Statement from Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey State Director of the Communications Workers of America:
Our progressive union has long been on the leading edge of civil rights fights. We marched alongside Martin Luther King in the fight for voting rights. We stood up for the Equal Rights Amendment. We were on the front lines for disability rights. We have negotiated domestic partnership and civil union rights in our contracts.
Marriage Equality is a Civil Rights issue, just as the right to organize and have a union is a civil rights issue.
For too long, New Jersey has denied one of the most basic rights -- the right to marry the person you love -- to hundreds of thousands of its citizens. To maintain the status quo, or allow the basic rights of a minority to be put at risk in a referendum, would mean continuing this fundamental injustice indefinitely.
While our members come from many diverse backgrounds, we are united in our belief that all loving and committed New Jersey residents should be free to marry the person they love.
We call on Trenton to enact marriage equality as quickly as possible. We can't wait.
Earlier this week the Latino Action Network joined with the Women's Political Caucus, Latinas United for Political Empowerment - Political Action Committee, New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, Latino Coalition of Monmouth County, and Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO to file an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in In re Contest of November 8, 2011 General Election of Office of New Jersey General Assembly, Fourth Legislative District, the New Jersey Supreme Court case in which Gabriela Mosquera's election as 4th District Assemblywoman in November 2011 is being challenged despite her having won more votes than her opponents.
On Wednesday, January 26, 2012 we heard that the Supreme Court has accepted our amicus brief.
One of her opponents, Shelley Lovett, argues that because Ms. Mosquera moved to the 4th District 11 months prior to the election, she violated a requirement in the New Jersey Constitution that all candidates must live in their district for at least a year. However, a federal judge back in 2002 had held that provision invalid under the United States Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. As such the Secretary of State (Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno) had told Ms. Mosquera that she could run for office, without challenge, and in fact every candidate since 2002 has been told the same thing.
Cablevision workers won their union election today, beating back a brutal anti-union drive from the Dolans.
We're looking to organize cable and telecomm everywhere.
This was a great election and we are so proud of our new Brooklyn union members - the Cablevision 99%.
Woe's me. Woe's us! Today, less than 10% of the American workforce is Organized, Obama failed to fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, the National Labor Relations Board is about to again be down to 2 members which will lead to gridlock, in Wisconsin and Ohio we lost public sector collective bargaining rights in spite of help and support from the Democratic Party, in New Jersey we lost public sector collective bargaining rights because of the leadership of the Democratic Party.
The economy is going to worsen because our elected leaders are doing everything wrong. Everything wrong! Cutting the public sector instead of growing it. Ignoring climate change instead of embracing the actions that would change it and would grow the economy as a result. Attacking and cutting our public schools instead of pouring resources into them to make our citizenry the best educated in the world. Not regulating the banking and finance industry - that is back to reaping record profits, giving out record bonuses, and ripping us all off. Leaving undocumented workers out in the cold while the temperature is dropping precipitously. Not doing everything possible to support and improve desperately needed National Healthcare, and let's not forget the Elephant in the Room - continuing to support endless war all while pretending that it is cost free in terms of the budget, death, and our humanity.
The Verizon strike - affecting 45,000 workers on the Eastern Seaboard - is over. The unions agreed to a 30-day return to work, effective midnight August 23, with work beginning Tuesday, which either side can cancel with a 7-day notice. And negotiations will continue as that old contract remains in force. Joint statement from CWA & IBEW:
We have reached agreement with Verizon on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured. The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed.
Earlier this week there was a large, peaceful protest outside Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam's house in leafy Mendham, to bring middle class workplace issues to the very front door of a CEO whose compensation (from the very profitable Verizon) is in the millions.
Verizon engaged in a huge public relations campaign to counter the effect of viral strike videos, and picket lines of red-shirted union workers. Newspaper ads. Radio and TV blitz, all about how happy their customers are.
This customer supported the strike (maybe strike-supporting customers didn't occur to Verizon). My cell phone's busted, and I wasn't about to walk it in to Verizon. Now I can.
