attendance vs. enrollment pay, maintaining teaching staff due to poor pay and lack of benefits, understanding and meeting reopening guidelines and practicing social distancing while caring for infants and toddlers are just some of the struggle’s providers face. Cynthia Rice, an attorney and Senior Policy Analyst with the Advocates for Children of New Jersey works with local, state, and federal leaders to identify and implement changes that will benefit New Jersey’s children. Ms. Rice spoke of the uncertainty concerning the access and availability of childcare.  Cynthia pointed out that [...]

This week’s COVID-19 update focused on the NJ public transit system which puts hundreds of thousands of commuters and thousands of transportation workers at risk for sustained, exposure to the coronavirus and other pathogens, and what is needed to reduce risk. We had the opportunity to hear from Nick Sifuentes, Executive Director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign and he spoke about what riders need to feel safe in order to continue to use public transportation and how to help make public transportation as safe and effective as possible during the pandemic. Our second panelist, Orlando Riley, Chairman, Amalgamated Transit Union, NJ State Council gave insight into issues surrounding workers on their over 2000 buses and some of the steps that have been taken to increase protections.  These steps have included rear door boarding, digital ticketing, enhanced cleaning, reduced capacity, and masking. We also heard from Jerome Johnson, General Chairman of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transport (SMART) Local 60 (United Transportation Union [UTU]) who spoke to the need for a public campaign to support health and safety on public transportation.  More needs to be done to ensure that riders wear masks, as mandated by the Governor’s Executive Order.  Mr. Johnson called on NJ Transit, community leaders and the [...]

This week we were joined by Professor Aman Russom, head of the bionanotechnology division at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who works on the development and delivery of low-cost medical testing and technology for public health. Since March, Sweden has been functioning more or less the way New Jersey will function when it reopens. Unlike the United States, Sweden never applied a total lockdown during COVID-19. Instead, relying heavily on voluntary stay at home protocols, hand-washing and recommended social distancing, Sweden focused on asking those who had even mild symptoms to stay at home and provided immediate income support to enable workers to do so. The authorities hoped thereby to prevent spread. Professor. Russom felt that Sweden’s approach had failed in regard to protecting the elderly, stating they should have done more to protect the elderly, and vulnerable populations, as 50 percent of those lost to COVID-19 were in eldercare.  Also, Sweden’s incidence of cases and death was much higher than their Nordic neighbors. The Swedish experience underscores the importance of being on guard for a resurgence of COVID as the state reopens. Professor Russom stated that while a vaccine is of course the “ultimate goal” in the fight against COVID-19, the self-collected, [...]

This week we were joined by 292 participants for an update which focused on K-12 schools. We discussed the impact of shutting schools down on teachers, staff, parents and students and the challenges of reopening our schools. We were joined by Cary Booker, Assistant State Education Commissioner, State of New Jersey who acknowledged the sacrifices of educators and their families to meet the needs of their students. Assistant Commissioner Booker spoke to the inequities that plagued our education system long before COVID-19, their effect on remote instruction and food instability, and the state’s efforts to address them. As we look to reopen, Assistant Commissioner Booker emphasized the importance of addressing students’ social and emotional needs, that measures are being taken to reopen safely and that “the way forward is together.” Rosie Grant, Executive Director. Paterson Education Foundation spoke to her organization’s efforts. Lack of internet and electronic devices have left many students behind in Paterson, 11,000 students still have no ability to access online learning. In addition, Paterson is addressing a 16-million-dollar loss in state aid, creating a budget shortfall that may tragically result in staff cuts in a time when we need more staff, not less. NJEA Organizational Development Field Representatives Michael Rollins and Robert [...]

This week we heard from Jerome Johnson, General Chairman  of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transport (SMART) Local 60 (United Transportation Union [UTU]) who gave an update about conditions on NJ Transit trains and buses. The transportation sector will be the exclusive focus of an update in the near future. PEOSH (DOH and DLWD) also joined the call with a report on their activities. During the first 11 weeks of the emergency, the agency has received approximately 60 COVID-19 related complaints. During the emergency, it is not conducting onsite investigations. Instead, it relies on initial virtual investigations over the phone, with onsite followup visits as necessary. PEOSH affirmed that a COVID-19 case is OSHA-reportable, but only if it is work-related, of which there is no presumption. If whether a case is work-related is disputed, the burden of proof falls on the victim or their representatives. It is worth noting that there are only four PEOSH inspectors for the entire state. Here is their presentation. More than 200 people attended this webinar.

This week we were joined by more than 165 participants, who heard from Marcy Goldstien-Gelb, Co-Director of National COSH and Nancy Lessin, retired United Steelworker and COSH fellow on the Safe and Just Return to Work report; a blueprint for opening the economy with worker protections and worker justice in the forefront. We were also joined by Lou Kimmel, Executive Director, New Labor to discuss a proposed Executive Order: COVID-19 Worker Protections that would implement a meaningful and enforceable right to refuse work in violation of mandated pandemic protections now before Governor Murphy.

This week, WEC welcomed a panel of guests who are organizing and representing workers deemed essential during the COVID-19 crisis. Anthony Abrantes, Organizing & Political Director for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters; Christian Smalls, an organizer and Former Warehouse Assistant Manager at Amazon; and to welcome back Dave Hancock, Warehouse Campaign Director with the Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board, Workers United, SEIU. Anthony Abrantes, Organizing & Political Director for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, spoke to the importance of health and safety measures for their members, steps the union has taken to ensure their safety, and what a just reopening of our economy might look like to the Carpenters. Christian Smalls, an organizer and Former Warehouse Assistant Manager at Amazon, spoke about conditions inside of Amazon warehouses during the COVID19 crisis, negligence towards the health and safety of workers on Amazon’s part as an employer, and efforts to organize Amazon workers on the frontlines. And, we heard from Dave Hancock, , Warehouse Campaign Director, Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board, Workers United, SEIU, who spoke about challenges faced by Barnes and Noble warehouse workers, negligence on the part of Barnes and Noble as an employer, and efforts to organize workers for better [...]