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New Jersey

BLET Engineers Unanimously Endorse Strike At NJ Transit

September 12, 2023 Progressive Railroading. , , , , ,
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) members who work at New Jersey Transit last week voted unanimously to authorize a strike. Five hundred locomotive engineers employed by NJ Transit received strike ballots in August. Voting results show 81% of the eligible 494 union members cast ballots and all of them favor a strike, BLET officials said in a press release. NJ Transit recently announced plans to spend more than $440 million to lease luxury office space, which has infuriated many BLET members, they said. “The agency has millions for penthouse views, but not a dime for train crews who kept the trains running throughout the worst days of the pandemic, and haven’t had a raise since 2019," said BLET National President Eddie Hall.

Biden Just Helped Overrule An ICE Detention Ban In New Jersey

August 30, 2023 Sam Carliner and Paul Ginesta, Left Voice. , , , ,
Immigrant rights activists in New Jersey are facing a challenge. August 31 was supposed to be the day that the state’s last remaining Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center finally closed. Instead, CoreCivic — the private prison company that runs the center — sued to keep the center open, and President Biden publicly came out on CoreCivic’s side. On August 29, two days before CoreCivic’s contract was set to expire, a federal judge ruled to keep the center open. The immigrant rights movement has not taken this development passively. Leading up to the ruling, various organizations and activists in the state mobilized to defend our immigrant neighbors and our right to ban ICE detention centers.

‘Something Must Change’: New Jersey Nurses Strike For Safe Staffing

August 24, 2023 Kelsey Khan, Labor Notes. , , , ,
I am one of 1,700 nurses on strike at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We are members of United Steel Workers Local 4-200. The hospital administration has used intimidation, scare tactics, and lies to convince the public that patient care is at the top of their priority list and at the bottom of ours. We have had enough. We are on day 20 of our strike, and nurses are beginning to feel the pressure. Our health insurance ends at the end of this month, and the financial strains of supporting our families on unemployment are growing. We are standing outside of the hospital day and night to show our dedication to achieving a fair contract that benefits us and, most importantly, our patients.

Striking Nurses Picket Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

August 8, 2023 Nick Caloway, CBS. , , , , ,
New Brunswick, New Jersey - Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick were on strike for a fourth day Monday. Staffing levels are a sticking point between the United Steelworkers Local 4-200 and the hospital. After contract talks stalled, more than 1,700 nurses walked off the job Friday. But passion on the picket line is not waning. "Clearly, we're all united for a common purpose here," said Jennifer Kwock. Kwock, who works in the neonatal ICU, said depleted staffing levels create dangerous conditions for patients and cause nurses burnout.

Chris Hedges: Nurses Fight Godzilla

August 5, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
New Brunswick, New Jersey - Judy Danella, president of United Steel Workers Local 4-200 — the union that represents Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s more than 1,700 nurses — stands in a church basement before a room full of her union members. Her voice quavers slightly as she delivers grim news. The hospital management, whose top administrators earn salaries in the millions of dollars, has refused to concede to any of the nurse’s core demands. Friday at 7:00 a.m. they will be locked out of the hospital and on strike. But it is not only the strike that concerns Danella, who is wearing a blue T-shirt that reads: “Safe Staffing Saves Lives.”

Jollibee Workers And Supporters Demand A Living Wage

July 11, 2023 Monica Moorehead, Workers World. , , ,
Jersey City, NJ - It was a rare scene when an estimated 100 people rallied at the Journal Square, Jersey City transportation station in front of Jollibee, a popular fast food restaurant. The rally took place on July 6, National Fried Chicken Day, which was promoted on social media. The protesters demanded that nine Filipino workers be reinstated after Jollibee management fired them for attempting to organize workers in the restaurant for their rights. Jollibee is a fast-growing food chain, which originated in the Philippines, but has recently expanded in other countries, including the U.S. The chain made over $30 million in profits in 2022, with 40% of their total revenue coming in from around the world.

Union Hotel Workers In NYC Suburbs Score Biggest Pay Raise In 100 Years

April 12, 2023 Kate King, Portside. , , , , ,
A New York hotel union has reached a deal with hotel owners and operators that will boost the wages of hospitality workers by $7.50 an hour, the largest increase in the union’s 100-year history. The agreement covers 7,000 members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council who work at 87 suburban hotels spanning from Princeton, N.J., to New York’s Albany region and Long Island. The five-year pact has already been ratified by the employers and is expected to be ratified by workers this month, according to union President Rich Maroko. The new contract doesn’t include New York City hotels, where union members are also represented by the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and where wages are still at a premium compared with the suburbs.

Sodexo Workers Authorize Strike At Nine NYC And NJ Locations

March 16, 2023 Teddy Ostrow, The Real News Network. , , , ,
Five hundred food service workers in the New York Metropolitan area authorized strikes on Thursday, March 9, for livable wages and against subcontracting. The workers, who are represented by New York City’s largest food service union, UNITE HERE Local 100, are employed by food service and facilities management behemoth Sodexo in nine cafeterias in New York and New Jersey. Strike authorizations at each of the Sodexo shops were announced at a rally outside the Bloomberg L.P. headquarters in Manhattan. The contracts of most of the Sodexo employees, who are cashiers, cooks, and other service workers in the swanky cafeterias of multiple Bloomberg locations, Colgate-Palmolive, and several other businesses and organizations, expired on Dec. 1, 2022.

