PAST ISSUES OF WEC@WORK
- A new policy won by the NJ Work Environment Council (WEC) and the national BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) will engage employees and their union representatives during environmental inspections of the nation's most dangerous industrial facilities.
- A high priority for the labor movement and the new leader of federal OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, is issuing a requirement for employers to have "Injury and Illness Prevention Programs".
- While the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico continue, Governor Christie and some Legislators are spearheading efforts to rollback New Jersey's strong environmental, safety, and worker protections to the failed federal standards that were unable to predict or prevent the Gulf oil disaster.
- New Jersey's Race to the Bottom? Should specific safety and health standards be set by state legislators, who are not scientific or regulatory experts?
- EPA and the Port Authority launch the Clean Truck Program that will reduce harmful pollution from the east coast's busiest port.
- On January 15, DEP issued a report on the effectiveness of its rules for Inherently Safer Technology (IST).
- Special thanks to Valorie Caffee.
January 2010
2009 Year in Review
- Victories in WEC's Safety and Security First! campaign in New Jersey laid the groundwork to advance national chemical security policy.
- WEC coordinated 106 labor, environmental, and health organizations to sign on to a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her to adopt EPA inspection policies to engage workers and their unions during inspections.
- WEC advocacy helped win improved NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations for industrial facilities to implement the NJ Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act.
- WEC advocacy won continuation of New Jersey's Environmental Justice Executive Order by Governor Jon S. Corzine.
- In a notable victory for teachers, staff, and students, the Howell Township Education Association, working with WEC, prevented the Howell Township Public Schools from fogging classrooms and school buses with disinfectant pesticides to kill H1N1 ("swine flu") virus.
- Six New Jersey nursing homes took specific steps to prevent workplace violence after union and management representatives participated in WEC's Safe Work, Safe Care training.
- WEC coordinated four "Green Jobs Forums" engaging 40 groups of diverse constituencies including management, labor, environmentalists and public officials to discuss key issues and potential common ground as we transition to a green economy.
November 2009
In this issue:
- WEC and the Blue Green Alliance (BGA), along with 104 other labor and environmental organizations from across the nation, are urging U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson to enforce an existing law encouraging worker and union participation during EPA inspections of facilities using highly hazardous substances.
- On December 3, 1984, 25 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from a Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal, India, in the world's worst toxic disaster, killing thousands.
- WEC Awards Reception a success.
- WEC spurs an EPA alert warning the public to be aware of unscrupulous vendors who market ineffective and unregistered products or services that claim to disinfect surfaces or entire rooms against the H1N1 influenza
virus.
October 2009
In this issue:
- Howell Township Education Association stops the Howell Township Public Schools in Monmouth County from pesticide fogging classrooms and school buses.
- The U.S. House of Representatives will soon vote on national chemical safety and security legislation that would set standards at thousands of industrial and water treatment plants.
- The Bergen Record recently reported that more than 1,600 drums of toxic and potentially explosive and flammable chemicals abandoned in a Clifton warehouse and in on-site shipping containers had been removed a year after they were discovered.
- WEC has received a two-year Susan Harwood training grant renewal from OSHA to continue the Preventing Chemical Accidents training project.
- Valorie Caffee, Rev. Fletcher Harper, and Kelly Francis have been appointed to the NJ Environmental Justice Advisory Council for a second term.