Union Message from Hetty Rosenstein about the Budget Cuts

Dear Local 1037 member,

                We want to try to keep you up to date as to information about the Budget.  Here is what we know to be true as of today:

1. The Budget cuts $2.7 billion in spending.  Most of those cuts come from: Charity Care, Municipal Aide, eliminating General Assistance, adding co-pays to Medicaid, roll back Homestead Rebates on people with household incomes over $150,000.

2. However, there are also large cuts to State Services. The State Service cuts that we know of include cuts to every State Department.  The Department of Personnel will be eliminated as a Department, and Agriculture and Commerce will be consolidated with other entities. 

3. There is a plan to eliminate 3000 full time positions through “targetted layoffs” AND early retirement incentive.  We don’t know what the “targetted layoffs” are or how many but we know that they could include layoffs at the Departments of Law and Public Safety, DEP Parks, the Parole Board as well as at the Departments that are being consolidated.

4. The Early Retirement Incentive proposal is as follows:

1. 50 years old and older w/ 25 years of service
   Add 3 years of service
   No waiver of the 3% annual penalty for those under 55
2. - 60 years old and older w/ 20-24 years of service
   Treated as having 25 years of service for the purpose of post-retirement health benefits only (not seniority)
3. - 60 years old w/ between 10 and 20 years of service
   Additional $500 month added to their pension
4. DIRECT SERVICE WORKERS IN DYFS AND INSTITUTIONS ARE NOT BEING OFFERED THE ERI.
5. Only 10% of the positions vacated by the ERI can be backfilled.

There are so many problems with this Budget it is hard to know where to begin.

• Despite rhetoric to the contrary – the worst of these cuts is to poor people in this State.  It is not true that everyone will feel the pain equally.  Cutting Charity Care means that hospitals in urban areas will close. Making poor people pay co-pays for Medicaid is more painful than millionaires missing their homestead rebate or having to pay more in taxes.  This Budget will hurt poor people much more than anyone else. 

• The cuts to State Services are severe and it is not clear that anyone has thought them out.  There is a plan to eliminate 3000 positions from an ERI and only back fill 10% of them.  But some of the vacancies that will be created by an ERI will be from federally funded positions.  Why wouldn’t you back fill them?  The State doesn’t pay for them anyway.  There is some indication that they are talking about laying off low wage clerical workers.  But there are hundreds and possibly thousands of clerical workers that the State is employing as temporary workers.  How can full time workers be laid off when there are temps being paid? There are places where an ERI will decimate the staff – they can’t only backfill 10% of the positions when they will lose 1/3 to ½ or the staff or more in those places. 

• It is unfair that management at DCF and DHS will get enhanced pensions but the direct services staff won’t be eligible for them? That’s just not acceptable.

• There are Legislators who are openly calling for additional cuts – more layoffs, cutting our benefits, eliminating Civil Service rights in layoffs – a horrible and reactionary response to a bad situation. (And those are the Democrats!)  It is not entirely clear that the Legislature will support an ERI. If they don’t, this all gets worse.

Here’s what we are doing:

1.        We are trying to get more accurate information from the Corzine Administration.  What exactly are the targetted layoffs? What will you do with the 8000 Temporary Employment Services (TES) positions? What is your plan for backfilling federally funded positions? What are you planning on doing if you decimate whole staffs?

2.        Our lawyers are assessing our legal position.  Where there are closures (departments, parks, etc.) then the Displaced Worker Pool language applies.  Also – is it legal to exclude the direct service workers at DYFS and DHS from the ERI and give the enhanced pension to management in those departments?

3.        We are preparing our Mobilization Plan against the cuts.  Fighting these cuts will take more than a sound bite in the newspaper.  That Mobe Plan will include:

• Building a broad based coalition with Unions and Advocacy Groups to support increasing revenue for State Services.  Without additional revenue, there will be another $1.7 billion in cuts next year and we will only be able to make changes to this budget around the edges. 

• We are scheduling meetings with Legislative Leadership to try to have them understand in a comprehensive and substantive way the damage a budget such as this will do. 

• There is likely to be a statewide shop steward meeting in late March or early April.  Local 1037 is scheduling shop steward meetings now for the third week in March:

3/15 Tinton Falls, Holiday Inn  10-12

3/18 Galloping Hill, Union  Inn 6-8

3/19 Saddle Brook, Wyndham Gardens  5-8

3/20 Newark, 5 – 7

3/25 Budd Lake, Firehouse after membership meeting

Please email us back, as soon as possible and let us know which of these meetings you will be attending. All stewards should attend one of the meetings.

• At these meetings we will go over a statewide Mobilization Plan. That Plan will include political work, worksite activities including:

• Actions against Legislators who attack our Contract;
• Lobby Days at the State House
• Actions opposing layoffs while there are temps on the payroll;
• Resisting all out of title, “acting” work and speed up;

This situation is very fluid and could change.  Please do not call about individual questions about the ERI.  It hasn’t passed as of yet and until it does, we won’t know the final structure of it. As always, we will do our best to keep our members up to date. 

In Solidarity,

Hetty Rosenstein

President, CWA Local 1037