‘It’s a perfect storm of issues coming together at once’
Labor unions have experienced a resurgence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that has continued through this year. In New Jersey in recent weeks, Starbucks baristas, Rutgers faculty and cargo handlers at Newark Liberty International Airport have staged strikes, walkouts and rallies to call for better working conditions.
Todd Vachon, a labor expert and professor at Rutgers University, said the new wave of union activity is being driven by larger economic conditions.
An Emmy award-winning journalist, Briana Vannozzi serves as the anchor for NJ Spotlight News, the newsroom of NJ PBS. She's worked in several capacities since joining the news division in 2012, as interim anchor and senior correspondent after years of general assignment reporting as a multimedia journalist. Vannozzi began her television journalism career by cutting her teeth on New Jersey State House politics for New Jersey Network News, and later as a news radio correspondent at FM News 101.9 covering crime and politics in New York City. Her work has taken her to national presidential nominating conventions, Capitol Hill, up and down the East Coast and every corner of the Garden State. She's interviewed every New Jersey governor dating back to Jon Corzine and moderated numerous political debates and forums. Her work has also earned awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists and the Philadelphia Press Association. A Burlington County native, she's honored to be serving and covering her home state and raising her family there.
