WEC in the News

N.J. steelworkers and windmills — perfect together | Opinion

Victor Teran and his colleagues at Banker Steel in South Plainfield go to work every day proud that their skill and dedication keep some of New York City’s biggest buildings sturdy and safe. Skyscraper developers buy steel fabricated by Teran and about 200 other members of United Steelworkers Local 8288-67 because they understand their need for top-quality material meticulously produced by highly trained workers nearby. Read the entire opinion piece here.

By |2021-03-10T15:07:46-05:00January 21st, 2021|Opinion Pieces, WEC in the News|Comments Off on N.J. steelworkers and windmills — perfect together | Opinion

Workers, Community Groups, Advocacy Organizations, and Labor Unions Hail Gov. Murphy’s Workplace Protection Executive Order as “Key First Step” to Ensure Worker Safety During the Pandemic

October 28, 2020 – Trenton, NJ: After a six month campaign to urge Governor Murphy to use his emergency powers to take executive action to protect NJ workers during the pandemic, the Protect NJ Workers Coalition celebrates Governor Murphy’s signing of a Worker Protection Executive Order. The Coalition is led by BIPOC activists and essential workers, with members from a wide-range of community groups, advocacy and labor organizations. Read the full press release here.

By |2021-03-10T14:32:21-05:00October 28th, 2020|Press Releases, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Workers, Community Groups, Advocacy Organizations, and Labor Unions Hail Gov. Murphy’s Workplace Protection Executive Order as “Key First Step” to Ensure Worker Safety During the Pandemic

No ventilation, poor air quality pushed many districts to go remote

“Your average school building that you’re going to walk into today is not a commercial facility where you go to do your grocery shopping, or retail shopping, or even a lot of the office spaces that folks are used to going into every day. And even if you want to, it’s really difficult and expensive to retrofit these buildings with the controls needed,” he said. Barkkume discovered guidance for clean air even from the CDC has fallen short. “From the beginning and up until today, the CDC does not recognize full aerosol transmission of the virus and this trickles down to the state level and it informs the requirements the Department of Education places on school districts and it changes the way they do their planning,” he said. He is now working with teachers unions to raise a red flag about air quality in schools. He believes aerosol droplets can escape even when a person’s wearing a mask. And Barkkume says the state has no measurements to prove a school’s met the required clean air standards. There’s been a big focus on filters lately, with some districts investing in MERV filters. But Barkkume says that’s less important than ventilation. And it [...]

By |2020-09-14T11:19:01-04:00September 14th, 2020|Covid-19, Highlights, WEC in the News|Comments Off on No ventilation, poor air quality pushed many districts to go remote

Representative Norcross Discusses School Reopening With NJ Education Leaders

Heather Sorge, Campaign Organizer, Healthy Schools Now, WEC had an open conversation with Congressman Norcross to discuss school reopening and staff and student health and safety alongside Marie Blistan, President, NJEA, and Tina Dare, teacher and GR Representative, NJEA.  School buildings must be safe for in-person instruction to resume.  Watch the video here.  

By |2020-09-09T14:04:33-04:00September 9th, 2020|Covid-19, Highlights, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Representative Norcross Discusses School Reopening With NJ Education Leaders

Who needs unions, anyway? We all do. | Opinion

Child labor laws have been passed, a minimum wage has been set, overtime laws are in place, and there is a federal agency dedicated to occupational safety and health, OSHA. “So, what do we need unions for?” This is a common refrain uttered by opponents of unions as well as many workers who have never belonged to a union. Welcome to the pandemic terrordome.  Read the entire op-ed here.

By |2020-09-29T14:37:40-04:00September 6th, 2020|Highlights, Opinion Pieces, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Who needs unions, anyway? We all do. | Opinion

Back to School, or Something Like It: Local District Plans in a Pandemic

‘If you want to do it, do it right’ Last month, in conjunction with the Coalition for Healthier Schools, the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) issued “The Pandemic vs. Schools,” a national call to action emphasizing the importance to districts of having a solid plan before reopening. WEC is a Trenton-based labor coalition that typically concerns itself with workplace health and safety issues. “Schools can either slow the spread of the virus or speed it up,” the report reads. “Right now, schools across the country are struggling to come up with these plans on their own,” a task, it argues, for which many are ill-equipped to respond on the fly. Healthy Schools Now campaign organizer Heather Sorge said an unprecedented absence of federal guidance for public school re-openings has resulted in uneven school re-openings across the country. She hopes that districts will take the time to create rigorous health and safety plans before returning to in-person instruction. “I know there’s a big rush to return to normalcy,” Sorge said. “However, if you want to do it, do it right. “We don’t want to go backwards, and we certainly don’t want to rush to find out that we were wrong, and that we started too [...]

