Elections Have Consequences (June 24, 2011)

June 24, 2011

To All CWA 1036 Members,

Late last night, the Assembly passed S-2937/A-4133, the pensions and health benefits reduction bill. The final vote was 46-32. All Republicans voted in favor joined by a minority of Democrats. All 32 votes against were from Democrats, who fought for 7 hours in caucus to withdraw, amend or split the bill. In the end, a majority of the majority party voted against the bill which was rushed from introduction to passage in 10 days.

Over the next several days, Governor Christie and Senator Sweeney will take their grotesque victory lap taking credit for stripping 500,000 middle-class, public servants’ right to negotiate health care as part of an overall contract. While the mutual congratulations, pats on the back and rationalizations fly over the next few days, we – the workers whose livelihoods are impacted, whose basic rights have been attacked, who have make financial decisions based on this bill, the union all-together – need to focus on what we will do next.

If this legislation was truly about saving money for the taxpayers, then the CWA bargaining proposal on health benefits which saves more money in year 1 and would save more money over 4 years would have been taken seriously by the Governor at the bargaining table. Our bargaining proposal saves more over a decade than this legislation. The Treasurer could not produce evidence of its savings estimates for the Senate Budget Committee and did not even testify before the Assembly Budget Committee. CWA’s bargaining proposals for health care had strong savings figures and, most importantly, cost containment designed into the plan so both workers and employers would save money on premiums. Unfortunately, this legislation has zero cost containment, so the bill wasn’t truly about “reforming” the system. All it does is cost-shift more of the burden to workers.

This legislation smacks of backroom politics. The influence of political bosses in north and south Jersey was transparent as the deciding votes were cast as blocks from South Jersey and Essex County. If this bill were really about benefits reform, the votes would not be so clearly along geographic political lines. In the end, this bill is about national political agendas and negotiations leverage, not about good government or fiscal policy.

You will hear how this bill saves the pension system, obligates the State to pay its annual contributions going forward, and balances health benefits costs fairly on workers. Unfortunately, it is really a poorly written pension bill poisoned with unaffordable and ill-conceived health benefits changes that removes our right to bargain health care and sets a maximum contribution point from which to bargain in the future.

If this legislation was truly about saving the pension system for workers, then the Legislature should have partnered with all the affected unions which said we also wanted pension reform, we also wanted to save the system, and we are willing to pay more in to save it. We had proposals on pension reform that would have required additional contribution from workers but would have avoided the long term suspension of COLAs for current and future retirees. Under this legislation, annual pension benefits will receive no cost of living adjustment until the system hits 80% funding, which will be years for Local Government PERS and longer for State PERS. As I and many union leaders testified, we could have reached agreement on pension reform in cooperation with the Legislature and as a unified labor movement. Unfortunately, the Governor’s bully tactics and mis-leadership in the Legislature led to a single bill with some pension reforms but a poison pill on health benefits.

Thank you to the members, stewards, and executive board members who occupied the State House and Assembly gallery all day yesterday, staying until the last vote was cast. We lobbied legislators, worked with other fellow union members in law enforcement and civilian alike. We cheered, we protested, we jeered. But most of all, we bore witness and we started the discussion of what we need to do to get these bargaining rights back and get this State back on track.

Elections have consequences. We need to make sure we follow through on those consequences and empower each member of this Local and their families to vote to protect the public service they provide, protect their paychecks, protect their benefits, and protect those they love.

In the meantime, the campaign against this legislation is not over and it has brought a new level of solidarity and activism to our membership. Different unions are working more closely together in coalition and we have put more members on the street, at the State House, and in Legislator’s local offices.

We will be holding more-than-the-usual amount of worksite meetings in State, Judiciary, county and municipal government worksites over the next several weeks to both explain this bill and its impact, our bargaining strategy and plan for your contract, and to discuss the plan for the summer and the important election work we will need to do this November. Please make every effort to attend worksite, stewards, and membership meetings as they are scheduled.

We will use our mobilization strength, our coalition unity and allies with Legislators who support working people to combat further attacks in the short term and reboot the political environment. We will swing the pendulum back in favor of working families, better health care policy, and better government.

In Solidarity,