CWA "Thanks" Chris Christie in Ad

It was typical Chris Christie bluster as the New Jersey governor held a town hall in Kenilworth, New Jersey, on March 31, 2015.

"Let me tell you something, these public employees should be sending me a thank you note," he said.

And what should New Jersey public employees be sending Christie a "thank you note" for? Well, for breaking the law by not funding their pensions.

CWA, which represents 60,000 public workers in New Jersey, sent Christie his "thank you note" in the form of an advertisement that points out:

• New Jersey's pension system is the most underfunded of all 50 states.


• Christie gave millionaires $3 billion in tax breaks, corporations $5.4 billion in subsidies, and $1.5 billion to Wall Street firms.

In 2011, Christie and state lawmakers passed a law stripping public workers of bargaining rights over pensions and health care. Then they raised workers' pension contributions, upped the age of retirement and slashed cost-of-living adjustments. In return, Christie said the state said would put more money into the pension system each year to make amends for previous funding shortfalls by the government.

While workers kept their word, Christie reneged.

Christie made his insulting "workers should thank me" statement after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that he violated the state Constitution by not funding the pensions.

CWA and more than a dozen labor unions filed the lawsuit and recently made the case at oral arguments before the state Supreme Court that, under the constitution, the governor must increase payments into the pension system.

"Dear Gov. Christie," began the voice-over on the Ad, "thank you for breaking the law and skipping pension payments, for destroying services and risking our retirement security to coddle millionaires and corporations with tax breaks and subsidies, for forcing workers to pay more while handing Wall Street outrageous fees for managing the pensions."