>> Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, labor showdown at New Jersey transit.

Locomotive engineers have been demanding fair pay and that her contracts for close to four years.

Will they vote to strike?

>> Hundreds of thousands of people every day.

They need to be paid for what they do.

>> Plus, a summer of strikes.

>> We are seeing a resurgence of labor militancy lately.

>> From professors to actors and now nurses, workers have had enough and are feeling empowered leading to the most labor strikes in New Jersey and the country in decades.

Also, turf wars.

Residents fight against plans to convert grass fields to artificial turf.

>> We are teaching our kids in grades K-12 to take care of the environment and we are setting them outside to play on a plastic heat island.

There is a lot of hypocrisy.

>> Swimming safety lessons.

>> For black children, they drown at a rate that is four times the rate of their white counterparts.

>> Patterson children attend a water safety camp where local organizers are taking action to reduce drownings and unintentional deaths.

NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

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♪ >> From NJPBS, this is NJ Spotlight news.

>> Good evening and thanks for joining us this Wednesday night.

Contract negotiations at New Jersey transit could come to a screeching halt if the agency and its unionized train engineers cannot work out a deal including pay raises.

The 500 members represented by the national brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trainmen are the last of 15 New Jersey transit rail unions left to settle a new contract.

They are seeking salary increases they argue put them on par with other rail agencies in the region.

Transit officials are trying to keep riders calm pointing to a federal court order they say prevents engineers from walking off the job.

Our Senior correspondent reports members are already receiving ballots in the mail as they prepare to vote and authorize a strike.

>> In 2018 NJ transit went off the rails.

A summer engineer shortage often canceled more than 20 trains a day Ving Rhames writers stranded and angry.

After that debacle the agency spent years training and hiring more than 100 newly graduated engineers but now their union claims contract negotiations with NJ transit sit dead on the tracks would locked over a wage demand.

The union's call to strike authorization vote.

>> I'm sure they have had enough when it comes to four years without a pay raise.

They are ready to move on.

They move hundreds of thousands of people every day.

They need to be paid for what they do.

>> Our locomotive engineers feel like they are underpaid and not appreciated.

The New Jersey transit engineers come across the platform and get a $20 news everyday per hour.

>> Amtrak offer or engineers 61 bucks an hour while NJ transit room 39.

They want parity with fellow engineers.

NJ transit settled with 14 out of 15 labor unions but cites a looming billion-dollar deficit in 2026.

>> We also need to be a financially responsible.

The fact that the other unions have accepted a three year extension, that 3% strikes that balance.

We are negotiating going to remediation and there is a process and we respect that process.

>> The NJ transit CEO says the agency has to live within its means and expects to continue in mediation but the union, the brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trainmen sees no point and they question NJ transit's budget priorities especially its recent decision to lease expensive office space in Newark.

>> It was like rubbing salt in a wound.

When they come out and say they're going to spend $440 million on a penthouse office space when they have not settled their contract with the locomotive engineers.

>> How would you respond to that?

>> The lease is a whole separate issue.

.

That is a tactic saying where we are spending money trying to pit management against the unionized workforce.

>> It also raises questions from Republican legislative leaders who recognize a campaign issue and plan to meet with the union.

>> They are saying to themselves wait a minute.

You can afford to put yourself into a luxury lease but you cannot afford to pay your workers a fair and livable wage.

That is a tough position to get out of.

New Jersey transit should have seen that coming and they did not.

>> We are not going anywhere right now.

This is going back and forth.

.

No movement at all.

>> Strike authorization ballots go out this Friday and the union will tally them August 31.

If it is released from talks by the National Mediation Board next month it could go to arbitration but the union still faces strict rules under the railway labor act that could delay any actual strike possibly into next year.

>> By taking the strike vote, that will help move along the process and we will be ready so if we get released for mediation we can move forward.

>> 2023 appears to be the year of labor strikes for both New Jersey and U.S. workers from massive work stoppages across all three campuses at Rutgers University to the writers Guild and registered nurses workers are fed up.

They are requesting better pay to keep up with inflation and more job protections after getting through the pandemic.

