Largest Group So Far Picks CWA Under N.J. Card Check Law

A unit of 129 professional employees at the New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency won CWA representation this week and joined the ranks of Local 1032 under New Jersey's new card check organizing law.

The group is the biggest unit so far to unionize under a law that allows card check union certification for public workers as well as some in the private sector who are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act, according to CWA Organizing Director Ed Sabol. 

The agency is a quasi-state agency, but its employees are considered public workers.  The state Public Employee Relations Commission certified the card count on March 22.

"It was a very hard-fought campaign," reported Sabol, who cited the work of a strong inside committee assisted by Local President Jim Marketti, organizers Mikki Santiago, Patrick Kavanagh and Andy Tarlau, and District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau.