Press List

2024

March 2024

Date	Article	Publication	Issue(s)
01-31-2020	Legisladores instan a adoptar nuevas protecciones para los trabajadores que enfrentan calor extremo Adriana Álvarez sabe lo que es sentir calor mientras trabaja. Demasiado calor. Álvarez, residente de Elizabeth, ha trabajado en los últimos años para empresas que fabrican productos acrílicos y plásticos, los cuales involucran maquinaria pesada que opera a altas temperaturas para derretir y dar forma a los materiales. Las condiciones pueden amplificarse hasta niveles sofocantes en los calurosos días de verano, cuando las temperaturas exteriores y el sol hacen quemar las instalaciones. Álvarez contó que en un día particularmente caluroso en la planta de acrílicos, el calor se volvió insoportable. «Había 100 grados, más de 100 grados», dijo Álvarez a NJ Spotlight News, hablando en español a través de un traductor. «Y no podía soportar el calor. Me sentí mareada». La llevaron a una cafetería con aire acondicionado para que se refrescara y le permitieron regresar a casa temprano mientras aún le pagaban. Álvarez dijo que ese día tuvo suerte de que su jefe fuera comprensivo, pero dijo que una política de la empresa que prohibía a los trabajadores usar ventiladores en la fábrica contribuía a crear condiciones peligrosas. Y en la planta de plásticos, Álvarez dijo que cuando los trabajadores expresaron su preocupación por el calor, la gerencia les dijo que trajeran sus propios ventiladores de casa. «Necesitan hacer esas fábricas y almacenes más adecuados para los trabajadores, porque si el trabajador está sano, entonces la producción también lo estará», expresó Álvarez. Ese es un sentimiento compartido por organizaciones de derechos de los trabajadores como Make the Road New Jersey, de la que Álvarez es miembro. Este grupo está presionando por nuevas protecciones térmicas en el lugar de trabajo. Es un tema que, según argumenta la organización, el cambio climático está volviendo cada vez más urgente y algo que amenaza a los mismos trabajadores de primera línea que enfrentaron los mayores peligros de la pandemia de COVID-19. «Los trabajadores de logística, repartidores y trabajadores de la construcción eran todos esenciales», dijo Garrett O’Connor, director de política y organización de trabajadores de Make the Road New Jersey. «Y son esos mismos trabajadores esenciales los que necesitan ser protegidos a medida que avanza el cambio climático».	Reporte Hispano	Workers, Climate Change, Workers Protections, Heat Standard
3/20/24	‘Pay Your Fair Share’: Activists Rally In Newark For NJ Corporate Tax What would a fare hike of this magnitude mean for train and bus riders? Just ask Elodia Perez, a 75-year-old commuter from Passaic. “Our communities and families are already struggling to keep up with rising costs,” said Perez, a member of Make the Road New Jersey. “And with NJ Transit’s proposed 15 percent bus and train fare increase, tens of thousands of riders like me will have to make additional sacrifices, while corporations get a massive tax cut.” According to Perez, the current proposal will help keep the wolves from the door – but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. “Although Governor Murphy announced a tax on corporate profits over $10 million, a result of the collective efforts of working-class commuters, this is not enough,” Perez insisted. “Bus fares are still going up and discounted FLEXPASS tickets, a huge help for elderly riders like myself, will still be cut.”	Patch	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.
3/14/24	Lawmakers urge new protections for workers facing extreme heat Adriana Alvarez knows what it’s like to be hot on the job. Too hot. Alvarez, an Elizabeth resident, has in recent years worked for companies making acrylics and plastics products – both of which involve heavy machinery operating at high temperatures to melt and shape the materials. The conditions can be amplified to sweltering levels on hot summer days, when the outside temperatures and the sun bake the facilities. Alvarez said on one particularly hot day at the acrylics plant, the heat became unbearable. “It was 100 degrees, 100-plus degrees,” Alvarez told NJ Spotlight News, speaking in Spanish through a translator. “And I couldn’t take the heat. I felt dizzy.” She was taken to an air-conditioned cafeteria to cool off and was allowed to go home early while still being paid. Alvarez said she was lucky that day that her boss was sympathetic, but she said a company policy prohibiting workers from using fans on the factory floor contributed to dangerous conditions. And at the plastics plant, Alvarez said when workers voiced concerns about heat, they were told by management to bring their own fans from home. “They need to make those factories and warehouses more suitable for workers, because if the worker is healthy, then the production is going to be as well,” Alvarez said. That’s a sentiment shared by workers’ rights organizations like Make the Road New Jersey, which Alvarez is a member of. This group is pushing for new workplace heat protections. It’s an issue it argues climate change is making increasingly urgent, and something that threatens the same frontline workers that faced the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest dangers. “Logistics workers, delivery workers, constructions workers were all essential,” said Garrett O’Connor, the director of worker organizing and policy for Make the Road New Jersey. “And it’s those same essential workers that need to be protected as climate change advances.”	NJ Spotlight News	Workers, Climate Change, Workers Protections, Heat Standard
3/6/24	2 more hearings on New Jersey Transit’s proposed fare hike “We’re asking people on top of struggling to make everyday ends meet, to pay an additional 15% increase because others are not paying what they owe,” said Nedia Morsy with Make the Road New Jersey	ABC 7 News	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.
3/5/24	NJ Transit riders speak about fare increases Nedia traveled with some fellow riders, neighbors and members of Make the Road New Jersey to the second in-person hearing at Passaic County Community College in Paterson on Tuesday morning. “They still haven’t made New Jersey affordable,” said commuters gathered outside.	PIX 11 News	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.
3/5/24	NJ Transit fare hikes: More public reaction Avelino Nazario, a member of Make the Road New Jersey and an NJ Transit commuter, said, “I am here today with all my fellow bus riders to ask that you stop fare hikes and instead call on Governor Murphy to fully restore the corporate business tax.”	NJ Spotlight News	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.
3/2/24	These N.J. Transit riders can barely afford food, much less a fare hike On a chilly February morning, as we sit together at a bus stop on Prospect Avenue, Avelino Nazario, a Passaic resident who relies on public transportation “to go anywhere and everywhere,” shakes his head as he makes a troubling statement: “Come summer, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford riding the bus anymore.” Avelino, a 51-year-old immigrant from Mexico, sighs deeply as he tells me in Spanish how much he dreads NJ Transit’s plan to hike bus and train fares by 15% in July, and by an additional 3% annually, after that. “I’m sure it’s hard for the politicians to believe or understand,” Avelino says, “but if the fares increase, I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I just don’t think I can bear that financially.”	NJ.com	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.

February 2024

Date	Article	Publication	Issue(s)
2/28/24	Murphy’s planned corporate transit tax to fund NJ Transit prompts praise and jeers Even those who support increasing funding to NJ Transit weren’t fully on board, questioning the need for recently announced fare and toll hikes to proceed if lawmakers approve Murphy’s proposed corporate transit tax. Members of Make the Road New Jersey rallied outside of the Statehouse ahead of Murphy’s budget address to demand the corporate surtax be restored and urge policymakers to quit relying on the working class to fix their funding woes.	New Jersey Monitor	Budget, Corporate Business Trax, NJ Transit, Fare Hikes, Public Transportation.