NJ State Worker Stewards Meet, Chart Course Forward in Difficult Times

Nearly 600 state worker shop stewards met in Trenton on Monday to discuss the broad attacks on public workers all over the country, and what CWA plans to do about it in New Jersey.

They were joined by Congressmen Frank Pallone (D-6th) and Rush Holt (D-12th), who outlined the stark choices voters face this November: their vision of investing in jobs, the economy, and education and creating shared prosperity, or the competing vision of slashing services, and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Les Leopold, an author, blogger, and director of the Labor Institute, discussed larger trends in the economy and politics to help make sense of why public workers have targets on their backs these days, discussing the wall of money that has risen to the millionaires since the 1970s, and the disastrous effects this has had on our economy.  (See Leopold's presentation here).

Another guest was Linda Greenstein, the Assemblywoman from New Jersey's 14th district currently running for State Senate in a special election this fall. CWA District One Vice President Chris Shelton introduced Greenstein by noting that she was one of two elected officials in the entire New Jersey State Legislature to vote against all three of the anti-worker attacks on the pension and health benefit plans in March. Greenstein pledged her continued support, and State Director Hetty Rosenstein then led the stewards in signing "I'll Be There" forms to help Greenstein's campaign.

Rosenstein kicked off the afternoon, talking about how difficult it is to be a leader at the worksite these days, and asking stewards not to shy away from having difficult but honest conversations with their fellow workers. Rosenstein pledged a fight against the anti-worker forces, and then introduced Margarita Hernandez, Organizing Director for the Working Families Alliance, who talked about the need for CWA members to get involved and run for local offices.

The day was a success-the stewards wrote 400 letters to their legislators telling them to oppose Governor Christie's attacks on the pension and more than 250 pledged support in efforts to get out the vote this fall. And at the end of the day, 120 stewards became new contributors or increased their contributions to COPE, the union's political action fund. Charmaine Bennett-Taylor, a steward from Local 1038, won an Apple iPad in a raffle of those who signed up on the spot.

"The stewards are the backbone of our union, and they will lead our efforts to beat back the worst of what's coming," said Rosenstein. "This is an incredibly difficult time to be a leader at the work place, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the leadership they show day-in and day-out." 

For more information, including links to all of the materials handed out at the meeting, click here.