Public Sector Unions Deliver Clear Message to Governor Murphy: You Have Betrayed Working People

For Immediate Release: Monday, June 30, 2025

Contact: Becca Miller, CWA District 1 Legislative Director | [email protected] 

Public Sector Unions Deliver Clear Message to Governor Murphy: You Have Betrayed Working People 

Unions Representing 140,000 Workers and Retirees Slam Governor’s Backroom Budget Deal That Cuts $100 Million from Worker Healthcare

TRENTON, NJ - A coalition of public sector unions, including the Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 1, AFSCME New Jersey, AFT New Jersey, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Council of NJ State College Locals (CNJSCL), Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers (URA-AFT), Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, Health Professionals & Allied Employees (HPAE), and IFPTE Local 195, NJ State Policemen’s Benevolent Association (NJSPBA)  issued a sharp rebuke of Governor Phil Murphy following today’s vote to pass the FY2026 budget, which breaks binding collective negotiations agreements with public employees and retirees and sides with insurers by imposing a $100 million cut to health benefits.

“This budget is a betrayal of the very working people who elected him into office,” said Billy Gallagher, Assistant to the Vice President, CWA  District 1. “Budgets are moral documents and this one makes painfully clear where Governor Murphy stands. Gov. Murphy has chosen to gut $100 million in health benefits for public sector workers and retirees.”  

“What’s worse,” Gallagher continued, “for over a year and as recently as just three days ago, the labor members of the Plan Design Committee pushed for a plan design change that could save up to $1.1 billion in SHBP costs, without hurting workers. But the Administration refused to move it forward because it would have required renegotiating existing contracts with insurance carriers and Pharmacy Benefits Managers. It’s the height of  hypocrisy that Gov. Murphy has no concern about breaking our contract and bypassing collective bargaining with public employees.”

Despite revenue projections now being $700 million higher than prior estimates, the $100 million cut will be imposed on the State Health Benefits Plan (SHBP), bypassing collective bargaining and setting up a new, unilateral process. This will result in higher co-pays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for state employees and their families—at a time when the cost of living is already untenable. Additionally, this arbitrarily imposed cut comes less than two weeks before the expected premium rate report for plan year 2026 with expected increases of over 20% for state workers and as high as 30% for local governments. 

Unions are calling out the hypocrisy: while the Murphy Administration claims to support working families, this budget undermines labor rights, weakens collective bargaining, and further burdens the very workers who keep New Jersey running. Furthermore, several former members of the Murphy Administration now work for major hospital systems.

“This budget demonstrates just how out of touch Governor Murphy is when it comes to the needs of working people. He remains a Wall Street banker at heart and has put the interests of the insurance companies and CEO’s above the interests of everyday working people. While Governor Murphy heads to his villa in Italy this summer, tens of thousands of workers will be worrying how they are going to be able to afford the astronomical health care increases that are coming.” Steve Tully, Executive Director of AFSCME New Jersey Council 63

"In 2022, when the State Health Benefits Plan and the public employees who are enrolled in it were facing 20%+ rate increases, the Murphy Administration negotiated with the unions while allowing the Plan Design Committee to do its work to make changes to achieve the desired savings at the time. AFT New Jersey sees no reason that the same process cannot be followed in 2025. The collective bargaining process is the path to achieving savings to the State of New Jersey, the public employees we represent, and the taxpayers we serve. We've done it before and we can most certainly do it again." Jennifer Higgins, President, AFT New Jersey 

“This is a targeted attack on the healthcare of state and public higher education employees. Increasing our healthcare costs means our members and families will delay or decline care. This is an unnecessary and vicious attack on our health and our collective bargaining agreements.” Rebecca Givan, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT

“With today's budget passage, Governor Murphy has betrayed dedicated state workers and educators, forcing thousands of dollars in healthcare costs onto their and their families backs. We will not forget this attack; our fight for fair contracts and affordable healthcare continues.” Emari DiGiorgio, President, Council of New Jersey State College Locals

“After an almost Herculean effort by public labor unions to change the minds of legislators, it became clear that our elected leadership would not stand with labor. Our public health workers are greatly disappointed in the outcome of this budget as it not only overrides collective bargaining rights but also seeks to drastically cut their state health benefits by 100 million dollars.  In a time where the federal government is actively opposing unions, we would expect better from our state legislators.” Debbie White, President, HPAE 

“The NJSPBA stands with our brothers and sisters in labor against the budget bill that takes $100 million out of their pockets and puts it in the bloated pockets of the hospitals and the insurers. While it is our core belief that health care should be free of government interference, this bill does not restore balance to the management of our State’s employee health care system and continues to allow costs to increase and provide for better health care options for our members. If the legislature wants to truly fix the mess that NJ has put itself into, we ask that you listen to us, the payors, and reject the people who don’t have “skin in the game”.

We call on our friends in the Legislature to reject the budget bill that butts an a undue burden on our members.  The State of NJ has fallen victim to a diabolical health care management system that has been entrenched in the national economy for years. A continued lack of transparency is not an option. In fact, transparency and access to data are crucial to controlling costs, and we applaud the efforts of our brothers and sisters in Labor who want to FIX the system instead of mollifying the players who are using the state, the legislature and the citizenry like pawns.” Peter Andreyev, State President NJSPB

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The Communications Workers of America represents working people in public service, telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, healthcare, and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields. CWA represents roughly 75,000 public sector workers throughout New Jersey.