We celebrate with our coalition partners the passage of Demographic Data Disaggregation, the New Jersey Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, and Language Access into law by signature of the Governor on January 12th.
“The mood in the room was celebratory,” reflects Rev. Charles Loflin, who attended the Governor’s signing on January 12th on behalf of UU FaithAction NJ. “That room was packed, with coalition partners and some heavy-hitting legislators, and it was special to have a seat for UU FaithAction.”
It was a long, uphill climb to deliver these three pieces of legislation from “The People’s Lame Duck Agenda” to the Governor’s desk.
On November 8th, we joined with twenty-seven fellow justice-seeking Jersey organizations to hand-deliver our “People’s Lame Duck Agenda” to the local offices of every state legislator. Since then, we have all continued to CALL, WRITE and RALLY for the passage of eighteen bills that would protect our democracy and prioritize racial and social justice. For the three bills that ultimately crossed the finish line, they made it thanks to coordinated, mutually-supportive, tireless advocacy.
The Data Disaggregation bill, S2415/A3092, mandates that our State agencies to update their demographic data collection methods on Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian and Indian Diaspora New Jerseyans. “Requiring disaggregated data to be collected will create a truer picture of our diverse communities and dispel the misleading narrative that all AAPIs are well off and don’t need support,” says Anjali Mehrotra, Commissioner of the NJ AAPI Commission.
The New Jersey Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights Act, S723/A822, enshrines anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and privacy rights for domestic workers. The act also establishes requirements for break times, as well as health and safety protections. Furthermore, this legislation removes the current exclusion of certain domestic workers from the State Wage and Hour Law. “The Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights remedies a historical legacy of racial prejudice that led to the exclusion of domestic workers from our wage and hour laws,” comments Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
The Language Access bill, S2459/A3837, requires our State government entities provide vital documents and translation services in the seven most common non-English languages in our state. “We saw people struggling to access critical government services unnecessarily during the pandemic because of the language barrier,” commented Senator Teresa Ruiz, upon passage of A3837 in the Assembly. “Now our state entities will be better prepared to assist all of our residents regardless of what language they speak.”
“There is a world in which true language justice exists,” reflects Kat Phan, Policy & Research Associate at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “We will not stop fighting until all New Jerseyans can dream and thrive in their own language, and live dignified and celebrated lives regardless of their background.”
Here at UU FaithAction, we want to THANK everyone who lent their attention, presence and power to these wins. THANK YOU to those who delivered the People’s Lame Duck Agenda, who rallied in Trenton, and who joined us at critical Assembly committee hearings. THANK YOU to everyone who joined us for our December and January First Friday Action Hours, and THANK YOU to everyone who responded to our Action Alerts on December 21st and January 2nd. All our calls to Speaker Coughlin and to our Senate and Assembly representatives made an impact—we started hearing UU FaithAction name-dropped in conversations about Language Access!
And while the 2022-2023 legislature has officially adjourned, our coalition has not. We are committed to our ongoing collaborative relationships and to building our vision for justice in the year ahead.