‘Let’s get to work!’: Insider NJ’s 2022 job post

Happy Labor Day, where movement has special value, as many working class people struggle in a system of socialism for the rich and capitalism for everyone else, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This annual edition features an account of many unfolding stories in the New Jersey labor movement, including union efforts to secure better conditions for Starbucks workers, legislative action to protect warehouse workers and temporary workers. , a 32BJ SEIU-backed strike for service workers at residential facilities, and most importantly, how the state is handling teacher shortages as students return to school.

Much of last year’s issue focused on the continuing divide among members of the building trades between the work done largely by businesses and the urban communities actually served, and the shortage of members of the building trades among Blacks and Latinos. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, blacks make up 6% of unionized jobs in construction. Also consider this nugget from a Philadelphia Inquirer article earlier this month:

In Philadelphia: “Local building trades declined to share demographics of the workers they represent. But the most recent data available from 2012 shows the industry’s union workforce was 99% male and 76% white in a city that is nearly 44% black and where the other major unions are predominantly African American.

In this context, we are encouraged to see the intensified efforts of Newark Labor Local 55, which this year implemented a Pathways to Apprenticeship program to train workers in the area for union jobs – and membership. long-term union.

You’ll find that story here, along with many others that will hopefully help you as working people in New Jersey fight for justice. I would like to especially thank Rob Asaro-Angelo, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor, for his InsiderNJ interview, also included below. As we approach next year, we will focus our coverage on how the state intends to replenish the transportation trust fund over the next eight years, climate change regulations and their impact on the construction trades, and how New Jersey will continue to implement federal critical infrastructure project funds.

For now, and finally, I would like to dedicate this year’s Labor Day issue to Janet Caicedo, sister of the late Edilberto Caicedo, and her efforts with Make the Road New Jersey and the State Legislature, on behalf of his late brother, killed in 2019 in a forklift accident at a warehouse in Kearny.

If you don’t know the story, read on and take a moment to appreciate the brave efforts of a loving and dedicated sister – who – in Jersey’s fashion – refused to back down.

Download Insider NJ’s job post or view it below:

Work

(Visited 1,178 times, 1 visits today)