- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

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PSE&G, powering progress.

Valley Bank.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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And by The Fidelco Group.

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Building connections, driving business growth.

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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with Greg Lalevee.

He's been with us many times.

He is the business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825.

Good to see you, Greg.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

Thanks for having me back.

- You got it.

Let me disclose that I do leadership coaching for 825 and they're a long time underwriter of our programming.

So Greg, one of the things I've always been fascinated by in a lot of our offline conversations, which we'll talk about now, is the connection between the trades overall, operating engineers more specifically, and the higher ed community, to do what and what is this very significant accomplishment with some of your members that have just gone through a terrific apprenticeship program?

- Sure, well for operating engineers, technology is in our world and growing.

Our members operate heavy construction equipment.

We also repair it.

And when you look at what's out there, cranes have sophisticated computers on them now.

The earthmoving equipment has GPS control and equipment on it and it demands a higher level of education.

Somebody has to program the machine.

Our members know full well how to operate it.

So a better level of education we believe is going to be the operating engineer of the future.

- So 22 members of your local just completed an apprenticeship program.

They got Associate degrees?

- They got an Associate's degree in Technical Studies.

- From Hudson County Community College.

What does that do for them in their careers?

- It brings their level up.

So they did some of the traditional classes of English, math, speech, which is going to just make them a better communicator on a job site or with their employers.

Then they did some of the technical sciences that go into what it is we do.

Physics is a big part of what we do.

So it's going to make them better employers, or employees to their employers, a more rounded individual and we think an employee who companies will want to put into their team on a permanent basis.

- Greg, you and I have been talking for years about leadership development.

You're a student of leadership, I'm a student of leadership, which is why we're doing the, in a lot of ways, the coaching we're doing at 825.

But what's interesting to me is when I first met you and we first started talking about your connection to the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825.

It's personal and it's family for you.

Talk about that.

- Sure.

- As we talk about the future, talk about the past.

- Well, my father was an operating engineer.

So when we talk about advances in technology, very personal.

My father had a steam license because machinery in his early days were steam-operated.

And then came the internal combustion engine, gas and diesel, hydraulics moving the machine around rather than cables.

So we went through that evolution.

That was more or less his evolution.

Most of my career, I got to live in that world.

And now we see a changing world with the technology coming on board.

And just like my father's generation had to transition and master the new equipment, we have to, in this day and age, transition and master what the equipment is becoming.

- Greg, AI, artificial intelligence.

Does it scare you, make you excited about the future?

Or are you agnostic?

Or can't you be?

Four part question.

You can't ignore it, right?

- You cannot ignore it, absolutely not.

- What the heck do you think, oh it's gonna take our jobs, it's gonna take the job.

Talk about what you believe is real and what is people's fear that is unfounded.

- Sure, well, in each and every Industrial Revolution, we've seen the workforce get scared that technology is going to take their jobs.

I just finished a book called the "Blood in the Machine" that talks, speaks to mid-19th century England, how the machines that did textiles became automated on the back of steam engines being invented.

A lot of unrest.

Workers broke into factories, destroyed machines.

Same kind of unrest happened in the Industrial Revolution here in the United States with assembly lines.

So people are going to naturally be nervous.

But in each one of those transitions, there was still work to be done and workers needed to do it.

It's a matter of how do you adapt, how do you overcome whatever the change is, and plug into it and move on.

And that's what we're trying to do here with our training.

- Let me push back a little bit.

So one of the other themes in the coaching that I've done, and you and I have talked about this before, is change is inevitable, it's the only constant.

But the resistance to change is very natural on a part of a lot of us.

And Greg, look, we're doing this.

Greg, when we first started talking to you, it was in person.

- Yeah.

- We're doing it this way.

And again, there's a hybrid.

People are doing it.

And some of our stuff's on location, most of it's this way.

Long-winded way of getting to this, to what degree do you find most of your members going along with, accepting and embracing these changes, versus those who are like, Greg, I just want it to be the way it was.

- Well, I think the majority wishes it was, you know, the old way.

However, I also believe the majority acknowledges the changes.

And we've done a lot to try to educate them.

You look, there's YouTube videos out there that shows autonomous equipment.

We've played that at Union meetings.

This is not fake.

- Whoa, whoa, autonomous equipment, what, what?

- So equipment that has no operator in it.

It's run either remotely away, just like drones.

We see our military operate drones from a distance.

Heavy equipment's going the same way.