By |2020-08-13T12:19:27-04:00August 13th, 2020|Covid-19, Highlights, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Back to School, or Something Like It: Local District Plans in a Pandemic

Schools shouldn’t open unless they have effective plans to prevent infection | Opinion

There have been nearly 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and this virus has no intention of going away anytime soon. As New Jersey plans to reopen schools, health and safety must be at the forefront. We cannot reopen schools without strong health and safety measures in place to protect our students and school staff. Given the lack of strong federal guidance, The New Jersey Work Environment Council, Healthy Schools Now coalition and the national Healthy Schools Network released A Call to Action. It calls on states to produce authoritative school infection, prevention, and control plans which local schools can adopt. This report, backed by science and developed alongside health experts, school advocates, and worker representatives is the first report that simultaneously prioritizes school staff and student’s health.  Read the entire op-ed here.

By |2020-08-07T12:40:39-04:00August 7th, 2020|Covid-19, Highlights, Opinion Pieces, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Schools shouldn’t open unless they have effective plans to prevent infection | Opinion

Op-Ed – New Jersey needs a public bank – fast | Opinion

This past week, WEC placed an op-ed outlining how a state-chartered public bank can help us achieve safe, secure jobs and a healthy sustainable environment for New Jersey. "If the past three months have proven anything in New Jersey, it’s that we need money. Not “we,” meaning our millionaires and billionaires and Wall-Street backed corporations. “We,” meaning workers. “We,” meaning communities of color. “We” means the poor, the working class and the near-mythical middle class. “We” means the people hit hardest by the health and economic devastation brought by COVID-19. “We” have big problems, and you can’t fix big problems without money. We need the state to invest money into accomplishing good things for the public. To do that most effectively, we need a state-chartered public bank in New Jersey, and we need it fast because it can provide the resources we need quickly and efficiently, and it can stop Wall Street from getting its grubby little mitts on the profits." Read the full piece here!

By |2020-07-28T09:40:26-04:00July 28th, 2020|Opinion Pieces, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Op-Ed – New Jersey needs a public bank – fast | Opinion

The risk of opening schools: Flexibility, planning needed

With President Donald Trump calling for campuses to welcome students in the fall and numerous large school districts around the country announcing that online-only schooling will continue, risk management teams are grappling with how to safely proceed amid the coronavirus pandemic. While various studies have found that most children are minimally affected when they contract COVID-19, the safety of teachers and other school workers is a growing concern. The political controversy over school openings is taking place against a backdrop of surging infection rates in some regions and decisions by some states to dial back to previous shutdown levels. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 19 issued guidance to schools, which includes social distancing and cleaning protocols, but teachers unions have argued that the guidance may not be practical or is cost-prohibitive for already strapped school systems. For example, the CDC’s call for improved ventilation systems in schools poses a challenge, because many schools have outdated systems, said Heather Sorge, campaign organizer for Healthy Schools Now, an initiative of the New Jersey Work Environment Council in Trenton, which on Thursday released a statement calling for more guidance and resources. “By their nature, schools are an environment conducive [...]

By |2020-07-21T20:09:04-04:00July 21st, 2020|Highlights, WEC in the News|Comments Off on The risk of opening schools: Flexibility, planning needed

Trump’s EPA Sued Over Understating Risks of Deadly Chemical

NEW YORK, NY — Today, a coalition of community, labor, and environmental groups filed a petition challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final methylene chloride risk evaluation, which unlawfully determined that manufacturing, disposal, and several other uses of methylene chloride present no unreasonable risk. The risk evaluation — the first to be released under the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) — violates the requirements of that law by understating methylene chloride’s known risks and excluding multiple ways in which workers and communities are exposed to the chemical. Read the full press release here.

By |2021-03-10T14:28:42-05:00July 16th, 2020|Press Releases, WEC in the News|Comments Off on Trump’s EPA Sued Over Understating Risks of Deadly Chemical
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