WEC Staff

Asw. Maher-Muoio and Sen. Turner Sponsored Legislation is Crucial Legislative Fix to Lead in School Drinking Water With recent reports of lead in the water supplies of schools in the local and national media spotlight, the need for broad legislative solutions is sadly more pressing than ever. The NJ Work Environment Council, Environment New Jersey and allies strongly endorse A-3539/S-2082, model legislation that will require public and non-public schools to test for and remediate lead in drinking water, and disclose test results in a proactive, transparent manner. Joined on the steps of Trenton’s Grace A. Dunn Middle School by the bills’ prime sponsors Assemblywoman Elizabeth Maher-Mouio (D-Mercer) and Senator Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), a diverse group of community representatives and dedicated activists spoke about the need to support this much needed legislation. “Lead poisoning is insidious because it is cumulative, irreversible and leads to a lifetime of developmental and physical disabilities,” said Assemblywoman Maher-Muoio (D-Mercer, Hunterdon). “In the simplest of terms, we need to be doing more to protect New Jersey’s children from lead. We need to test, and currently, New Jersey schools and daycare centers aren’t required to check their drinking water for elevated levels of lead.” “It’s imperative that we [...]

For Immediate Release, September 26, 2016 The New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) is pleased to announce our new campaign to address Runaway Inequality. In partnership with The Labor Institute, NJEA and New Jersey Policy Perspective, WEC is launching a campaign aimed at addressing and reversing the outsized influence of corporations and ending the financial strip mining of our economy by Wall Street firms. WEC has hired Brandon Castro as campaign organizer, and plans to partner with Les Leopold, author of the book, Runaway Inequality, and director of The Labor Institute. The goal is to coordinate a large education initiative to train thousands of activists to help confront corporate power in New Jersey. Brandon Castro most recently worked as a campaign organizer for several student groups including United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the nation’s largest youth-led labor campaign organization, which advocates for economic justice in partnership with worker and community organizations. For USAS, Castro worked in direct solidarity with workers, putting pressure on garment manufacturers to sign international health and safety accords and to allow independent monitoring organizations to inspect factories. Brandon also previously served as an intern for WEC, assisting with the Respect Our Right to Know campaign, health and [...]