And we've brought these videos to our Union meetings.

We've educated our members that this is the future.

Whether or not we pick that future or try to deny it, is immaterial, it's here.

There were some autonomous equipment deployed on a job site in California operated by our brother and sister operating engineers out there.

So there is a way to do this, there's a way to educate yourself.

There's a knowledge base that you need and a knowledge base that's valuable to an employer who might deploy this equipment.

- So you're doing what you're doing at Hudson County Community College.

To what degree are you able to, planning to take this initiative with higher ed and move it to other community colleges, vo-tech schools?

Talk about that.

Got about a minute and a half left.

- Sure, I mean, we're looking for partners everywhere.

The community colleges have programs in construction management, so there's a lot of good classes in there that would fit our members.

So every day, we're talking about partnerships.

And then to your point, to go back and look at the vo-techs.

Two of New Jersey's vo-techs have heavy equipment programs.

One of the vo-techs in our area, our part of New York State where we exist, has a heavy equipment program.

So there's partnerships to be made to capture these kids when they're young, they're teenagers, who wanna do this and incubate them and bring them right through.

They'll be right in with the technology.

They're all gamers, they all enjoy this.

They're all bred on simulators.

So it's just going to be a natural fit to move people through.

And that's going to be the operating engineer of the future.

- Greg Lalevee, business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825.

Greg, as always, thank you for joining us.

Incredibly important topic and people need to understand the trades better than they do and also what the future holds.

Thank, Greg.

Thanks Greg, talk soon.

- Thanks Steve, I appreciate it.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by two leaders with the partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey, Mariekarl Vilceus-Talty and Emily Haines.

Mariekarl is the president and CEO, Emily is the Chief Nursing Officer.

Thank you both for joining us, we appreciate it.

Mariekarl, you've been with us before.

Let's talk about specifically the Family Connects NJ program.

Website is up.

What is it, who does it serve, and why is it so important?

- It is so very important.

Who does it serve, it serves every birthing woman who has delivered within the state of New Jersey and it's an evidence-based home birthing program, home visiting program with no eligibility restrictions and it is so important because we know that the two weeks after delivery, we need that support, we need that education because that is when the majority of morbidity and mortality happens.

And I'm so happy to have Emily here with us because she's leading that initiative with our other sub-grantees and community partners to make sure that we are supporting families and making sure that these issues are not happening.

- Emily, do this for us.

We've had several conversations with First Lady Tammy Murphy and others about maternal health.

Put in context the maternal health of minority women, of Black and brown mothers and why their maternal health is so much worse...

The situation so much worse than those and who happen to be white and disproportionately in suburban communities and wealthier.

- Yes, so in New Jersey, we really have a maternal mortality and morbidity crisis, especially in Black and brown mothers.

We know that regardless of their income or educational level, a Black woman with a PhD is still seven times more likely to die from childbirth related complications compared-- - One second, regardless of education, one second.

Regardless of education, regardless of income, regardless of zip code, seven times having nothing.

Okay, please pick up your point.

- So that's why a program like this is so critical because it's universal.

It does not matter what type of income you have or what your educational background is.

It is for every person who has given birth in New Jersey to receive a personalized visit from a nurse within two weeks of delivery with a nurse that's been specially trained.

So this type of program is very innovative and it is something that could address those issues that we have in New Jersey.

- Mariekarl, that's moms who happen to be African-American, Latino, Black and brown moms, Black children three times more likely to die before their first birthday.

- Absolutely, three times more likely to die.

It's really apart and this is for everyone, regardless if you are Black, white, but when we specifically talk about the African-American community, we wanna make sure that these social determinants of health, food deserts, access issues are mainly a suggestion and not a destination.

So when you have a program like this, it really does circumvent issues.

We go into the home, like Emily said, we have specialized nurses from different backgrounds to ensure that we have cultural humility.

We learn about your culture, we speak to you in the ways that you can understand and if there's a problem, the entire family is there to hear what we're talking about, to be educated and to know when to call the doctor and when to call 911, when to get more information.

That's why it is really such a great program that will make a difference.

- The website continues to be up.

Let me ask you this, Emily, some of the goals of the program, 14%... Well, I don't wanna get these statistics wrong and the goals wrong.

What are the most meaningful, impactful goals of the Family Connects NJ program please?

- So our goals are really to reach most of the birthing population in New Jersey with a free nurse home visit within two weeks after birth.

- Those two weeks are critical because?

