Blue-green coalitions: fighting for the right to know

The fight for information on the use, storage, and release of toxic substances in and from workplaces has been often referred to as the struggle for the right to know. The frustration of occupational safety-and-health activists in trying to obtain information on product names and potential risks closely mirrors that uphill struggle to access information from the state and industry faced by environmental activists. Given the similarities between the two situations, collaboration on the right to know produced a formidable alliance between the two movements-especially in New Jersey, where the dense population and the close proximity of industry to that population produced a powerful blend of anti-toxics and pro-union activism that redefined the relationship between blues and greens. This blue-green coalition, the New Jersey Work Environment Council, has existed since the 1980s and has continuously led the fight for safer workplaces and a cleaner environment by building bridges between labor groups and environmental activists.