So Can There Be any Happy Medium Here??

Senator Weinberg - (4.00 / 2)

Best suggestion of the week is to have the Legislative Oversight Committee take a look at the Ira Mintz, Yvonne Smith Segars and Justice John Wallace situations to determine if there's been an abuse of power, or an attempt to centralize more power in the executive by threatening the employment of some of New Jersey's watchdogs and mediators.

You might add in the attempt to undermine SCI as well.  

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.  

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by: Rosi Efthim @ Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 14:57:42 PM UTC

As for the building trade ... (1.00 / 2)

lack of support for the State/Municipal unions that's understandable .Two totally different kinds of union .People are waking up to the fact that in negotiations    nobody represents the taxpayer in these "negotiations". Having the unions "negotiate" with the politicians is like having the fox protecting the hen house against the wolf. Plus real middle class private  unions don't have golden health care ,tenure What is the unemployment rate in our state unions ? in the real world it's 20% people aren't stupid ,now that they have trouble feeding families and losing homes ,and our public unions don't even want a pay freeze !

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by: speedkillsu @ Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 15:26:47 PM UTC

Quote (4.00 / 1)

But the Union leadership must also not demonize the Democratic leadership. They are the only ones standing to hold off the Republicans who would undermine collective bargaining (ala Wisconsin) if they could get away with it. Democrats and working people and their unions are natural historic allies.  We should never forget that.

Senator Weinberg, as much as I would like not to disparage the Democratic leadership, it's a bit difficult not to be very disappointed by that same leadership. Last year was a year the Democrats gave Christie nearly everything he wanted. In addition, the consequences of Sweeney's "pension reform" bill goes quite a distance toward the same undermining of collective bargaining.

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by: Kosh Naranek @ Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 16:41:08 PM UTC

Ageed, We Can Disparage Without Demonizing... (4.00 / 1)

....arguably, had the Democratic leadership been MUCH more progressively aggressive, there would have been to opening for a demagogue like Christie.

Meanwhile we have to work with what we have.  Frankly, I would be much more comfortable with folks like Loretta at the helm of the party than Sweeney (and the folks that are behind him).

Unless the NJ Democratic party radically reforms in the direction of what Loretta once called "REAL BERGEN DEMOCRATS" we will continue to lose elections to demagogic  perverse Republican divide and conquer bs. ( See Carol's comments below. )

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by: Nick Lento @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 16:54:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Nick, (3.00 / 1)

I guess the line that really got to me was "They are the only ones standing to hold off the Republicans."

Really? You mean the same Democrats who were complete no-shows at the Trenton demonstration last year?

Or the same Democrats who let the governor cut millions from school budgets, thereby leaving the Education Law Center, a capable group with with real stones, to challenge him?

Or.....(fill in the blank)?

Ultimately, it's just frustrating.

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by: Kosh Naranek @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 17:27:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

This past week (4.00 / 1)

I was sitting at dinner with some very wealthy folks from NJ.  One was a teacher, the other, a union worker in the HVAC industry.

The teacher expressed her support for the folks protesting in Trenton, while the union worker said "thank God for Chris Christie!" as the teacher looked on in horror.

He explained that the government workers were spoiled with their benefits. And so it became crystal clear that it was jealousy that has helped the Republicans to divide and conquer.  He acted as if the government workers somehow don't have to also PAY taxes - just like him.

Knowing the private construction trades as I do AND the government, I know for certain that unlike union GOVERNMENT employees, trades guys make a LOT more per hour than a government employee.  They often made much more than I did as a college graduate and engineer. Their work was cyclical and they often collect unemployment regularly for part of the year.

Their already very high wages mean that they are asked to pay more for their healthcare than a government employee who makes so much less than the private sector that the benefits are the only "benefit" to holding a low paying government job.

The Republicans have controlled the conversation so much, that they have convinced the private union workers that the government union folks are somehow getting away with something, while failing to remind private union workers that they make MUCH more in pay than government workers.  
By doing this, they are also hoping that the private unions don't realize that an assault on one type of union is an assault on all.

Then the teacher said something that horrified ME.  She started going on -  while we were eating an incredible dinner - like she eats every nite, about how kids at school shouldn't be getting free lunches because their parents were lazy.

It is getting so hard to fight the propaganda that the right spews to separate the folks who need to be standing together, but we need to try.

One Vote.  Yours.  It really does matter.

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by: carolh @ Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 19:43:59 PM UTC

They also work a lot less... (0.00 / 0)

all the tradesmen I know are constantly at the union hall and consider themselves lucky to be put on a job that lasts a year or more...

While what you say hourly is true over the course of a year it's not so crystal clear.

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

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by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 19:59:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It depends on the economy. (4.00 / 2)

The point is, the ultra-wealthy have succeeded in causing us to fight amongst ourselves.

If the Bankers had not been so greedy, we would not be like the beggars at a banquet fighting over the scraps when the king deigns to throw a half-gnawed chicken bone over his shoulder to the floor.

What have we become?
We need to stand up to our full height and demand justice from the ravenous Wall Street gluttons and their minions who want the whole pie.

The enemy is not the OTHER guy's union.  

Government employees also suffer one more indignity - the constant changing of the guard that are their bosses.  Elections shift the ground under government employees every year, they need some sort of protections from the whim of idealogues like Gov. Walker or Party Bosses like Joe Ferriero.

One Vote.  Yours.  It really does matter.

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by: carolh @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 15:15:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

When The NJ Democratic Party *GETS*.... (4.00 / 1)

...and USES the intelligence and insight you have shared on this page Carol, they/we will be kicking ass at the polls on election day and in the intervening public opinion polls.

What Christie is pushing is demonstrably BOGUS!   But it takes people with guts to call BS on Christie.  

You have to stand up to bullies, or they'll eat y(our) lunch every time.

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by: Nick Lento @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 16:59:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think it's time (0.00 / 0)

we stop the "I got mine, too bad for you" and the "I'm not paying to help you" attitudes and realize that the only way we're going to get the 11 cookies back from the billionaire is to work together.  They may have the money and all but one of the cookies, but we have the numbers - if we work together!  We need to stop squabbling over the one cookie that they left us and look at the bigger picture.

For those who haven't heard it ...
A billionaire, a union worker and a Tea Party member are sitting around a table with a plate of 12 cookies.  The billionaire takes 11 cookies, then says to the Tea Party member, "Watch out for the union guy, he's taking your cookie!"

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by: CyberKat @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 at 13:39:02 PM UTC

:) (0.00 / 0)

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by: melanie14 @ Thu Mar 10, 2011 at 07:43:21 AM UTC