Join the Healthy Schools Now coalition for our quarterly meeting on March 7, 2016 at 10 AM in Trenton, NJ. We look forward to continued discussion about how we can work together to ensure a healthy and safe school environment for all of New Jersey's public schools students. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Agenda to be posted soon. Register Healthy Schools Now
Working people can’t seem to get ahead. As we watch the news, engage in our communities, and organize around our respective issues, it becomes more and more apparent that we are operating in a rigged economy, which works for a privileged few. Wall Street’s power and influence continues to thwart progress on our most basic needs, on issues like public health, environmental protection, workers’ rights, and civil rights. The most fundamental component of our democracy, our ability to organize and successfully advocate for our needs, has been undermined. Join us on February 3rd and 4th at the Rutgers Labor Education Center in New Brunswick(50 Labor Center Way) to learn how our economy, and our democracy have been strip-mined by financial institutions. This intensive training will be led by Les Leopold, author of Runaway Inequality and director of The Labor Institute. Join a discussion on direct actions that we can take to address the fundamental inequalities in our system. Space is limited to 20 participants. Apply now for the Public Need over Corporate Greed Trainer Apprenticeship Program and help create an economy that works for everyone. Learn More Apply Today
Dan Fatton, WEC executive director, appeared on NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams to discuss WEC's latest report, ACCESS DENIED. For the interview transcript, please click here. Several clarifications: As noted in the report, an estimated 12 million people live or work within the danger zones of NJ facilities; however, not all those people are NJ residents. EPCRA is the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, a 1986 federal law created to help communities plan for chemical emergencies. SERC is the State Emergency Response Commission. ACCESS DENIED REPORT
Governor Chris Christie continues to fail in carrying out his legal responsibility under federal law for ensuring that the public has access to an up-to-date Emergency Response Plan (ERP) in each of New Jersey’s counties and municipalities in the event of a chemical plant fire, explosion, or other toxic emergency. The Governor's State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) is supposed to ensure public access to these plans. However, despite acknowledgment of the violation, they have not done so. Public access to these Emergency Response Plans as required under the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) is critical given that New Jersey has more than 5,000 facilities that use large amounts of hazardous chemicals, with the highest population density of any state. As detailed in a new research report issued today, ACCESS DENIED, the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) wrote to the 59 municipalities and 19 counties that host the 95 most potentially hazardous facilities that are regulated by the NJ Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act (TCPA), requesting to review the community Emergency Response Plans as authorized by EPCRA. Thirty-four municipalities (or 58%) and 16 counties (also 84%) denied the request, reflecting continued confusion about the federal [...]
"In exchange for small-but-overdue salary increases for legislative and judicial staff, Christie is demanding a king's ransom for himself and his inner circle. Under the terms of a plan he's pushing legislators to accept, members of his cabinet would be in line for $34,000 annual raises. Those political appointees could see their salaries skyrocket to $175,000, a 24 percent increase from their current maximum of $141,000 per year. It's time for some perspective because this is the same governor who has repeatedly and viciously attacked public employees over their salaries and benefits. This is the same governor who opposes gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour to help average New Jersey residents and working families improve their lives. Somehow, he thinks that $15 per hour is too much for a single working mother struggling to feed and shelter her family. At the current minimum wage of $8.38 per hour, she'd make just over $17,000 per year if she never took a single day off. To Christie, that's enough for her. But for his cabinet that already makes eight times that much? He thinks they need raises of $34,000 per year. This is a governor whose hypocrisy on salaries [...]
Since 1986, the Work Environment Council of New Jersey has fought for safe, secure jobs and a healthy sustainable environment. We’ve spent years working to link workers, communities, and environmental activists through training, grassroots organizing, and policy campaigns. First and foremost, WEC is concerned with public health and the well-being of workers. But it’s important that while we maintain a broad vision in defining public health, that we address the economic policy that keeps working people and communities in danger. That’s one reason why WEC supports A862, a bill which strengthens protections for workers against wage theft. The bill, which passed out of the Assembly Labor Committee on December 12, would deter employers from committing wage theft by strengthening penalties, increasing the amount of time a worker has to file a claim, protecting workers who file claims from retaliation, and by holding employers who use subcontractors accountable. How is wage theft connected to public health, though? Aren’t wages and labor economic practices a separate issue from public health? In fact, an economy that is dependent on wage theft and low wages is extremely damaging to public wellbeing. When a family worries about how they will pay for groceries, their health is [...]