This isn't strictly New Jersey, but it's germane as hell when you consider that Gov. Christie is building a national future for himself on the backs of public employees in New Jersey. And Democrats and independents will want to know where the president stands - in clear opposition? Christie's making NJ the forefront - along with states like Wisconsin and Ohio - of a national GOP attempt to shift public thinking away from its historical support of union workers as the bedrock of the middle class to a belief that union workers are the people greedily stealing from and ruining the middle class. But unlike the leaders of those states, our governor has skillfully maneuvered that message - here, but especially nationally to movement conservatives hungry for his 2012 candidacy - into big-league GOP stardom. Is it presidential? He keeps demurring, but he does it like wallflower who can't stop lifting her skirts for all the boys to see. Especially the boys in Iowa.
But Barack Obama is the president. Blue Jersey, is the president's message strong enough, consistent enough, and clear enough to oppose the well-funded anti-union propaganda campaign of Gov. Christie and his disciples?
You tell me.
Here's a portion of Pres. Obama's remarks, yesterday at an outdoor Town Hall-style gathering at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, northern Iowa. The questioner is Bev Kromgezmi, a high school social studies teachers who taught some of the people in yesterday's crowd. His answer, after the jump.
THE PRESIDENT: How was she? Was she a good teacher? (Applause.) You got thumbs up.
Q What can I say?
THE PRESIDENT: What did you teach?
Q High school social studies.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's important stuff.
Q Many unions, especially public sector unions, helped you get elected in 2008. Those public sector unions and their members gained their salaries and benefits through collective bargaining. Recently, those benefits have been under attack. And I realize that this is a state issue mostly, but what can you do to help support collective bargaining in the states and, most of all, support the public sector unions, the middle class, many of whom are union members? Thank you. (Applause.)
This isn't strictly New Jersey, but it's germane as hell when you consider that Gov. Christie is building a national future for himself on the backs of public employees in New Jersey. And Democrats and independents will want to know where the president stands - in clear opposition? Christie's making NJ the forefront - along with states like Wisconsin and Ohio - of a national GOP attempt to shift public thinking away from its historical support of union workers as the bedrock of the middle class to a belief that union workers are the people greedily stealing from and ruining the middle class. But unlike the leaders of those states, our governor has skillfully maneuvered that message - here, but especially nationally to movement conservatives hungry for his 2012 candidacy - into big-league GOP stardom. Is it presidential? He keeps demurring, but he does it like wallflower who can't stop lifting her skirts for all the boys to see. Especially the boys in Iowa.
But Barack Obama is the president. Blue Jersey, is the president's message strong enough, consistent enough, and clear enough to oppose the well-funded anti-union propaganda campaign of Gov. Christie and his disciples?
You tell me.
Here's a portion of Pres. Obama's remarks, yesterday at an outdoor Town Hall-style gathering at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, northern Iowa. The questioner is Bev Kromgezmi, a high school social studies teachers who taught some of the people in yesterday's crowd. His answer, after the jump.
THE PRESIDENT: How was she? Was she a good teacher? (Applause.) You got thumbs up.
Q What can I say?
THE PRESIDENT: What did you teach?
Q High school social studies.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's important stuff.
Q Many unions, especially public sector unions, helped you get elected in 2008. Those public sector unions and their members gained their salaries and benefits through collective bargaining. Recently, those benefits have been under attack. And I realize that this is a state issue mostly, but what can you do to help support collective bargaining in the states and, most of all, support the public sector unions, the middle class, many of whom are union members? Thank you. (Applause.)
Our Ledger friends ask whether the good people of New Jersey will even want Verizon workers in their houses ever again after witnessing them in the act of striking. Witnessing what? S-L reports the FBI is investigating 90 acts of 'sabotage'. That's 90 'incidents' over 9 days of striking, in states from Massachusetts to Virginia, with 45,000 people out on strike. Really?
Strikes are a challenging business for both sides as S-L notes in their first paragraph (then promptly forgets). Their story deals only with striker behavior. And they have to pull from the entire Eastern Seabord for alleged stories of BB guns, blocked trucks, and cut cables. They, like many right-wing websites, are particularly scandalized by a worker "using his young daughter as a roadblock for Verizon trucks". I thought you should see that video. Does she look scared to you? Maybe she knows the well-financed PR assault her Daddy's up against.
