SOME RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Right to Know and Act to Prevent Toxic Exposures in the Workplace and Community
1) Right to Know and Act to Prevent Toxic Exposures in the Workplace and Community
- WEC alerted the Trenton Times about asbestos dangers from the former W.R. Grace plant in Hamilton, NJ. This led the newspaper to run dozens of front-page articles and the state Attorney General to sue Grace and company executives for $1.6 billion in civil damages and to launch a criminal investigation. Legislative hearings led to the introduction of bills to increase penalties for lying to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) concerning cleanup of contaminated sites (Assembly Bill 1839) and to eliminate the statute of limitations for certain environmental crimes and for crimes causing widespread injury (Assembly Bill 1840/Senate Bill 1712). (June 2006)
- WEC blocked progress of a NJ Senate bill that would have made workers, community residents, environmentalists, and the press criminals if they monitored toxic releases or workplace hazards for an undefined "extended period of time." WEC, with our allies, blocked S.330 which would have gutted our right to know without thwarting terrorism. (May 2006)
- WEC stopped the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from allowing chemical and oil companies to declare "confidential" plans for prevention of oil and chemical spills and releases during the agency's readoption of rules for their Discharge Prevention Program. (April 2007)
- With labor and environmental allies, WEC publicized DuPont's poor environmental record and pollution by PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and 12 other perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs) in streams, groundwater wells, and drinking water in and around DuPont's Parlin plant in Middlesex County. PFOA is used to make Teflon. At DuPont's annual shareholder meeting in April 2007, WEC leaders challenged CEO Chad Halliday to stop endangering workers and communities. The DuPont Accountability Coalition includes WEC, United Steelworkers, NY/NJ Baykeeper, Edison Wetlands Association, NJ Environmental Federation, Raritan Riverkeeper, NJ Sierra Club, and Environment NJ.
2) Chemical Safety and Security
- WEC alerted workers and the public to the potential dangers of New Jersey facilities that use highly hazardous substances, such as chlorine, hydrofluoric acid, ammonia, etc. Our report received widespread TV, radio, and newspaper coverage. We have received extensive media coverage for our work on this issue. WEC officials testified before the United States Senate and appeared at a press conference with Governor Corzine. (May 2006, March 2007)
- Won two DEP Administrative Orders encouraging workers and union representatives to point out hazards while accompanying DEP staff on inspections at facilities covered by the state Toxic Catastrophe Prevention and Spill Acts. These facilities include chemical processing plants and terminals, food processors, paper mills, oil refineries, and water treatment and sewage operations. These policies are the nation's first to involve workers in such community protection efforts. (October 2005, April 2007)
- WEC won requirements--also the first in the U.S.-- that 45 of NJ's potentially most hazardous chemical plants evaluate whether they can adopt "built-in" safety measures, also called "inherently safer technology." WEC also won a DEP rule proposal to expand this requirement to 94 facilities, including oil refineries, paper mills, major food processors, and water treatment plants. (November 2005, April 2007)
- With the United Steelworkers, WEC won a state mandate that 154 New Jersey chemical plants employing more than 38,000 workers train worker-trainers and their entire workforce about chemical safety and security. The required curriculum covers, in part, mapping risks to workers and surrounding communities and underlying systems of safety. This training requirement is the first by any state. (July 2006)
- Highlighting sulfur trioxide releases and toxic risks to neighbors and rail commuters, WEC assisted members of United Electrical Workers Local 155 representing workers at the Stepan chemical company in Burlington County. WEC helped workers beat a 14-week management lockout and win safety, environmental, and economic protections. (May 2006)
- As a result of a WEC request to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, its Public Employee Occupational Safety and Health Program has inspected five water treatment plants that use large quantities of chlorine to ensure that they comply with the Process Safety Management standard. This standard requires that underlying systems of safety minimize the risk of accidents.
- WEC helped prompt the new state multi-agency Environmental Justice Task Force to respond to petitions filed under the Environmental Justice Executive Order for action plans submitted by residents of Long Branch, Linden, Camden, Newark, Roselle, and Jersey City. This process allows residents and workers to petition for public meetings and for follow-up joint government and community action plans to address hazards. One successful example is that the Concerned Citizens of Long Branch, with WEC assistance, won an expanded cleanup of an old coal gasification plant that had contaminated their community with toxic chemicals.
