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What’s Going On?
32 BJ SEIU Vice President Denis Johnston makes the case for pending legislation before the New York City Council named for Aland Etienne, who was murdered on the job during a mass shooting in July. The shooting also took the life of off duty NYPD officer Didarul Islam who was protecting 345 Park Avenue.
The Act establishes a security officer training standard suited to NYC public safety challenges. It strengthens public safety with a well trained workforce that receives fair compensation and health benefits.
The city’s private security sector has an unsafe turnover rate of 77 percent and employs 60,000 security guards. 32 BJ represents 20,000 of them.
Fewer than one in four NYC security officers stay on the job for longer than a year. Aland Etienne served for six years at 345 Park Avenue.
DSA WIN IN JERSEY CITY
WBAI listeners first heard Jersey City Council Member Elect Jake Ephros back when he was an organizer for 1199 SEIU working to unionize Clara Maass Hospital in Belleville, NJ.
Jake says affordability, especially housing, was central to his grassroots campaign. He heard widespread complaints about the city’s private solid waste collection service and supports a shift to a municipal system.
His win followed a cross endorsement with Jersey City Mayor Elect James Solomon who defeated former Gov. James McGreeley in the Dec. 2 run off.
We get a 9/11 WTC update from Michael Barasch who discusses newly discovered Giuliani era documents that may clarify what the city knew about the toxic air that contaminated lower Manhattan and Brooklyn after the attacks.
Following the attack, EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman issued a statement that the air “was safe to breathe”. A 2003 Inspector General report found the Bush White House softened cautionary language and that EPA failed to disclose alarming asbestos readings.
Since then, far more people have died from illnesses caused by the toxic exposure than died in the attack itself.
Barasch explains how staffing shortages at the federal 9/11 WTC Health Program are preventing first responders and survivors from accessing care and securing awards from the Victim Compensation Fund.
Our weekly panel with Yale Global Justice Fellow James Henry and Dr. Joe Wilson looks at the week that was and the week ahead.
International Updates
In Gaza, Al Jazeera reports urgent warnings from world leaders as phase II of the ceasefire stalls. Israel continues strikes in Gaza along with actions in Syria and Lebanon.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports 373 killed and 973 wounded since the Oct. 10 ceasefire began.
More than seventy thousand Palestinians have died since the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed over eleven hundred people, many of whom were civilians at a music festival.
In Darfur, a drone strike on a school killed eighty children with a second strike hitting first responders. The two year civil war has displaced more than twelve million people and caused outbreaks of disease and famine.
The Guardian reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the real motive behind the Trump administration’s military buildup in the Caribbean was oil, citing Venezuela’s enormous reserves.
The administration says the buildup and airstrikes are part of drug interdiction efforts. That claim lost credibility after President Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been convicted in the United States for drug trafficking, money laundering and arms dealing.
We will discuss these developments on Global 360 with James Henry and Dr. Joe Wilson.
In our B Block we will look at the life of a police officer who protects New York City’s watershed system.
In our second hour we will visit with Jersey City Council Member Elect Jake Ephros, who previously worked as an organizer for 1199 SEIU.
In our D Block we will speak with 32 BJ SEIU Vice President Denis Johnston about the pending Aland Etienne legislation before the City Council.
All of that, your phone calls, and some fundraising.
