News Roundup & Open Thread for Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

Christie will dissolve CWA Contract (0.00 / 0)

Article 41 of the State Worker contract ,which was agreed to by the shortsighted and stupid CWA leadership, allows the contract TO NOT BE FUNDED.

CWA leadership has no friends in the Legislature so the contract will not be funded.

So there goes the money....

Even under the renegotiated deal with Corzine the ability of the Governor to still layoffwas always there. The penalty was that should a governor layoff even a single person then everyone would get their deferred pay raise.

But now that the agreed upon contract allows no money to be appropriated..........

layoffs AND no wage increase.

Thank you CWA leadership!!    

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 13:52:12 PM UTC

Sweeney and Christie are the culprits here (4.00 / 1)

It would seem that this creative interpretation of "fiscal emergency" is due to the bedfellows Christie and Sweeney.   If the state is indeed in a fiscal emergency, one would need to look at all levels of spending (municipal aid, school aid, state workers, etc.).   One can't, in good faith, declare a state emergency and then only look at one part of the budget.    

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by: princetonblue @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 14:29:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Corzine did! (0.00 / 0)

Corzine did exactly that in 2006.

Fiscal emergency is in the eye of the beholder. You know that and I know that.

The unfortunate thing is that the stupid CWA leadership allowed an Article , Article 41, to be placed in the State Worker contract that gives the Legislature the power to make the contract null by not funding it.

Without that Article the CWA could hae gone to Court.

The CWA has been hiding this reality from its membership for the past 9 months.

CWA leadership are the real culprits.  

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 16:36:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Spin Spin Spin.... (0.00 / 0)

 You spin spin spin for Norcross/Sweeney as consistently as any paid flak ever could (assuming that you're not lying and are just doing it as a "true believer").

The problem is your robotic predictable line is boring and un-believable.   All that you say is taken with Himalayan sized "grains of salt".   Why?  Because you're anonymous...and clearly have some kind of personal benefit to be obtained by kissing Norcrosses ass until your nose turns brown.

If you were really the objective real human being/true believer you claim to be you would have the nads to use your real name here....as it is, if you did that it would blow your cover so you have to hide in the weeds pretending to have concern for progressive ideas while actually being in the pockets of Norcross/Sweeney.  

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by: Nick Lento @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 17:58:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

As usual you missed my point (0.00 / 0)

The point of service state worker should be the last person let go. But CWA does not care about anything except keeping intact their Dues Collection racket.

CWA will not defend the state worker who keeps the state operating.

CWA leadership does not want to upset the apple cart so they will just give in on layoffs.

A good union would go on the offensive and promote what their workers do for the taxpaying public each day. Explain how their workers have done more with less overthe past 5 years while middle and upper management has kept sucking the public dry.

But that would take some guts.

CWA leadership has helped screw  this up for the past few years. Now it is the people who they have poorly represented who will suffer.    

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:21:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

But why? (0.00 / 0)

"The point of service state worker should be the last person let go."

There is no rationale for such a statement.  I'm sure the State of NJ will get along fine if the number of point-of-service workers are reduced.   Personally, I see the only method for NJ government to become more efficient is to reduce the number of workers first, and then figure out how to increase productivity.   Yesterday, I visited the DMV and have no shortage of ways they could get by with fewer workers.

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by: princetonblue @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:50:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

1 =2 (0.00 / 0)

The idea is to save money and not inconvenience the taxpayer.

One supervisor salary is usually equal to 1 1/2 POS (point of service) salary.

Everyone who works for the State knows that State services run on auto pilot. The huge amount of middle management serves no purpose.

Cut from the top first. Empower the POS workers to think for themselves. In a 100 person Department you will probably have a supervisor for every 15 people( 7 total) . Cut that down to three instead of getting rid of 6 POS workers.

The taxpayer will never know the difference. Then do an audit to find out if all the POS are needed. That is when you make the decision on layoffs.

CWA leadership will never champion this idea. It would show a little guts and it would mean some work on their part.    

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 21:28:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

What will CWA leadership do? (0.00 / 0)

The leadership of CWA will sell out 10-15% of its members.

The CWA leadership is worried about one thing. Getting themselves reelected to their well paid,NON-STATE WORKER, jobs.

They will sacrafice 15 % of their workforce to layoffs and then bank on the other 85% to vote them back into office. When given the choice of maintaining a complete wage freeze and not being reimbursed for furlough days or getting a part of that wage increase, the self serving CWA leadership will sell out the bottom 15% of its membership.

Concerned state workers cannot allow the CWA leadership to sell them out.  

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 14:02:03 PM UTC

False Choice (0.00 / 0)

There won't be salary increases in any case so you're putting up a false argument.

CWA leadership isn't selling anyone out.  Sen. Sweeney did that a few years ago.

It's about time that NJ's government was downsized.  If we're going to follow the business model, as Sen. Sweeney keeps urging, it's not realistic to keep everyone on with a wage freeze.  It's time to make the tough decisions, and trim the government by 10-15%.  It will help in the short-term and the long-term (by reducing the number of pensions that need to be paid).   It will be painful.  The only person you should be blaming is Sen. Sweeney who started the anti-state worker campaign a few years ago.  Once started, layoffs is how it was destined to end.

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by: princetonblue @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 14:40:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

While I agree (0.00 / 0)

the balancing shouldn't be done on the backs of state workers. Some level of layoffs are necessary.
Gov. Corzine didn't have the drive to get it done, let's just hope gov. Christie does it fairly.


"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

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by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 15:01:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

follow the business model? (0.00 / 0)

The business model is killing us.

WTF!

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by: Winston Smith @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 15:16:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

What was Whitman doing at Solar event? (4.00 / 1)

Bergen record even gave her a quote:
Mars candy factory flips switch on solar panel field
http://www.northjersey.com/new...

Sounds like a huge corporate subsidy to me ($10 million - was that from the ratepayer funded "Societal Benefits Charge" money?).

Get ready for more of this kind of corporate "environmentalism" as the Whitman retreads jump on board the Christie Team.

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by: Winston Smith @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 15:13:29 PM UTC

No Doubt "Christie and Christie" Will Be.... (0.00 / 0)

....working on some common "goal$".   Yes folks, politics makes "strange bedfellows" (sorry for that image ;-)

 

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by: Nick Lento @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 18:03:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]