New Jersey Workers Mobilize For Major Contract Fight

Nearly 1,200 CWA activists and allies have launched the most formidable mobilization ever in support of New Jersey public worker bargaining, with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka pledging the full support of the Federation's 12 million members.

Pointing out that across the nation public workers face threats similar to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman's efforts to privatize state services, hold down wages and weaken seniority protections, Trumka took a strong stand in support of CWA demands for better pay, security and benefits.

Addressing the March 6 kickoff rally, Trumka called New Jersey bargaining, "the last big contract fight of the century." He vowed that when Whitman's bargainers look across the table, "They're going to see a solid wall of labor. When you stand up for justice, we'll be right there with you."

Bargaining for a three-year successor agreement on behalf of CWA's 36,000 New Jersey state employees was set to open March 31, as the CWA News went to press. Current contracts for 52,000 represented by CWA and other unions expire June 30.

All Fired Up Their rally began with singing, balloons and applause as the presidents of eight New Jersey public worker locals paraded to the stage. Before it was over, stewards and organizers at the Woodbridge, N.J. Sheraton were on their feet shouting solidarity slogans.

CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino, Public Worker Vice President Brooks Sunkett and Executive Vice President Larry Cohen urged every mobilizer to muster at least ten others behind demands for substantial pay raises, no layoffs and improved healthcare and pension benefits. They urged ralliers to mobilize at least 25,000 members prior to statewide worksite actions March 25.

Mancino warned that if negotiators for Whitman don't bargain fairly, "We're going to have to do some things they don't like. We're not going to take an inferior contract, and our members have to show her we're not going to take an inferior contract."

The rally drew not only CWA's "Committee of 1,000" worksite mobilizers - with chains of communication to the union's entire New Jersey state worker membership - but also supporters from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the American Federation of Teachers, which also represent state employees. All pledged to work toward coordinated bargaining as CWA continues to battle Whitman's proposed plan to replace seniority with performance evaluations as the determining factor in layoffs.

Jos‚ Juan HernAndez, president of Puerto Rico's Independent Union of Telephone Workers, inspired a boisterous demonstration of solidarity, describing how his union led a general strike last summer that shut down the island.

Rallying the Troops "There's a job that has to be done," Mancino told the Committee of 1,000 activists, holding above his head a yellow sheet listing bargaining demands on pay, security and benefits that would later in the day be adopted by the committee. He commended the presidents of CWA Locals 1031, 1032, 1033, 1034, 1037, 1038, 1039 and 1040 who prepared the bargaining agenda after tallying the results of a membership survey.

Noting the enthusiasm of an overflow crowd that spilled into the hallways, Mancino stressed, "We're growing, our strength is growing. What you see here is what's going on throughout the labor movement."

He urged stewards to take information back to their worksites and to talk up the mobilization. In the battle with Whitman, he said, "Education is our best weapon."

Alluding to a CWA finding that Whitman's proposed performance evaluations contain a demonstrated bias against African Americans and other minorities, with whites twice as likely to receive outstanding evaluations, Brooks Sunkett, CWA's vice president for public and health care workers, described the governor as "heartless and discriminatory."

Winning a fair contract, Sunkett said, is "going to take agitating, it's going to take educating, it's going to take organizing."

Pledging the full support of his department, Sunkett stressed, "The national is with you, we're in this to the end. If we work together, if we fight together, we can win."

Every One, Reach 10 "We will fight Christie Whitman's policies as long as it takes until we have justice," asserted CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. "They took out the governor of Puerto Rico, and, if necessary, we can take on the governor of New Jersey," he said, with a glance toward Hern ndez. Repeated shouts of, "Take her out," forced him to pause.

"Everybody here should have the names of at least 10 people they are going to talk to when they go back to their jobs," said Larry Cohen, who pioneered the Committee of 1,000 concept as CWA's New Jersey area director in the early 1980s. He urged mobilizers to turn out at least half their locals' membership for March 25 mobilization activities.

Cohen said that solidarity was the key to winning pay raises in that round of bargaining and still is. "Unity does not come easily," he stressed, "We need to demonstrate that we are together in every workplace."

Labor's Big Fight The charismatic secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO drew huge rounds of applause as he urged CWA and other union leaders to put aside past differences.

"This is the most critical contract negotiation nationally this year. It's the last big contract fight of the century," Trumka said.

"I'm here to offer you my services and those of the entire Strategic Approaches Committee of the AFL-CIO," he added. The committee, chaired by Trumka, has been instrumental in coordinating national union support for the Detroit newspaper strike and other key labor disputes.

On behalf of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson and the entire federation executive council, Trumka praised the men and women of CWA and other unions, "who wake the state up every morning and keep it running."

To a standing ovation he affirmed, "It is because of you that taxes are collected, roads maintained, and the sick and elderly cared for - not because of Christie Whitman."

All for One While acknowledging that Whitman has in the past played public worker unions against each other, Cheryl Gordon, state executive director of AFSCME, quickly won over CWA members with her assertion, "Solidarity means to me, you got my back and I got yours. One day, real soon, we'll put aside our differences and put on our shirts and show the governor we're together. We're ready for the fight and we ask you to join the fight with us."

Dolores Gorczyca, international representative for IFPTE, pledged on behalf of its New Jersey locals a commitment to work toward coordinated bargaining: "As all of the unions negotiate, we must stand together. We will not sit idly by while the futures of our families are at stake. We will work side by side and we will stand side by side. We are one."

Nick Yovnello, state president of the Teachers, noted that his union has been negotiating with the Whitman administration for several months and that, "Their vocabulary has not expanded. It's 'no,' 'nonnegotiable, not acceptable.'"

"You must be empowered to say 'no' to any contract that has a zero raise in it, to say 'no' to any infringement on health benefits or seniority," he stressed. "On any kind of coalition you want to form, we stand ready. We're all AFL-CIO."