CWA Local 1033

Brothers and Sisters,

As you know, Governor Christie has illegally denied our increments after Contract expiration. We are awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court on another case where this was done that we believe will overturn the Governor’s actions in our case.

The Governor did this in an effort to gain leverage so that we accept the raises of 0%, 0%, 1.75% and 1.5% that were accepted by IFPTE 195 and the union representing management that we consider to be inadequate.

CWA has been unwilling to be bullied by the Governor and we have insisted upon pursuing our legal case because we believe that we will win. Your Bargaining Team knows that there are members who are anxious to get the increments they are entitled to, but CWA will not establish a TERRIBLE PRECEDENT by agreeing to what we believe is an illegal act by the Governor.

The State has demanded concessions of CWA — which we reject — and has, as of now, not made ANY economic offer — insisting at the May 17th bargaining session that they would not even DISCUSS economic matters until non-economics (including all of their concessions) are resolved. CWA WILL NOT BE BULLIED . We will bargain an honest and legal agreement and we will not gut our Contract or give up language that we have fought for and won in the past.

The State is demanding the following concessions – which CWA has rejected:

Take the language out of the body of the Contract that says that workers will be treated with respect and dignity and not be harassed. Put it only in the “preamble” and not allow grievances to go to arbitration about worker abuse and harassment.

Eliminate from the Contract required Labor Management meetings or the requirement to discuss pending Civil Service Commission Matters. Eliminate bimonthly meetings with the State to try to resolve grievances.

Put arbitrary time limits on how long it takes to schedule or hear an arbitration and withdraw the cases even if there is a legitimate reason for a delay in arbitrating the case. (For example, a worker or witness is ill, or the case involves a criminal charge that hasn’t been heard yet.)

Increase Minor Discipline from 3 suspension days to 5 suspension days, thus eliminating the right to arbitration for suspensions more than of 4 or 5 days.

Only provide discovery for hearings if it is asked for 30 days before the arbitration or at the time of an appeal. Limit how many witnesses can be called and what they can testify to.

Don’t include holiday hours and leave hours as hours worked for the calculation of overtime.

Modify the language protecting workers from being disciplined if they refuse overtime for a good reason.

Compensatory Time: Our current language says that requests for compensatory time will be honored. The State wants to say that they will be honored “so long as they do not unduly disrupt operations.”

We had a 2 Step— Pass/Fail PAR. Last contract they wanted a 3 Step PAR. Now they want a 5 Step PAR. They are demanding this even though the data they provided shows that they do not have current PAR ratings for about 75% of the workforce.

Leave for the National Guard: Currently, any employee who is a member of the National Guard must be given time off with full pay to attend required drills. They want to change it to time off as provided under Civil Service.

Remove this sentence: “The granting of a request for a request for leave of absence without pay will not be unreasonably withheld.”

Layoff and Recall: Remove notice of Layoff as far in advance as possible and eliminate the minimum 45 days notice and the 10 days notice of final work day.

Subcontracting: Eliminate language in the Contract that says that the State will work with the Union to find alternative State employment for workers who lose jobs due to subcontracting.

The CWA Bargaining Team believes:

That we will win our increment case and that we should not allow Christie to overturn 40 years of precedent in public sector labor law without challenge. We believe that every Union should fight this type of egregious conduct.

Although we will pursue negotiations with the Administration, we REJECT the above demands to gut our Contract of Respect and Dignity Language, of Due Process protections, of overtime and leave rights, and of Layoff and Job Security Rights.

THE CONCESSION STAND IS CLOSED.

We believe that we can fight. We can win our increments and reestablish fair collective bargaining law. We can get raises and we can protect the language in our Contract. We know that our members are anxious and that you have been harmed by not getting the increments that you are ENTITLED TO! But CWA will not give in to bullying, concessions, and bad contractual language. Please support your Bargaining Team.

Our next MEMBERS ONLY Tele-Town Hall Call where we will provide a full Bargaining Report as well as a report on the State Budget, Pension issues, and more will be held on Wednesday, May 31 at 7 p.m.

If you have previously given your phone number to us and received a Town Hall call, then we will call you on that same number. If you have not provided your number before, please do so at www.cwanj.org/signup to be included in this call.