What about what may be bad actions of scabs? Did S-L even consider the longstanding union-busting tradition of management sabotaging equipment so that striking workers are blamed? No. (Let alone snafus like managers rusty at dangerous 'hands-on' work [apparently] doing stuff like blowing transformers).
A few things for S-L to consider:
$258 million: compensation for Verizon's top 5 execs over the past 4 years
$6 billion: Verizon's annualized profits for 2011
$6,800: increased health care costs to each worker if Verizon wins
This isn't about getting rich off this company. Top Verizon execs have that covered. It's about retaining living wage jobs; that's what unions are supposedto do. The company's asking for about 100 give-backs including freezing pensions, cutting paid holidays, and exporting jobs to foreign companies.
Where's Star-Ledger's outrage at that? The people on strike are the people who built Verizon, literally. Verizon's claiming their back's against the wall because the market's transitioning from land-lines to wireless. Investment experts say even if Verizon succeeds in cutting worker benefits there's no guarantee it will stop their market share loss in landline. And the union makes the case its workers helped build Verizon's highly-profitable wireless side, which is not unionized. So why not support workers earning a living wage, and trying to keep their jobs in America?
So, difficult as strikes are - we get that, S-L - maybe you've overplayed the inconvenience to this company its workers built, that wants to shave worker benefits to rake in even more money. And maybe you haven't noticed many of its customers support the strike.
Jump for a video on the strike from the workers' side:
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) NJ offices is holding another stewards training to educate a new group of member activists for the fight against the attack on workers rights in New Jersey.
I was invited to present Blue Jersey and discuss the power of progressive blogging and activism through sharing stories and struggles from the offices and homes of working class families under attack by people like Chris Christie, Stephen Sweeney and George Norcross, III.
The last training brought about 80 members out of the dark and into the light of social media and activism. This new training is adding to the ranks and giving more power to the voice of workers in a fight for our very way of life and careers.
The training will focus on the many different avenues of communication available on the internet through Blue Jersey, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and personal blogs.
The Verizon strike enters its third day as more than 45,000 employees protest the company's demand for more than $1 billion in cutbacks to health care, retirement and other benefits.
Yesterday, somebody asked me if they should go off somewhere and do something else, or stay glued to the Assembly vote, which was in a dramatic holding pattern for five-and-a-half hours. Stay with the Assembly, I said. It will be national news. And it is. The Assembly vote, and Senate vote before it, are not a victory for New Jersey because too many of our neighbors, fathers, and co-workers are getting screwed. It's certainly not a victory for the Democratic Party, which now faces an enthusiasm gap and loss of reliable union ground troops, with a huge election looming. No, it was a victory for Christopher James Christie, delivered perhaps at their own cost, by a new class of Christie enablers with nominal "D's" on their backs. Watch Christie step out front now, before other one-term GOP governors getting ahead on the backs of their state's working people. Comer. Hotshot. Buzzmaster. And it was only a matter of hours before Gov. Christie was on TV letting Matt Lauer talk about his 2012 presidential sizzle, feeding into that by wasting no time going after President Obama. And thanking the Democratic leadership that put him in the Today Show's exclusive interview chair, thanking his enablers inside 10 seconds after he opened his mouth.
So, in case you missed it, is Chris Christie on the morning after. Right below it, for counter-point, is CWA President Hetty Rosenstein on MSNBC's boutique, and NJ-savvy The Ed Show (MSNBC):
I support the NJEA, CWA, PBA, FOP, and other unions that may be in Trenton today protesting the pension/benefits reforms. They are standing up against the bullies in the legislature and the governor's office. They are doing their best to defend collective bargaining and standing up for the working class.
Let's assume the legislature passes this legislation tonight. What happens tomorrow?
There may be legal challenges to the entire law or certain parts of the law. Some may challenge the fact that two topics were placed into one law, which many would argue is unconstitutional. Some may challenge the freezing of COLAs for retired pensioners. Some may lobby the legislature to make more changes to the law. Some people may decide to retire. Some may decide to try to find work in the private sector.
