Brian Mayer, Phil Brown, and Rachel Morello-Frosch
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520270206
- eISBN:
- 9780520950429
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270206.003.0011
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter examines the formation of a cross-movement coalition involving labor, environmental, and community organizations in New Jersey during the 1980s. The New Jersey Right-to-Know Coalition ...
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This chapter examines the formation of a cross-movement coalition involving labor, environmental, and community organizations in New Jersey during the 1980s. The New Jersey Right-to-Know Coalition developed in response to community and worker concerns about the risk of contaminant exposure from New Jersey's sizeable chemical industry. Building on the political momentum from a related campaign in Philadelphia, environmental and labor activists in New Jersey made a crucial decision to join forces in their push for regulatory reform of the state's hazardous-material management system. Through this collaboration, they achieved a more sweeping reform than either movement could have achieved on its own. However, this cross-movement coalition experienced significant political challenges when some members attempted to expand the discursive frame and policy goals from the right to know to the right to act.Less
This chapter examines the formation of a cross-movement coalition involving labor, environmental, and community organizations in New Jersey during the 1980s. The New Jersey Right-to-Know Coalition developed in response to community and worker concerns about the risk of contaminant exposure from New Jersey's sizeable chemical industry. Building on the political momentum from a related campaign in Philadelphia, environmental and labor activists in New Jersey made a crucial decision to join forces in their push for regulatory reform of the state's hazardous-material management system. Through this collaboration, they achieved a more sweeping reform than either movement could have achieved on its own. However, this cross-movement coalition experienced significant political challenges when some members attempted to expand the discursive frame and policy goals from the right to know to the right to act.