At This Jersey Factory, Pension-Backed Private Equity Takes On Union Workers

February 9, 2023 Matthew Cunningham-Cook, The Lever. , , ,
Wharton, New Jersey - At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Refresco — a transnational corporation that produces and bottles soft drinks for major brands such as Tropicana and Gatorade — had a single response to its staff about the public health crisis unfolding at its Wharton, NJ plant an hour outside of New York City: show up to work. According to the workers at the plant and their union, employees exposed to the virus were denied time off, the factory remained open despite a broader economic shutdown, on top of the 12-hour shifts the company required. (Workers say the company used the pandemic to justify longer shifts, while Refresco claims the new policy went into place prior to the emergence of COVID-19). Outraged, the predominantly immigrant workforce formed a union, winning their first election in June 2021 in what was one of the largest blue-collar union victories during the pandemic.

One State Mandates Teaching Climate Change In Almost All Subjects

November 18, 2022 Caroline Preston, The Hechinger Report. , ,
Pennington, New Jersey - There was one minute left on Suzanne Horsley’s stopwatch and the atmosphere remained thick with carbon dioxide, despite the energetic efforts of her class of third graders to clear the air. Horsley, a wellness teacher at Toll Gate Grammar School, in Pennington, New Jersey, had tasked the kids with tossing balls of yarn representing carbon dioxide molecules to their peers stationed at plastic disks representing forests. The first round of the game was set in the 1700s, and the kids had cleared the field in under four minutes. But this third round took place in the present day, after the advent of cars, factories and electricity, and massive deforestation.

The Good Priest

November 14, 2022 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
During the two years the cartoonist Joe Sacco and I spent on our book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, written out of the poorest pockets of America, we invariably encountered heroic men and women who — against overwhelming odds — rose up to fight lonely and often losing battles on behalf of the oppressed. Bill Means, Charlie Abourezk and Leonard Crow Dog in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Larry Gibson and Judy Bonds in the coal fields of West Virginia. Lucas Benitez, Laura Germano and Greg Abbot in the produce fields of Florida. The men and women in Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street movement. When set against the crushing poverty, environmental degradation, corporate abuse and despair they opposed, the victories they amassed were often miniscule.

Hundreds Of Bottling Workers At Gatorade Factory Triumph

May 29, 2022 Noah Styzkgold, Liberation News. , , ,
Wharton, New Jersey - 240 workers at a Refresco bottling plant in Wharton, New Jersey won their election for union recognition May 21. After two years of intense struggle and against all of the dirty tricks the boss could muster, these workers have made it clear that they won’t back down until they get what’s right. Workers at the Wharton plant began organizing in February 2020. They had faced years of abusive supervisors, poor safety conditions, low wages, and an unforgiving attendance and scheduling system. Anthony Sanchez, an employee at the plant for 15 years, said he started organizing with his co-workers to stop the “despotic attitudes of our supervisors and the management.” The company had plans of their own though.

Chris Hedges: The Call

October 21, 2021 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
On September 5, 2013, I pulled my old Volvo wagon—a bumper sticker reading “This is the Rebel Base” stuck on the back by my wife, a Star Wars fan—into the parking lot at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, New Jersey. I had taught college-level courses in New Jersey prisons for the past three years. But neither my new students nor I had any idea that night that we were embarking on a journey that would shatter their protective emotional walls, or that years later our lives would be deeply intertwined. I put my wallet and phone in the glove compartment, emptied my pockets of coins, and dumped them in the console between the front seats. I made sure I had my driver’s license. I gathered up my books, plays by August Wilson, James Baldwin, John Herbert, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Miguel Piñero, Amiri Baraka, and a copy of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

ILA President Warns Members Will Not Work Ships Without Crews Aboard

October 2, 2021 International Longshoremen's Association. , , ,
North Bergen, NJ - Harold J. Daggett, President, International Longshoremen’s Association has a message to any shipping companies planning to utilize autonomous container cargo ships without crew: Don’t sail them into ILA ports from Maine To Texas, Puerto Rico, and Eastern Canada – they won’t be unloaded or loaded by ILA Members! Media reports in recent week have featured stories from Norway and Japan about companies and shipping lines developing and testing container vessels that will sail with no crew aboard – fully self-piloted,” relying on satellite guidance, onboard sensors, and artificial intelligence making decisions based on these inputs,” according to a Facebook posting by Seably, a European maritime on-line training company.

Years Of Local Opposition Defeats PennEast Pipeline

September 29, 2021 Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. , , ,
Environmental and public health advocates on Monday celebrated the demise of a proposed fracked gas pipeline across Pennsylvania and New Jersey after PennEast decided to cease development because of difficulties acquiring certain state permits. "This is a huge victory. Today, water, the environment, and people spoke louder than fossil fuels," said Jim Waltman, executive director of the New Jersey-based Watershed Institute, in a statement. "We congratulate and thank the many local, state, and federal officials of both parties and thousands of residents for their determined opposition to this unnecessary and destructive proposal." Joseph Otis Minott, Clean Air Council executive director and chief counsel, said that "PennEast's cancellation of this unneeded, dangerous fracked gas pipeline is a momentous win for the communities that have fought hard for years to defend their property and the environment."
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