Data show July was one of the busiest months for strikes in roughly three decades with about 600 50,000 workers expected to walk off the job across the country.

Many labor experts say it is a reflection of the growing public support for unions and an increase in employee leverage.

For more I'm joined by assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University.

Thanks for joining me.

Is it out of the ordinary to see this many strikes particularly this summer?

>> Yeah, the number of strikes is definitely up this year over last year.

Last year was up over the previous year.

We are seeing a resurgence of labor militancy definitely.

>> What is causing it?

What are the driving factors to so many work stoppages?

>> There are a lot of industry-specific issues.

Particular occupations are facing.

Nurses on strike in New Brunswick and elsewhere are striking over safe staffing levels.

Box factory workers in Dayton are striking over rising health care costs out of their pockets.

Health and safety issues.

Wages and working conditions.

The underlying thread across all of these is it has been decades and decades workers have been producing more and more for their employers.

Players are generating greater profits.

Employees have not been sharing in those gains over the years.

We are at a moment with a strong labor market.

We came out of the Covid crisis and had a high period of inflation following it.

Workers are little bit frustrated but also empowered because of the state of the economy to make those demands to increase their wages and improve their working conditions.

>> You mentioned inflation.

I'm wondering how that has caused some of this momentum as you said.

We are seeing a strong labor market but people still cannot afford to buy groceries or sick items because of that -- or basic items because of the high costs we are faced with.

>> Historically when those of us in the Academy that study labor unions can see historically there are periods of high inflation, the unionization goes up.

Organizing activity.

More commands and more strikes.

It does correlate.

>>>> I have looked at some of the labor data.

July was a very busy month for work stoppages.

When Ms. the last time -- when was the last time the last year or decade we saw action at this level?

>> I'm going to say it was probably not since the 90's.

But really there was a lot more labor militancy in the 60's and 70's.

And then some government rules on reporting were changed around 1980 so it is hard to compare the number of work stoppages historically before and after 1980 that it has definitely been a couple decades since we have had this level of strike and work stoppages.

>> What do we know about what happens when we collectively see these workers coming together adding the picket lines?

-- hitting the picket lines?

>> As we have seen from John Deere workers to call-up workers to the railroad workers to the Teamsters is one workers do stand together and make strong demands and show their solidarity they are able to win some of their demands and ringback more wages in their paychecks and better health care for their families.

>> At the same time we actually have less workers represented by workers than ever.

Should we anticipate this is going to be the norm from here on out?

>> As things stand I think we are going to continue to see a lot of these work stoppages as long as the economy is going strong and the labor market is tight.

>> Assistant professor at Rucker University.

Thanks so much.

>> New Jersey's Attorney General is sui the city of Millville over accusations of bias in the local courtroom.

The states lawsuit filed on Tuesday argues the city violated the state law against discrimination by requiring people who were assumed to speak Spanish based on their last names to appear in Municipal Court in person while other people were offered remote appearance options.

The alleged discriminatory practice was in place from June 2022 to December.

The lawsuit comes after the missable court judge raised the issue this past winter but a state judiciary investigation found no evidence of discrimination in the court.

The judge says he has faced backlash for voicing his concerns and his suing the courts.

He resigned from the bench last week saying he feared further retaliation.

Cleanup from a deadly ship fire in Port Newark last month hit a key milestone.

The Coast Guard announced earlier this week thousands of vehicles and all 134 containers have been removed from the Italian cargo ship that burned for days in a blaze that left two Newark firefighters dead.

The Coast Guard said the ship which has not moved since the fire is still stable and no hazardous materials have been released from it into the environment.

The investigation into what caused the fire is still ongoing.

From high school soccer fields to multimillion dollar sports complexes, artificial turf fields are seemingly everywhere and they are dividing New Jersey communities over the potential health and environmental risks they pose.

As more town councils moved to replace real grass with synthetic fields consisting save money and time lost from play.

Ted Goldberg reports.

>> The possibility of replacing real grass with fake grass has graded a turf war in Scotch Plains.

