HILLSBOROUGH — Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t want anyone to confuse him with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Christie says he "loves" collective bargaining. "Let me at them," Christie said at a town hall meeting Wednesday in Hillsborough, referring to the state’s public unions. "Get me out of the cage and let me go." Christie said he’s never talked about eliminating...
Gov. Chris Christie speaks during a town hall meeting in West Deptford on Feb. 25. Today at a similar meeting, Christie said he supports unions bargaining for contracts.HILLSBOROUGH — Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t want anyone to confuse him with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Christie says he "loves" collective bargaining.
"Let me at them," Christie said at a town hall meeting Wednesday in Hillsborough, referring to the state’s public unions. "Get me out of the cage and let me go."
Christie said he’s never talked about eliminating collective bargaining unlike Walker, who is pushing legislation that would take most collective bargaining rights from public workers in his state.
"As much as the Democratic Party and the liberals in the media are going to want to try to make you want to think that New Jersey and Wisconsin are the same, thinking people know that they are not," Christie said. "While I was governor I’ve said the opposite: Lets get rid of civil service and let everything be collectively bargained."
After months of delays, Christie’s office said meetings have been scheduled for this month to begin talks with representatives from unions holding 14 separate contracts with the state, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor. All of the contracts expire this year.
Negotiations have traditionally started in the fall of the year before the contracts expire.
"This is a process that will begin behind closed doors with the unions," Drewniak said.
Sherryl A. Gordon, executive director of New Jersey Administrative and Legislative Council 1, took issue with some of Christie’s comments.
"Chris Christie is trying to divide New Jersey’s middle class and use the backs of our state’s working families as stepping stones, while he pursues a radical, right-wing agenda to fulfill his personal ambitions," said Gordon, whose group represents members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We need to stand together and reject Christie’s attacks on the middle class because, when working families lose, we all lose."
In a statement after Wednesday’s town hall meeting, Assembly Majority Leader Joe Cryan (D-Union) called on Christie to get to the negotiating table.
"Nobody is keeping him locked in a proverbial ‘cage’ as he has said. The door is open and the time to begin is now," Cryan said. "Our police, our firefighters and all of our dedicated public servants deserve the chance to take part in a meaningful exchange of ideas rather than being pitted against senior citizens in a battle for state funding."
Christie and Cryan have swapped insults in recent weeks over the governor’s proposed $29.4 billion budget.
Wednesday’s town hall meeting in Hillsborough was peppered with some new questions from the crowd, aside from the usual queries about a potential presidential campaign or whether Christie will fight President Obama’s health care initiative.
Martha Bittle, a retired teacher from Hillsborough, asked Christie to explain why he was cutting cost-of-living adjustments for her 80-year-old sister-in-law, a retired school secretary, but giving the Revel Casino in Atlantic City a $261 million boost.
Christie says he did it to save the southern Jersey economy.
"Your solution would be to let Atlantic City float into the ocean?" Christie countered her.
When Bittle asked him to explain the trade off, Christie got terse.
"Everybody has got the 80-year-old aunt story," the governor said.
Bittle called Christie’s tone "a little flippant" after his response, but said she wasn’t surprised.
"I didn’t think it was appropriate because she’s a very lovely woman," Bittle said. "I’m not angry. I’m frightened."