| Three diaries dealing with today's announcements - one from Hopeful, one from me and this from Hetty. Makes sense to link them together. - Rosi Efthim
You may have read that Governor Christie has proposed legislation that will permanently "cap" public sector collective bargaining agreements at 2.5% of pay inclusive of benefits and leave days. Given the increasing costs of healthcare, that may mean that workers will never again get a pay raise.
But don't be confused by that juicy red herring. There is a stack of amendments to current public sector law that the Governor is proposing as his "toolkit". These changes, along with the draconian cuts to public schools and services will destroy all integrity and professionalism to Government in New Jersey.
Among the Governor's proposals are the following:
1. Allow towns to "opt out" of Civil Service all together so that anytime there is a new political regime that takes over, they can lay off the old workers and put in their supporters, allowing every position to be a political appointment.
2. Where they don't opt out of Civil Service, they can pick and choose who to exempt from layoff provision to protect political supporters and contributors;
There is much more. Christie is going to destroy our public schools by starving them while allowing corporations to pay EVEN less taxes than they do now if they give money to private schools. He's trying to base teacher pay on test scores which will turn schools into test taking factories. He is going to politicize police and fire departments and create conflict between workers from different towns when services are merged. He wants privatize our State Parks and Forests, turning them into McDonald's Park and Starbucks State Forest.
Governor Christie continues to recast the struggle between middle class workers and the super rich and Wall Street tycoons as a conflict between public workers and everyone else. How outrageous! In fact, our economic problems in New Jersey are largely the result of a Wall Street induced recession resulting in an enormous loss of State revenue. This is aggravated by the State's enormous debt obligation, largely attributable to the fact that New Jersey is the only state in the country that thinks that making pension contributions is optional.
Recent studies show that both nationally and in New Jersey, public workers are actually paid LESS than their counterparts in the private sector. More importantly, wages everywhere are flat and economists agree that there will be no true economic recovery until the wages of workers RISE. The Governor's plan actually is anti-stimulus and will hurt New Jersey, not help it. You can't cut your way out of a recession through layoffs or wage and benefit cuts. You have to grow your way out by employing more people and raising wages.
Now that private sector unions have been all but destroyed in this country, right wing corporate interests seek to do the same to the public sector. The Governor understands this and has a Karl Rovian plan for implementing it. His first (failed) act was to try to prevent public employee union members from participating in the political process. Christie and his Tea Party friends believe that the way to decimate Government services is to by whipping up anger at the public workers, crippling public services through gross underfunding, privatizing as many services as possible and then turning back the clock 100 years to a time when government was a spoils system and hiring decisions where based purely on who, not what, you knew.
Unions are one of the most powerful voices in opposition to Christie's plan to dismantle a government based upon merit and fitness. But if unions are unable to collectively negotiate and ensure that workers are treated fairly, and if unions can't participate in the political process - then the ability of unions to serve as a bulwark against Christie's extremist, anti-service agenda will be severely undermined. But that is the Governor's plan. Destroy public employee unions. Destroy your opposition. Destroy the middle class. |
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