Public Workers Pay the Price for New Jersey Budget Crisis

Hundreds of CWA public workers rallied outside the state capitol calling on the state legislature to stop the “blame game” directed at public workers and work for a fair resolution of the state’s budget crisis.

Public workers are under attack by the state legislature, where the Senate voted new cuts in workers’ pension and health care benefits, and by the governor, who has called public employees a “special interest” and has refused to meet with public worker representatives or consider rolling back tax breaks for the rich.

Public workers have stepped up and made hard sacrifices already, nearly half a billion dollars in wage and benefit concessions over the last three years, CWA’s public worker locals stressed.

“We did not cause the state budget crisis. Our benefits are not unsustainable. We have a contract and the governor and legislature must respect it,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton.

“We know that the Governor will have even more draconian cuts in the next budget and we know that we will have to bargain a new contract in 2011. We’re ready, but it will take the will of our members to stay strong and unified,” he said.

Some 55,000 CWA members already have given up 4 percent of wages lost to 10 furlough days and a 3.5 percent deferred pay raise. “The state is wrongly blaming union workers who have made every single required contribution to the pension plan. But management has shortchanged the pension plan and only made 10 percent of the required employer contributions in the past 12 years,” said CWA state director Hetty Rosenstein.

“We are the rank and file workers who plow the roads, staff the DMV and food stamp office and rescue abused and neglected children We change diapers of adults. We protect the public health and the environment. We maintain the roads, collect the tolls and send out the tax bills,” Rosenstein said in testimony to a Senate committee. “We keep the wheels turning and we don’t get paid a lot of money to do so.”

Meanwhile, the governor has cut taxes for New Jersey’s wealthiest citizens, those making more than $400,000 a year.

CWA is working with all of the public sector unions and is continuing the mobilization campaign, with more rallies and events planned for March when the governor unveils his 2010-2011 budget.

In another development, CWA and three other unions filed a legal challenge to a unilateral executive order issued by the governor that drastically restricts the ability of workers and their families to participate in the political process.

“Christie is trying to govern by fiat, bypassing the legislature and making up new laws as he sees fit. That’s not the way democracy works,” Rosenstein said. “And he’s trying to take away the First Amendment free speech and association rights of working families to participate in the political process. We won’t let that happen.”

Keep up on CWA’s ongoing battle in New Jersey at www.cwanj.org

Photo Caption:During a meeting in Trenton, hundreds of CWA stewards from New Jersey public worker locals march through the state capitol after a morning of calling and writing lawmakers to fight devastating cutbacks.

Photo Credit: CWA Local 1039