You may view and download this report online at: http://cwanj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/BargainingReport_May2017.pdf

In Solidarity,

Hetty Rosenstein
CWA NJ Area Director

John Rose, President
CWA Local 1031

Patrick Kavanagh, President
CWA Local 1032

Gaye Palmer, President
CWA Local 1033

Adam Liebtag, President
CWA Local 1036

Ken McNamara, President
CWA Local 1037

Shawn Ludwig, President
CWA Local 1038

Carolyn Wade, President
CWA Local 1040

We have scheduled negotiations with the Christie Administration for March 24, 2017. There are several reasons for our change of direction. Back in 2015, the Christie Administration failed to give timely notice for negotiating a new contract, which would mean the contract was automatically extended for one year. This means we would not receive an across the board percentage increase, but that steps and other annual payments should have been paid. Christie’s team disputed this, and we had to challenge it with legal action.

When the Contract expired, the Christie Administration attempted to chill negotiations and gain leverage by illegally suspending increments. We took legal actions to respond to this violation of the Contract and the law including filing an unfair practice, a grievance and a lawsuit. The Administration relied on two local government cases as the basis for its illegal action: Atlantic County and Bridgewater. These cases were being appealed by the FOP and the PBA, and these unions were represented in the appeals by same lawyers that CWA uses – Weissman & Mintz. We believed that if we could win these two cases in Appellate Court, the Administration would have to pay retroactive increments and there would be much less pressure to settle for less than what is fair.

Although this strategy has gone exactly according to plan— the Appellate Court unanimously overturned the PERC decision that suspended increments after contract expiration— three things have happened that have led us to decide to go into bargaining anyway and not wait for the Supreme Court to rule on these cases:

1. IFPTE Local 195, the Union that represents craft, security and transportation workers, and the IBEW Local 30, the union that represents management, settled short. They settled their contracts for 0%, 0%, 1.75% and 1.5% on wage increases. This is very low, but it established a pattern. This is the problem when smaller unions jump quick: they create obstacles that are nearly insurmountable even for stronger unions to climb. CWA, AFSCME and the AFT are confronted with a terrible pattern. In the past, the best contracts for everyone have been when CWA was on lead, because we did not settle for crumbs. The IFPTE and IBEW agreements also extend the current chapter 78 health care contribution rates until 2019 and have some dangerous language about how steps were withheld after the contract expired, as well as some troubling changes to language regarding overtime, job banding and work rules.

2. The courts are moving very slowly in the increment cases. Oral Argument in the case before the Supreme Court isn’t even scheduled until March 13, and it is possible that another July is going to go by and thousands of our members haven’t received an increment. The very thing that the Administration was trying to accomplish, the suffering of our membership and the pressure to settle a bad contract, is happening. This is one of the very reasons withholding increments as leverage is illegal. It is because it works. We have members who work next to IFPTE 195 or IBEW members and they are getting increments and as of July across the board increases and CWA members are not. We expected the courts to move more quickly. But it hasn’t – and the combination of the IFPTE agreement + the slow moving courts – is angering and frustrating our members.

3.  Donald Trump won the election. We hoped that with Hillary Clinton in the White House, and Phil Murphy in the State House, we would have strong allies with whom we would be able to address the critical issue of our pension and healthcare costs. We still expect to be able to do that with Phil Murphy, but he will have to govern with a hostile Federal Government that is looking to cut funds to New Jersey and other states (especially Blue ones.) After 8 years of a defensive fight with Chris Christie, we are poised to have a defensive fight with the Trump Administration for another four years, all at a time when we must save the NJ pension.

State Budget:

Governor Christie gave his final Budget address on February 28. Although he has committed to a $2.5 billion pension payment, the budget still has issues we are concerned about, including a cut he is making to health care spending of $125 million that we cannot under any circumstances absorb.

We are analyzing the budget and more information about it will be coming out shortly.

In Solidarity,

Hetty Rosenstein
CWA NJ Area Director

John Rose, President
CWA Local 1031

Patrick Kavanagh, President
CWA Local 1032

Gaye Palmer, President
CWA Local 1033

Adam Liebtag, President
CWA Local 1036

Ken McNamara, President
CWA Local 1037

Shawn Ludwig, President
CWA Local 1038

Lionel Leach, President
CWA Local 1039

Carolyn Wade, President
CWA Local 1040