- WEC collaborated with NJ Environmental Justice Alliance and the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy on an "Air Quality Education and Awareness Initiative" in which high school students measured diesel exhaust and particulates. The resulting data revealed high urban exposures and offered evidence for reducing diesel emissions.
- WEC researched and produced a 15-minute DVD entitled What Justice Demands: Environmental Justice in New Jersey, a documentary about the struggle for environmental justice in three representative communities. Designed to provoke discussion, the DVD features interviews with grassroots leaders and highlights WEC's role as a catalyst for change and in building partnerships with labor. (September 2006)
- WEC helped plan and implement the National Environmental Justice for All bus tour in New Jersey that spotlighted this issue for the public and media through visits to Linden, Newark, and Camden. (September 2006)
4) Healthy School Environments
- With the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), WEC produced PowerPoint presentations on Health and Safety Committees and Using Existing Standards and Government Agencies. We updated seven fact sheets by job title: Security Officers, Secretaries, Paraeducators, Teachers, Custodial and Maintenance, Food Service, and Bus Drivers; a series of five fact sheets by hazard: School Renovations, Indoor Air Quality, Asbestos, Violence, and Bloodborne Hazards; and two on tools for change: How to Use PEOSH and Health and Safety Committees. WEC provided training at NJEA conferences and workshops and wrote articles on hazard communication, healthy school policy gains, health and safety committees, school chemical cleanouts, toxic releases from plants near schools, diesel school bus idling, computer ergonomics, and workers' compensation for the NJEA Reporter, which reaches more than 200,000 teachers and school staff each month.
- Helped prevent specific school hazards. For example, at the Early Childhood Learning Center in Phillipsburg, possible mold-related illnesses among staff and students led WEC to work with the local NJEA association to push the district to remediate water-damaged materials, clean debris from air intakes, and hire a certified contractor and ventilation engineer to fix the ventilation system. When media-center teachers in the Pinelands school district got sick, they called in WEC to determine why. Teachers lost sick days and were docked salary when administrators claimed there were no health hazards and continually denied that the copier, sewer digester, and laminator odors caused illnesses. WEC provided technical assistance during the grievance procedure and will testify during arbitration. When the local association wanted to form a health and safety committee in North Plainfield, they called in WEC to provide the training necessary for success. WEC also helped address school hazards in Bloomfield, Bridgewater, Camden, Clark, Clifton, East Orange, Edgewater, Freehold, Matawan, North Plainfield, North Warren, Old Bridge, Pinelands, Passaic, Wall, Wallington, and Westwood.
- WEC led efforts to protect children, staff, and building trade workers from contaminated sites and hazards during school construction--including poor indoor air quality--through better coordination and accountability of six state agencies, including the Schools Construction Corporation. These agencies, with WEC and our allies, have met quarterly since March 2004. This process led to creation of the Healthy School Facility Environments website, a gateway for resources to help parents, students, staff, administrators, architects, and contractors. The site received about 22,000 "hits" during the last year. Visit the site at www.state.nj.us/health/healthyschools/. (April 2006)
- Responding to an NJEA request, WEC researched and helped draft state legislation (Senate Bill 2391) to regulate excessive heat and cold temperatures in public schools. (Fall 2006)
5) Workplace Safety and Health
- With healthcare unions and other organizations, WEC established the Safe Work, Safe Care safety and health training project to train workers about how to prevent safety and health hazards. The project has produced participatory curricula on effective safety and health committees, chemical hazards, hazardous drugs, needlestick injuries, post-exposure procedures and preventing workplace violence, and has conducted workshops, a conference, and two train-the-trainers programs. The project is supported by a grant from the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
- WEC sponsored an Organizing and Health and Safety workshop to promote use of health and safety issues during union campaigns (June 2006). With Isles, Inc., a Trenton community organization, WEC provided participatory workshops on hazards facing people of color, right to know, OSHA rights, and the value of union representation. (September 2006)
- WEC won proposed amendments to NJ's Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Act Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Standard. This includes expanding the definition of an office building to include schools; defining "Sick Building Syndrome," thus making it a trigger for employers to investigate; ensuring that the employer's "designated person" has the necessary knowledge; requiring repairs of water intrusion and cleanup of wet materials within 48 hours; requiring airing out before reoccupancy after renovations or construction; and clarifying that hazards must be reviewed before construction chemicals are selected, not just before their use. (December 2006)