TRENTON — After suffering a resounding defeat when the Legislature agreed they should be forced to pay more for their benefits through law, state employee unions are gearing up for the next fight: trying to stave off a 3.5 percent pay cut Gov. Chris Christie offered them during contract talks. With the contracts for 49,000 unionized state government employees...
TRENTON — After suffering a resounding defeat when the Legislature agreed they should be forced to pay more for their benefits through law, state employee unions are gearing up for the next fight: trying to stave off a 3.5 percent pay cut Gov. Chris Christie offered them during contract talks.
With the contracts for 49,000 unionized state government employees expiring on Thursday, the workers no longer have health care to use as a negotiating chip.
"They really just devastated our bargaining," said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communication Workers of America, the largest representative of state workers.
Contract talks, which began in March, stalled as Christie successfully pushed through legislation forcing public employees to pay more for their health insurance and pensions. Previous governors had included health insurance as part of contract talks.
The legislation got final approval from the Assembly on Thursday. Christie is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday.
In addition to cutting pay 3.5 percent across the board, Christie also proposed eliminating all "step increases" — raises given to public employees based on how long they have worked for the state — union officials told lawmakers this week during hearings on the health and pension bill.
Christie’s office said they would not comment on offers made during bargaining.
A deal is unlikely and since public employees can’t strike, negotiations could drag on for months, Rutgers labor professor Jeff Keefe said.
"It’s all pretty ugly," Keefe said. "They don’t have a lot to negotiate about."
If the deadline elapses without a deal next week, employees would continue to work under the rules of the current contract. The unions and administration can continue talks, until someone declares an impasse, Keefe said. After a mediator and then a "fact finder" reviews the offers, Christie can just impose a final offer.
"The union strategy now is to delay," Keefe said. "They will say, ‘The longer we delay we get zero (pay changes), the less we delay our members are going to have to take a pay cut."
The governor is going to want to hit an impasse and force his offer as quickly as possible, Keefe said.
Several municipalities affected by the legislation also have pending contracts, said Jim Ryan, spokesman for the Police Benevolent Associations.
Police officers have to negotiate contracts under the 2 percent property tax cap that was imposed last year, Ryan pointed out.
"Collective bargaining is always about good faith negotiations," Ryan said. "The legislation shows that it doesn’t matter how good-faithed you are, someone can trump it."
The union, which represents police in several towns and about 5,000 state corrections officers, said today it will file a lawsuit contesting the legality of the legislation, Ryan said.
"We will use the full extent of our legal resources to expose the illegality of these laws. These laws were scrutinized by legislators for only ten days prior to passage," said PBA President Anthony Wieners in a statement. "Many aspects of this legislation have already been exposed. In a courtroom they will be exposed further."