• Community

New Brunswick, New Jersey: 

Four hundred members and supporters of New Labor, the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC), and allied organizations, collectively demanded “Safe Workplaces for All, free of retaliation” marched on April 28  in New Brunswick today to honor workers who have been killed or become sick or injured on the job.  

The march, with coffins, handmade signs and chants to remember fallen workers, began and ended at New Labor’s center  in New Brunswick. It is one of many events taking place around the country and around the globe as part of Workers’ Memorial Day, which brings together workers, families, unions, and allies to honor those affected by unsafe working conditions and to advocate for better protections in the workplace. 

This past year, workers in New Jersey died in their workplaces from causes such as falls, blunt force trauma, being crushed, stuck by, asphyxiation, and stabbing. Many workplace deaths may have been prevented had there been a right to refuse unsafe work, effective training, or a workplace health and safety committee.   These and other systems of safety could have created different outcomes for firefighters responding to the Port of Newark cargo ship fire, and the construction workers laboring on the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore.

Demands from participants at the march included safe workplaces for ALL, worker driven co-enforcement of workplace safety, climate justice as worker justice with good clean energy jobs that are accessible to ALL, and the right to refuse unsafe work without retaliation and labor protections for workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions, including Deferred Action protection. 

Several testimonies highlighted the need for systems of safety that eliminate potential safety hazards for workers and the need to create a culture of safety in workplaces.

“The construction workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge didn’t have to die.  There were various system failures that could have potentially prevented that disaster” said Deysi Cruz of New Labor.

“Today we marched like other years to remember our coworkers and family that have died in the workplace.  We march because we didn’t want other workers to go through the same thing, and we need jobs that are safer for all.  Not one more death!” said Germania Hernandez, Organizer at New Labor.

Another major theme that marchers highlighted was that health and safety rights need to be upheld through organizing. 

Juana Nuñez of New Labor spoke  to the unsafe working conditions at her workplace.   “We got tired to those conditions and organized a group to make change.  And having deferred action means we can continue to organize against workplace abuses,” she said.

“Safe workplaces are workplaces where we are respected.  They’re workplaces where we as workers have our voices heard AND where we as workers can enforce employer responsibility for working conditions.   We go to work to make a living, not to die.  No worker’s life is disposable, regardless of where they’re from,” said Louis Kimmel, Executive Director of New Labor

New Labor, a membership-based organization of largely low-wage Latino workers that educates, organizes and fights for better working conditions. For more information, please visit www.newlabor.org.

New Jersey Work Environment Council, an alliance of 70 labor, community, and environmental organizations advocating for safe, secure jobs and a healthy, sustainable environment. For more information, please visit www.njwec.org.