TRENTON – Sign-brandishing CWA workers descend on the Statehouse in protest of the governor’s proposed cuts.
No news there.
The governor is a frequent target of these jaded state workers, and Jon Corzine, er… Gov. Chris Christie, is no exception.
“Christie’s Budget Hurts the Vulnerable, Protects the Millionaries” reads the signs held aloft by members of at least three different CWA locals, who station themselves in front of the capitol front steps before circling the area.
A brisk walk by wouldn’t prepare you for the inside, though, where people are still bug-eyed two days after Christie’s 2011 budget address, which proposes deep cuts to municipal and school aid.
“In my thirty 30 of working here I’ve never seen anything like this,” says veteran lobbyist Al Komjathy.
Tony Wieners, president of the state Police Benevolent Association, towers over the shoulders of a group huddled up in the hallway of the Statehouse Annex.
“I’m concerned with the cuts to muncipalities where the budget – if it stands – will force layoffs,” says the man educated on the streets of Belleville as a cop.
“The goveror’s first responsibility is to maintain a safe enviornment. Safe streets. Clean streets. I’m concerned, too, about privatization of prisons. Our members come to the table in tough times, and we’re in tough “
Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), a labor leader who represents the state worker-concentrated 14th District that borders Trenton, says Christie’s style is jarring.
“What bothers me with Gov. Christie is he’s just dictating,” says DeAngelo, leaving a Joint Labor Committee hearing.
Thirteen hundred state workers would lose their jobs outright if Christie’s budget sticks.
“We need to sit down at the negotiating table and not legislate this,” DeAngelo. “I’m bewildered that public sector employees pay into pension system and then not get back what they’ve paid in. Reform needs to happen, yes – but it needs to happen collectively. The main thing for me is time and again the contract for workers takes it on the chin.”
But this time, too, Republicans in non-public sector union districts feel the shock – and that is the bigger shock, at least early.
They’re not protesting outside the Statehouse – or even talking, much – but conversations are tense.
A Republican insider expends a ten second sigh when asked about the budget.
“I got my ear bitten off by a member of the jointure commission wondering why the governor isn’t going after county government – of course, he is, by proposing a property tax cap of 2.5%, but what’s going to happen when a school board rep. gets a hold of me?”