But what happens to the rest of us that have to go back to work for the government?
When this is all said and done, I call on ALL the unions and their locals to take some time to explain, in detail, how this legislation will affect each of their members. They have done a pretty good job of explaining that their members will have to pay more money. But they have done a poor job explaining details beyond that.
I call on the unions to create programs for their members that promote good financial decisions. Since members are losing a significant amount of money, I would love to see a program that teaches members how to create a family budget and how to abide by that budget. You would think that every family should know how to do that already, but with a sudden loss of income, they may need a refresher course.
I call on the unions to promote programs that would assist their members financially. That could mean an expansion of their scholarship program. That could mean that unions use some of their union dues for a financial-hardship assistance program.
There are a lot of positive things the unions can start doing tomorrow. Naturally they will still be involved in political activism. We still need someone to finance the voice of the working class. But what else will the unions do tomorrow?
A lot of noise is being made about the mystery 3% deal that CWA walked away from, but what those who are crying about it aren't telling you is the bigger story.
As it turns out, the 3% was an invisible carrot.
The 3% plan offered was so undefined that the union was being asked to agree to nothing. The union would have been agreeing to a plan that had no details. They would have agreed to let Sweeney, the Christie administration and company "Fill in the blanks" for thousands of members' crucial health insurance.
The deal offered was a 3% cap on a completely undefined healthcare plan. There was no information given about co-pays, deductibles, in-network vs. out-of network coverage, eligibility, nothing.
There was no guarantee that the plan would not have been a bare bones, catastrophic plan with huge deductibles that would have amounted to no health insurance at all. All that would be decided after CWA took the deal. And who would decide the plan then?
A board of 5 union representatives and 5 administration representatives with a 13th deciding vote held by the state treasurer. The board would have created the plan, after the deal took place, but if there was a challenge by the union's side of the board and the board was split, the state treasurer (appointed by Chris Christie) would have decided what the plan would have been.
There was no guarantee that the treasurer and the governor would support anything more than catastrophic emergency coverage with huge deductibles.
The deal that CWA rejected was essentially nothing but a promise that something would be created. They had every reason to believe that it would not have been a viable plan for anyone.
AND the union was told they had 5 minutes to take or leave the deal!
Now we are hearing and reading dishonest and distorted stories of how CWA walked away from a lucrative deal, when in fact, the deal was far from lucrative and would have endangered lower income workers with crucial health care needs and created an even more unequal and unfair expense for workers.
Given the heat generated by Chris Sheltons remarks, very little attention has been given to his apology which I find remarkable given that some of those he directed his apology to are hard set on destroying the rights of the people Chris has dedicated his life to defending and fighting for the rights of.
Many of those crying out for Chris' firing or resignation are the same people defending Stephen Sweeney and Sheila Oliver and the attack on the public workers right to negotiate either through support or silence, so what is their real reason for keeping the vitriole alive? Labor is in a battle for their very rights and livlihoods and THIS is the top story for them?
We have to ignore the "Boy who cried" wolf distractions and focus on the wolves doing the real damage to public workers and all of labor. We have a hard enough fight on our hands without submitting to the detours and diversions of those who would see us weaker. Chris is a warrior for the cause and has been on the front lines of this battle for more years than most. His passion and his dedication are the exemplar of how we should all feel, even if a few his words at the rally were poorly chosen, his passion was true and he apologized. At this point we can't afford to lose a power and passion like Chris and feeding into the false fracas being generated by our enemies is self defeating and only weakens our movement.
I support Chris and I believe in his passion and I would hope that if you care about the future of labor and the middle class, you do too.
It's time to move on and press forward into the real fight.
Welcome to the second in my series of posts delving into the details of the health/pension "reform" passed by the Senate Budget Committee yesterday. This is the crowd-sourcing edition, because this gets into a level of detail on health care policy that is beyond me.