>> I think it is environmentally responsible to pull up natural grass and replace it with plastic especially given the situation that we are in where we are cutting back on plastics.

>> Earlier this year the Scotch Plains Township Council approved a nearly $4 million plan to make improvements in Brookside Park peered among them, replacing the grassy baseball field the more versatile artificial turf paired residents like Tim Wegner says there is a united front in trying to stop the plan in its tracks.

>> Publicans and Democrats, old people, young people, sports families and nonsports families.

For the most part it was a uniting issue for people which we found refreshing because we are living in an environment where there is a lot of division and name-calling.

As >> A community, we should stand behind our environmental cause and not introduce more plastic into the environment.

>> We are teaching our kids and a grade 312 to take care of the environment and we are setting them outside to play on a plastic heat island.

There is a lot of hypocrisy.

>> Plastic heat island might sound dramatic but turf fields can get a lot hotter than typical grass fields.

A 90 degree day could leave -- a 90 degree day could lead to temperatures of 90 degrees picked -- night people are concerned about the extensive use of plastic so close to water and the possibility that turf fields could be of forever chemicals.

>> A field this size you're talking about 40,000 pounds of plastic carpet on this.

That gets covered typically with this rubber granule.

>> After wear and tear and general environmental exposure, the plastic blades break down into micro plastics and these of course if you are by a waterway or drinking water area or something like that.

>>>> There is not a civil study that has said it is safe.

There are studies that say we have not found anything yet.

We equate it to the cigarette companies were back in the day it was like we don't know anything yet and we do believe that there is going to be proof in years forward that it is the chemicals are not good.

>> pfas have been found in some turf fields for the synthetic turf Council says testing have not been able to determine if petals can leach into water.

They released a statement saying synthetic turf is safe and lemonades the need for fertilizers as well as saving hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.

A typical synthetic turf field can provide more hours of play than a grass field.

One group in New Jersey concluded it can cost six times less to maintain than grass.

>> Some in need of trades and ecosystem -- of trees and ecosystems.

Once the turf fields are actually installed, you create more -- and you inadvertently create this heat island effects.

>> Your>> putting all these chemicals in the ground that is not easy to remove peered once it is in, that is a peer the turf companies are Darren teed ends of dollars every year -- every eight years because you have to replace the plastic.

The plastic fields -- the plastic goes to a landfill.

>> As more turf fields pop up around New Jersey the decision for a possible field in Scotch Plains is up to voters as part of a referendum this November.

>> In our spotlight on business report, this year's record high state budget has already been in effect for more than a month but dozens of last-minute spending requests submitted in secret by lawmakers are still being kept hidden from the public.

More than a billion dollars was added to the Murphy administration's final spending plan primarily by democratic just leaders who were in the majority at the Statehouse.

Budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer has been following the money and he joins me now.

Great to talk to you about this.

Let's discuss these what we like to call Christmas tree items and what we know about them.

>> That is right.

We are in August but the sentiment when we get to the end of June in the Statehouse is very much the holiday spirit because that is the time lawmakers are adding new spending to the final draft of the budget the governor has come up with and submitted to the legislature.

>> This year that was a hefty amount.

>> We saw more than a billion in new spending added to the governor's final draft.

So what we know is the items themselves because we have a copy of what became the spending bill.

We know all of the additions and we know how much they ended up costing.

It pushed this year's budget to the largest in state history.

What we don't know and lawmakers are supposed to fill out forms that indicate this is the individual sponsors for each spending item and any explanation that justifies why this should be funded versus some other thing.

>> So there is some transparency to see what these projects are they are adding.

>> There are supposed to be a disclosure of any personal or business or family ties to whatever you are submitting for funding or making a key language change in the budget that would be to the image of some project or some other endeavor.

Usually it is in a legislative district of the lawmaker.

>> How is it possible they have been able to keep these items hidden from the public to this point?

>> It is a good question.

The legislative rules require a written what they require a jet which Aleutian -- a budget resolution that documents this.

What it does not give us is a precise timeline for when they should be made public.

Only they should eventually be made public.

