New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act collection

Documentation of the passage and implementation of the 1983 New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act, together with some information concerning similar federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration rules (the Hazard Communication Standard issued 1983 and implemented about 1985) and, to a lesser extent, the 1986 U.S. Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act. Also materials relating to subsequent changes and attempts to change the 1983 New Jersey law through regulatory and legislative means, as well as through an unsuccessful legal challenge based upon the existence of the OSHA rules. The documents, many of which pertain to activities of the New Jersey Right to Know Coalition (by 1989 reformed and known as the New Jersey Right to Know and Act Coalition), were gathered by Rick Engler. He brought together the materials while holding various positions with the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council (apparently a Coalition member), but also both earlier (when associated with the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health, which coordinated southern New Jersey activities leading to passage of the New Jersey law) and later (when director of the Work Environment Council of New Jersey, Inc.). Among the document types represented are correspondence and memos (including with New Jersey governors and department heads), hearing testimony, litigation documents, published and unpublished reports, meeting presentations, newsletters and other mailings, flyers, broadsides, press releases and press clippings.