Trenton NJ, while you been buy on the local election campaign Governor Murphy just handed out a nice payback to the unions that got him elected .Governor Phil Murphy said at the time he doesn’t know the cost to taxpayers of raises he gave to 35,000 New Jersey state workers, members of a union that supported his candidacy.
Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi said , “Maybe these raises are warranted, maybe they aren’t, but how could our Governor authorize them without having some idea of what they would cost the taxpayers of New Jersey???
P.S. it’s over $148 million ”
UPDATE: Below please find today’s press release from the Governor’s office which discusses preliminary increased costs of $149 million.
State of New Jersey
Murphy Administration Releases Total State Cost of Contract Settlement with the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO
Trenton – Today, the Murphy Administration released the total projected state cost of its recent contract settlement with the Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO:
The total projected state cost of the contract is approximately $148.9 million.
Of this total, $78 million is related to the unprecedented suspension of step increments and clothing allowances by the Christie Administration dating back to FY 2016.
A fiscal year breakdown of the projected costs may be found below. Retroactive payouts for FY 2016 and FY 2017 are assumed in the Fiscal Year 2018 adjusted appropriation:
FY Payout Total
FY16 Retro $24.0 million
FY17 Retro $34.7 million
FY18 Retro $41.4 million
FY 19 Projected $48.8 million
Grand Total $148.9 million
Because of the duration of the retroactivity and the details of the contract negotiations, final totals will not be available until programming is completed.
More than 600 delegates representing 1,000 labor unions and 1 million members of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO convened at Caesars Atlantic City June 16 & 17, 2015, to participate in the endorsement process for one New Jersey Senate seat, 80 state Assembly seats and for a slate of 48 rank-and-file union members seeking public offices at every level of government. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
14 unions make common cause in suit against Christie
Fourteen unions under the auspices of the New Jersey AFL-CIO announced today that they want to take Governor Chris Christie to court to compel him to make New Jersey Annual Required Contribution to the pension system for FY 2016.
The suit presses Christie to follow the 2011 pension law he signed, specifically the requirements of Chapter 78. (Pizarro/PolitickerNJ)
December 25, 2014 Last updated: Thursday, December 25, 2014, 1:21 AM
By SARA BURNETT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
Wire Service
* Leaders say Obama’s move gives protection from retaliation
CHICAGO — Unions across the U.S. are reaching out to immigrants affected by President Obama’s recent executive action, hoping to expand their dwindling ranks by recruiting millions of workers who entered the U.S. illegally.
Labor leaders say the president’s action, which curbs deportation and gives work permits to some 4 million immigrants, will give new protection to workers who have been reluctant to join for fear of retaliation.
“I think we’ll see very positive changes” because of the action, said Tom Balanoff, president of Service Employees Interna-tional Union Local 1. “One of them, I hope, is that more workers will come forward and want to organize.”
SEIU, whose more than 2 million members include janitors and maintenance workers, recently announced a website where immigrants can learn about the action. The AFL-CIO says it’s training organizers to recruit eligible workers. And the United Food and Commercial Workers and other unions are planning workshops and partnering with community groups and churches to reach out to immigrants.
The efforts come even as Republicans and other opponents of Obama’s action work to undo it, saying it will hurt American workers, and as some labor experts say they Are skeptical immigrants will feel safe enough to unionize in large numbers.
Labor unions have struggled over the past decade to maintain their membership and political muscle. The ranks fell by more than 1.2 million between 2003 and 2013, when there were about 14.5 million members nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage of workers who were union members fell from 12.9 percent to 11.3 percent during that same period.
Business-friendly Republican governors have approved measures in recent years aimed at weakening labor, even in places such as Michigan that were once considered union strongholds. In Obama’s home state of Illinois, a GOP businessman unseated the Democratic governor last month in part by promising to constrain labor’s influence in government.
