Unions Joining Forces To Counter Christie
AUGUST 2, 2011
By LISA FLEISHER
In an unusual show of collaboration, New Jersey's public worker unions plan to join together to try to upend Gov.
Chris Christie's signature accomplishment this year: cuts to their pensions and health-care benefits.
Public workers, rather than Democrats, have been the Republican governor's greatest foil. He gained national
attention after calling on teachers to accept salary freezes and blaming the state's financial woes on workers'
compensation packages, which he mocked in town-hall-style forums across the state.
Now, most of the state's public unions are forging a united counterattack.
They plan to file a lawsuit as early as this week challenging the changes, including the elimination of annual
pension cost-of-living-increases, union representatives said.
"It's being done strategically," said Bill Lavin, head of the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association.
"The governor has tried—and the [state] Legislature to a lesser degree—to divide and conquer, to separate one
from the other. The idea is to find what we have in common versus what separates us and file together."
Mr. Christie reached a deal with Democratic leaders in June to enact the cuts, saying they were necessary to save
the pension system. As of June 2010, the most recent figures available, the state had only 62% of what was needed
to pay future retirement benefits for its workers. The state's future health-care obligations also ballooned to roughly
$67 billion.
Under the deal, which split the Democratic ranks, workers must contribute a bigger slice of their paychecks toward
the pension fund. New hires will have to work longer before qualifying for a full pension.
A spokesman for Mr. Christie said Monday that the changes will bring "long-term solvency to a system that was in
crisis."
"It's not surprising that the same special interests who stood in the way of bipartisan reform continue to protect the
broken status quo," spokesman Kevin Roberts said.
The unions have not always worked together well. During debates throughout two rounds of benefits cuts over the
past two years, individual unions lobbied on their own behalf.
For example, firefighters have argued they deserved a lesser cut because they don't get Social Security benefits
and they contribute more of their paycheck to the pension system than other workers.
Fellow unions have shot back that firefighters and other public safety workers retire earlier than others.
A cohesive fight could work in the unions' favor, said Ellen Dannin, a labor and employment law professor at Penn
State Law. A poorly argued suit by a single local could have set bad precedent for all other groups, she said.