When this process was first established, lawmakers and the governor at the time made sure this happened, would submit these requests well before the final votes on the budget occurred in the Statehouse.

Know what we are seeing happen is the final votes occur and weeks or months even later we find out who put in these requests for additional spending and what their explanations were.

If they include those explanations.

>> Is there any chance we are going to get these before the November election which is on a lot of folks minds because all 120 legislators are on the ballot.

Is there a chance they will try to keep these under wrap, some of these items that may benefit a lawmakers district?

>> I don't think so.

I think they have been trending -- with disclosure coming a month or so or two after the budget is enacted.

From what I am hearing they are on course to follow the same trend which would be a late summer.

A time when not too many people are paying too much attention.

>> Except for us.

>> This is also an election year.

We have seen lawmakers saying maybe on social media or in news releases I got funding for this.

I brought home funding for this key project in my district.

We are already seeing some of that.

I think in the run-up to the election we may see this pretrade as doing their job.

Getting state funding for key projects in their legislative districts.

>> Our budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer.

Wall Street is awaiting a key inflation report this week.

Here's how stocks closed today.

♪ The pool has been the place to be the summer for kids and adults.

The region experienced some of the warmest days on record.

But all of that extra swim time can increase the risk for drowning.

One of the leading causes of death among young children and teenagers.

In paterson one group is making it their mission to teach swim safety early in life.

We visited the class to see how a few simple lessons to be just as valuable as a life jacket.

>> Nothing says summer like a fun day at the pool but even the strongest swimmers can find themselves in trouble.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention those between the ages of zero and four are especially at risk which is why more than 100 kids at the Boys and Girls Club of paterson are participating in the Zach foundations sack camp.

>> The leading cause of unintentional death for children ages zero to four is drowning.

For children ages one to 14, it is the second leading cause of death.

For black children, they drown at a rate that is four times the rate of their white counterparts.

64% of black children do not know how to swim.

>> Matthew Barnes is the program director of Zach camp named in honor of six-year-old Zachary Archer Cohen who drowned in Connecticut in 2007.

It is designed to teach children ages five to nine critical tools to ensure safe swimming.

>> The camp as a printer ship with the Boys and Girls Club's of America and we travel around the country putting on campus in communities where the risk is particularly high.

And so it is a four day camp.

The children are introduced to water safety principles through time in the water, time in the classroom with a special curriculum we have developed as well as interaction with first responders reinforcing these messages of safety broader than just drowning.

>> When it is our turn, we jump.

We stand straight.

And then we get back up.

We do like -- we lay on our back.

>> In addition to swimming, instruction staff say participants get to learn survival skills in case they or someone they know is faced with an emergency in the water.

>> Usually what we do is say did you see it -- if you see a friend who is drowning the first thing you have to do is call the lifeguard.

As soon as you call the lifeguard point to where the kid is drowning.

After that, allow the lifeguard to execute what they have got to execute.

In case you don't have the lifeguard and you have a rope or a pole or anything you can reach to the victim or your friend or something or relative, how to position yourself on the deck so that you can help.

>> The encouragement has transitioned into confidence for new swimmers I spoke with.

>> The first time I was here, I was scared to go to the deep end but I did my best.

>> And then what happened?

You tried and what happened?

>> I tried and tried until I got it.

>> I am glad to die and thankful they do offer this because as a parent I wanted my kids to know how to swim.

Financially I don't have it.

For them to come to the Boys and Girls Club and they offer the program it is a bonus for me because who is to say what can happen?

>> Learning to know how to swim equal skills for life paired when a child learns how to swim they don't forget.

They are 5, 10, 15, 50.

They will maintain the skills.

They will teach their family.

They will teach >> Their friends.

>>The Zach program's next location will be at the Boys and Girls Club of Camden next week.

Staff says the best way to prevent drowning is to learn basic swimming skills, to wear a life jacket if needed and never swim alone.

>> That is going to do it for us tonight.

A reminder to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen any time.

For the entire NJ Spotlight news team, thanks for being with us.

Have a great evening.

We will see you back here tomorrow.

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