- That is when a lot can happen.

So a mom is typically discharged around three to five days after delivery and is sometimes seeing their OB-GYN provider for a postpartum check around three to six weeks.

And so that two week period is really critical to not only identify issues where the baby may be having some issues with infant feeding or infant weight gain, but also to check on mom to catch elevated blood pressures, to catch infections from their C-section incisions.

These are the types of issues that the nurses find at that two week point on the home visit that are able to be elevated to their OB-GYN or to the emergency department and really save lives.

- And Steve--I'm sorry.

- Sure, please.

- Not at all, go ahead.

- I was gonna say, if I may add, when you are home and you've had a baby, or this can even be your second or third baby, you start thinking that things are normal.

You have a headache, oh, I'm a little tired.

This is something that happens.

Meanwhile, specifically in the African-American community, you may have high blood pressure 'cause we know that even though the numbers have changed from 47th to 25th, we are still suffering from cardiovascular-- - I'm sorry.

- No, we were 47th in the nation in terms of morbidity and mortality for maternal health and throughout working with Nurture New Jersey and this administration, we have now was up to 25th.

But when you look at the African-American community, those numbers have not changed.

And when you look at the morbidity and mortality and the diagnoses, cardiac issues, cardiovascular issues are number one.

So if you have family connects, these specialized nurses that come in two weeks later within that 14 day period and you tell them, you know what?

I've had a headache, I already saw my doctor, but I have a headache and my grandmother, my aunt, my sister told me it's okay, I'm just a little tired.

You start educating, you take a blood pressure and your blood pressure is elevated over your normal.

This is time for you to go to your physician.

And it's not only the significant other that hears that, sister hears that, grandma hears that, family member, neighbor, and then they start educating the community.

So it's really not only the foundation of education, but the scaffolding that we give to the generation that is really important, going into the home and meeting people where they're at.

- Do we know, Emily, where New Jersey is?

Again, Mariekarl gave the statistics in terms of where we rank, but is there something about New Jersey that causes us to have such a serious problem as it relates to maternal health?

Something about our culture, our politics, our policy, something?

- I think Mariekarl probably is better to answer that one.

- Is this a national issue that-- - It's a national issue, it depends where you are.

If you're in Louisiana, you're 12 times more likely.

If you're in New York, you're nine times more likely.

The numbers are... We have to get a whole of the redundancies that are being built within the system and we have to look at upstream issues.

What are the issues?

Is it having a provider that looks like you?

Is it access, is it transportation?

Is it food deserts?

There are so many issues we're focusing right now on being in the home, catching people within those two weeks.

But we also have to look at the upstream issues.

So when they talk about social determinants of health and when they talk about your genetics, that again, it is not a destination, but simply a suggestion that we can work on to mitigate these factors.

- Mariekarl and Emily, important conversation, important work being done every day.

Thank you so much, we appreciate it.

- Thank you, we appreciate you.

- You got it, I'm Steve Adubato.

Stay will us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by Nicole Rodriguez, President of New Jersey Policy Perspective.

Their website will be up as Nicole tells us about the organization.

Nicole, thanks for joining us.

- Thank you.

It's a pleasure.

- You got it.

The mission of New Jersey Policy Perspective is?

- We are a think and do tank, and we focus on state level policies that lift up economic, racial, and social justice for research.

- Got it.

Let's start with this.

We were gonna talk about in depth private school vouchers, but the whole idea has been scrapped, as I understand it, in the State House right now.

- Yes.

- Why does your, the organization, New Jersey Policy Perspective, even, say the issue comes back up again.

It's been around a long time.

It'll come back again.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Why are you so, you and your colleagues, against the idea of private school vouchers, particularly in urban areas where some parents are looking for options?

- Of course, and that makes a lot of sense.

We absolutely understand that position.

Where we view it from a systematic overview, a landscape overview, the proposal that essentially had died a week ago would fund public dollars to private schools.

And that's where we have the issue.

Our schools are not fully funded at the moment.

There's such incredible need- - Our public schools.

Our public schools are not fully funded.

- Correct.

There's a lot of needs across the schools.

There are schools that don't even have nurses.

So once we're able to fully fund schools and not have to worry about revenue on top of all of this, and I believe is one of the reasons why this bill did not move forward is because we don't have the revenue to support it.

- Okay.

Shift gears.

We've talked to a whole range of people.

We've been taping all day today, and we've been asking people about the Open Public Records Act, otherwise known as OPRA.