According to public opinion polls, Americans typically believe a good pay ratio is 7 to 1. In other words, the top paid CEO in the United States should make 7 times what the average worker makes. And yet the American reality is much different. In fact, the top paid CEOs in the United States make roughly 844 times what the average worker makes. This stunning statistic represents the antithesis of the American dream: the idea that if someone works hard then they deserve financial security; it also belies the myth that as the pool of wealth increases, all boats rise. These outrageously disparate numbers indicate a broken economy, engineered by the top 1/10th of the 1% wealthiest Americans, which has fostered a destructive and amoral distribution of wealth. In a move to address the extreme and corrupt distribution of wealth, the city council of Portland, Oregon passed a tax this Wednesday on companies in which the top-ranked executives make more than 100 times the median pay of their average workers. In doing so, the city of Portland has shown it is willing to take steps to reverse the negative effects that extreme income inequality has on its residents. [...]
WEC hosted our annual membership meeting at the NJEA headquarters in Trenton, NJ on December 5. We were pleased to be joined by representatives of more than 30 organizations, most of whom are WEC members. Members in attendance voted to affirm the nominees for executive leadership. Attendees also enjoyed a panel presentation: Preparing for the Future: Addressing Climate Change in New Jersey. New Jersey Sea Level Rise Report Marjorie Kaplan New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance Marjorie Kaplan began the discussion by highlighting the New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance's recent report on sea-level rise in New Jersey. Bottom line: coastal communities will face increasing sea-level rise throughout this century. Slides Climate Resiliency for Urban Communities Nicole Scott Harris New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance Nicole Scott-Harris, recent recipient of the WEC Rising Star Award, highlighted the disproportionate impact on environmental justice (EJ) communities, and talked about how climate change is already effecting NJ communities today. Slides Sandy's Impact on Lives in New Jersey Amanda Devecka-Rinear New Jersey Organizing Project Amanda Devecka-Rinear spoke about the incredible work of [...]
Under the golden dome that dominates Trenton’s skyline, Governor Chris Christie recently denounced the deplorable condition of the New Jersey Statehouse. At a hastily convened announcement, Governor Christie bemoaned the quality of building that houses his office. “We have code violations throughout the place that could lead to a tragedy,” Christie told reporters as he outlined plans for the $300 million renovation. For someone who has spent the last few years avoiding his office, his concern now is curious. While we agree that Statehouse renovations are necessary, the juxtaposition of his decisive approach to that issue with his lackadaisical approach in addressing much worse conditions in schools throughout the state raises serious questions about his priorities. Based on the long delay in releasing funds for rebuilding Trenton Central High School, his failure to act in addressing facility concerns in Paterson, and his foot dragging on other School Development Authority emergent requests, his sudden concern for safe, comfortable and healthy workplaces seems typically self-serving. At his announcement Tuesday, Christie said, “The Statehouse should not be a place that we ask people to come work in every day and put their lives and their health at some measure of risk… They shouldn’t [...]
December 3 marks the 32nd anniversary of the Bhopal, India disaster: the world’s worst industrial accident. In the middle of the night, an accident at a Union Carbide plant released a toxic gas, methyl isocyanate. The impact on the surrounding community was immediate and deadly. Chaos ensued as people attempted to escape the lethal toxic cloud. Thousands of people died and hundreds of thousands of lives were forever changed. The effects from the toxic exposure included blindness, kidney and liver failure. Decades later, survivors and their offspring continue to experience health impacts from that deadly night. In response to the Bhopal disaster, the United States Congress took action and passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986. The late Senator Frank Lautenberg and Representative James Florio were the lead sponsors of this law, which was based, in part, on the 1983 NJ Worker and Community Right to Know Act. The purpose of EPCRA was to help communities plan for chemical emergencies by requiring industry to report on the storage, use and releases of hazardous chemicals to federal, state, and local governments. It requires state and local governments to use this information to prepare their community from potential [...]