Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO is celebrating a string of legislative victories that came at the tail end of the state’s last legislative session. Several pieces of legislation advocated for by the state federation and its affiliates passed both houses or were signed into law earlier this week. They include the Responsible Collective Negotiations Act, which ends the ability to impose contracts, creates a new topic of “permissive” subjects of negotiations and fixes several membership issues caused by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision. The state legislature also passed bills to toughen penalties for assaults on New Jersey’s transit workers, promote apprenticeship programs in public works projects and mandate periodic cancer screening for firefighters.
New Jersey State AFL-CIO officers, President Charles Wowkanech (IUOE) and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan (Workers United), said on Tuesday: “As a new legislative session begins today, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO thanks legislative leadership, Gov. [Phil] Murphy and all the legislators that voted in support of a pro-worker agenda throughout the ‘lame duck’ session of the legislature that ends today.”