Section 52 of the bill states that local governments "shall establish such a plan for medical or dental expenses not covered by a health benefits plan." It then goes on to say "The plan SHALL (changing the wording of current law which is "may") provide for a reduction in an employee's salary, through payroll deductions or otherwise, in exchange for payment by the employer of medical or dental expenses not covered by a health benefits plan" and then adds "and may provide for a reduction in an employee's salary, through payroll deductions or otherwise, in exchange for payment by the employer of dependent care expenses."
This was posted very early this morning, before News Roundup, so maybe not everybody has seen it. Just pulling it back up top for a short while for those who missed it; the discussion in comments is interesting - Rosi
In an explosive tirade that fired up some demonstrators and embarrassed others, a national union leader went nuclear on Gov. Chris Christie, calling him a Nazi over and over.
"Welcome to Nazi Germany," Christopher Shelton, a top official at the Communication Workers of America, told thousands of protesters today outside the Statehouse in Trenton. "The first thing that the Nazis and Adolf Hitler did was go after the unions."
In an extreme example of disaffection with both parties, Shelton also went after Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex).
"Adolf Christie's generals," he called them, because both are backing a bill that would increase pension and health benefit costs for public workers.
We can't afford this kind of distraction - not now. Shelton's resignation needs to be on someone's desk this morning. If he doesn't write it, fire him.
It seems like that there has been very little posted here or elsewhere on what is actually in the details of the pension/health bill. So I've been trying to delve into some provisions - this is the first in what I hope will be a few posts.
Let's say you are a state employee whose kid has cancer. Or you suffer from mental illness.
Let's say you live in Gloucester County and you want your kid to go to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Or you live in Hoboken and you've finally found a good psychiatrist in New York.
You're going to have some problems. More below the fold.
If pension and health benefits are not legislated then come June 30th there will probably be an impasse at the negotiating table. It is well known that the CWA plan will not be accepted by Chrisite and the Chrisite plan will not be accepted by CWA. The " middle plan is the Sweeney plan which neither Chrisite nor CWA would accept.
There would be no contract agreement.
Then what? CWA can ask it members to vote on a bad contract that will not be ratified. CWA leadership is telling its members now that if there is no contract then they will just keep negotiating.
That is true,BUT CHRISTIE WILL NOT ALLOW THEM TO KEEP WORKING!
CWA DOES NOT HAVE binding arbitration. Without a ratified contract Chrisite can just "call in " those workers who are deemed essential.Thousands will be locked out.
Chrisite would love this!
Also a non-ratified contract can throw the whole budget out of whack and then Christie can blame the CWA for a state shut down.
With 4 weeks to go CWA better understand that they are being " played" by Christie and if they do not soon come up with a strategy that can get pension and health care reform off the table they might be the villain in a State or State worker shutdown.
If you're out at lunch today you might see one of the pickets staged all over the state by thousands of CWA workers today, as the largest union representing public workers in NJ as their union reps sit down to another day of bargaining with reps from the state.
A few days ago, CWA filed unfair labor charges against the governor, requesting for failing to counter its health care proposal, made in 4 negotiation sessions, and requesting the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) order Christie to negotiate those benefits. The governor prefers an end-run to that, pressuring lawmakers to enact permanent changes to medical benefits, and increased contributions. That, says the union, amounts to bad faith.
The lunchtime rallies start in a few minutes, in Hackensack, Newark, Paterson, Randolph, Plainfield, Trenton, Piscataway, Camden, and West Deptford.
Governor Chris Christie, self proclaimed "lover of collective bargaining" refuses to collectively bargain over health care. Is he a liar? Is he confused about what love is? Is he only concerned with union busting? Lets examine the facts.
The CWA proposed a health care system, over a month ago, that saves the tax payers millions of dollars. The Governor refused to bargain health care. That sound like a lie. Then Chris stooped to name calling. That doesn't sound like love. Public workers have been collectively bargaining over conditions of employment including health care benefits for 43 years. Mr. Christie insists that health care will be legislated from now on. That sounds like union busting.
The CWA is serious about coming to an agreement that benefits workers and tax payers. Governor Chris Christie needs to stop grandstanding for the cameras to enhance his true ambitions, a run for the presidency, get out of his cage, and start working together to come up with a plan that benefits all of the people of the great State of New Jersey.