- Yeah.

- The fact that the governor, on June 5th, we're taping later in the month of June.

It'll be seen later.

The governor signed legislation that significantly changes OPRA.

Very much, your organization, very much, excuse me, against the governor signing the changes to the Open Public Records Act because?

- Well, it reduces transparency.

So, you know, one of the main issues that we had with this bill is that it allows agencies to sue requesters, which is a brand new thing, as well as prohibiting requesters from requesting information from multiple agencies.

And we see this, the need for that is incredible for, you know, not only for journalists, but researchers and also community members who wanna know what's going on in their communities.

And this all public information, and they do have a right to know.

And having someone, being able to be sued will have a chilling effect on people who are trying to seek this information.

- Some who we've talked to in in-depth interviews, they have argued that the Open Public Records Act, as previously constituted, was being abused by some people who are really going after records, and the expense of the process was really hurting local budgets, and that information, which was ultimately received, was put out there for proprietary purposes to make money.

- Right.

Yes!

- Would you agree there's some abuses to OPRA as it's been instituted?

- Yes, we should always listen to what officials at the local level are experiencing, and this is why we don't feel that this result was actually solving a problem.

Because those bad requesters, these bad actors, are not gonna be deterred by the law.

They can afford to get sued.

And they can find ways to get this information because they don't have that chilling effect.

In addition to that, we've heard folks at the local level where they have the opposite problem.

It takes a long time for them to actually get these records because nothing is digitized.

So we would, what we would hope that this law would've been is to provide funding so that, you know, workers don't have to go through actual physical paper to find the information that the public is looking for.

- Another issue, the corporate transit tax, what is it, explain to folks very briefly what it is, and why, again, New Jersey Policy Perspective has real concerns about it.

Please.

- So the corporate business tax was a two and a half percent fee on corporations earning over $1 million in net profits.

This expired.

The governor proposed a corporate transit fee, which is essentially very similar to that original program.

- Over $10 million?

- Over $10 million, and 80% of those corporations are not even headquarter in New Jersey.

Vast majority are outta state.

- And the position of New Jersey Policy Perspective on that is what?

- So we're facing a fiscal cliff.

We need all the revenue that we can get.

- At New Jersey Transit?

- For New Jersey Transit especially.

New Jersey Transit right now will be experience $1 billion deficit, and this will bring in about $1 billion solving that crisis.

But that is just- - So it's a good idea?

It's a good idea.

- Yes, absolutely.

- And when leaders- - These are corporations who profited off the backs of people during the pandemic, and most are outta states.

These are the Amazons, these are not the mom and pop shops.

- So when you have business leaders, including the head of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and we did an interview with her, Michele Siekerka.

You should check it out.

You'll see our website come up on there.

Check it out.

She said, "You know, Steve.

The last thing we need is another tax on corporations.

People don't wanna come here in the first place.

They don't wanna stay."

- Well, that's not true.

- You say what?

- Well, if you actually look at the data, that's absolutely not true.

Our population is growing.

And, at the same time, these are not mom and pop shops.

This would reinstate a tax that already existed for many years.

So it's not an additional tax.

- But didn't the governor promise that he would let it- - They are federal taxes that they've had privileged in not even having to pay for many, many years under the Trump Administration.

- But the governor did promise he would not renew the tax, and now there's a different tax, but some of the business- - It's more targeted.

- Excuse me?

- It's more targeted.

- Okay.

- To the ultra wealthy corporations who can afford it.

- Last question, since we're talking about taxes, the Stay NJ Property Tax Program, your concerns about it are what?

- So the idea of this is wonderful.

You know, it has a noble goal of helping seniors stay in their home.

But if you actually look at the details, this is a $2 billion program, and it essentially, overwhelmingly, benefits wealthier seniors, and it does nothing with the one in four seniors who are living in rental properties.

- Not middle class New Jerseyans.

They don't benefit.

- It's mostly wealthy folks.

- Nicole Rodriguez is the president of New Jersey Policy Perspective.

Nicole, we thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

Take care.

- You got it.

Steve Adubato, thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

PSE&G, Valley Bank.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Adler Aphasia Center.

NJ Best, New Jersey's five-two-nine college savings plan.

And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

- (Narrator) Since 1903, PSEG has worked to keep our commitment to customers and communities, to keep your lights on and homes warm.

We're there when challenges strike like storms or economic uncertainty.

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