60 Groups release letter supporting collective bargaining rights for NJ public workers

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Jun 20, 2011 at 01:16:41 PM EDT

The rights of New Jersey labor unions to collective bargaining were recognized and supported this morning by a broad coaltion of groups, including community groups, consumer groups, and faith-based organizations. These are groups strongly opposed to the pension and benefits bill put forward by Senate President Steve Sweeney in cooperation with Gov. Chris Christie. The letter was released as the Assembly Budget Committee began debate on A-4133, the companion bill to Sweeney's S2937, with assemblymen Lou Greenwald and Declan O'Scanlon as primary sponsors.

Read the letter and view the signers here.

The bill will legislatively mandate the level of contributions public workers will make to pension and health care plans. Phyllis Salowe-Kaye is Exec. Dir. of New Jersey Citizen Action:

The right of workers to bargain collectively for the terms of their employment is a cornerstone of our modern democracy and must be protected. These are the people who take care of our sick and elderly, teach our children and keep our streets safe. Why are legislators attacking their fundamental rights?

Additional statements made at this morning's press conference, after the jump.

Rosi Efthim :: 60 Groups release letter supporting collective bargaining rights for NJ public workers

Jerome Harris, Chair of NJ Black Issues Convention:

The labor movement has been the pathway to middle-class for people of color and minorities throughout the 20th Century. Over one-fifth of African Americans work in the public sector, and with industrial employment declining support for a strong public sector labor movement has never been more critical to protecting the rights of all New Jerseyans to earn a decent wage and hold on to basic rights like health care and the ability to retire with security.

This is an argument similar to one made today by NAACP.

The strongly worded letter calls on lawmakers in both houses of the NJ Legislature to oppose the plan, making a demand that public employee unions maintain their power to bargain for the conditions of their employment - without legislative interference.

Martin Schwartz, Executive Director of the Jewish Labor Committee:

"This fight is about ensuring the basic rights and dignity of working families in New Jersey. We want the state's schoolteachers, police officers, librarians and all the people who provide services on which we all rely to know that we stand with you in solidarity. And we want the legislature to know that history will remember the decision they make.

Bill Holland, Executive Director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance:

This Governor has time and again tried to use public sector unions as scapegoats for his reckless agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans paid for with service and benefit cuts for working families. What's more outrageous is the complicity of key Democratic legislators in this effort. New Jersey needs real leadership and real solutions to the state's revenue crisis, not grandstanding.