Unions say they can help protect immigrants against abuses such as wage theft and discrimination. And even if the immigrants aren’t citizens and cannot vote, they can help unions by paying dues and doing the heavy lifting needed around election time — knocking on doors, driving voters to the polls and making phone calls for pro-labor candidates. Republicans say the executive actions — which would affect people who have children and have been in the U.S. more than five years — will make it tougher for Americans already struggling to find good-paying jobs. They’ve pushed legislation to void the new protections.
New Jersey union complaint on pension ‘ethics’ is full of holes
by Dan Primack
September 15, 2014, 2:30 PM EDT
Before the AFL-CIO files another ethics report to embarrass Chris Christie, it should double-check its dates. And the law.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO last week filed an 11-page complaint with the State Ethics Commission, referring to what it called “a disturbing pattern of big contributions to Christie for Governor or Republican organizations by firms handpicked to manage hundreds of millions in state pension funds.” If the union’s goal was to generate headlines that would embarrass a political foe, then the AFL-CIO did its job. If it wanted to make credible allegations of wrongdoing, then it failed miserably.
At issue are New Jersey laws that prevent that state’s public pension system from investing in certain types of funds whose managers have contributed to in-state political candidates or parties during the 24 months prior to receiving the commitment. In other words, ‘pay-to-play’ restrictions designed to prevent pension officials (and their bosses) from giving new business to political patrons.
AFL-CIO believes it has found five examples of such behavior. The problem is that at least three of them involve investment decisions made before Christie entered office. Moreover, the political contributions came years after the pension’s investments were made, and were made by individuals who don’t actually fall under the rule’s purview.
For example, the complaint cites:
Gleacher and Company, which manages such monies even though William Sapoch, who is listed as an investment management professional with the firm, gave $3,800 in December 2012 to Christie for Governor.
According to state investment records, the only state pension monies managed by Gleacher & Co. relate to Gleacher Mezzanine Fund II, a private debt fund that was raised back in 2006. Hard to imagine how a political donation six years later would have impacted that decision (which was made during the Corzine administration). It also is worth noting that William Sapoch appears to have been a financial advisor with Gleacher who never worked on the mezzanine business — a business that actually spun out from Gleacher (and renamed itself Arrowhead Mezzanine) back in 2010.
Here’s another:
JP Morgan, a $3,800 contribution from Robert F. Cummings, listed as the vice chairman for Investment Banking, in January 2013 to Christie for Governor and a $15,000 to the State Republican Party by Greg Onken, who is listed as a managing director and financial advisor.
New Jersey has multiple investments in JP Morgan-related securities but most of it is in publicly-traded equities and bonds that do not fall under the New Jersey statute (because these are passive holdings that do not involve the bank “recommending investment management decisions”). The only exception is a venture capital fund investment called JP Morgan Venture Capital III, which was raised in 2006 and was not managed by either of the aforementioned JP Morgan professionals (Cummings didn’t even join JPMorgan until late 2010, while Onken is a private wealth manager).
The one AFL-CIO example that does hold water is a 2011 investment in a venture capital fund managed by General Catalyst Partners, which had a part-timer who had made a $10,000 contribution to the NJ Republican State Committee just months earlier. That deal has been under investigation since this past May, while Fortune reported earlier today that the New Jersey Division of Investments has sold its interest in the fund. AFL-CIO also mentions State Street, in which New Jersey appears to have briefly invested in via a money market fund. It is unclear when that investment began and ended.
But it gets worse. Here is what AFL-CIO wrote in its press release announcing the complaint:
Many of the state’s relationships with Wall Street firms coincide with generous political contributions, even though state ethics rules require a two-year lag before a donor can be a pension investor. For example, an employee of the Blackstone Group donated $10,000 to the NJ Republican State Committee in 2011, the same year new investment business was being proposed for the firm.
The Blackstone employee being referred to here in Anthony Grillo, who actually left the firm back in 2005 (according to both a press release and contemporaneous media coverage). This example was not included in the actual complaint, but remains in the press release posted on the union’s website.
