Where were the Berniecrats? What about the populist uprising in the Republican ranks?
The anti-establishment mood that has taken hold in much of the country was nowhere to be seen in New Jersey on Tuesday night, when a former Goldman Sachs executive and the state’s current lieutenant governor easily prevailed in their respective primaries.
New Jersey Democrats were unbothered by the gilded resume of Phil Murphy, who made millions as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, delivering him 48 percent of the vote in a six-person race.
Kim Guadagno, a Republican who has served under Gov. Chris Christie for the last seven and a half years, did nearly as well in the GOP primary, winning 47 percent of the vote, to beat her nearest challenger by 16 points.
JANUARY 29, 2016 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Board of Education (BOE) and Ridgewood Education Association (REA) have failed to reach a settlement despite protracted negotiations, BOE President Sheila Brogan reported during a meeting on Monday.
The two sides met on Jan. 20, and the main sticking point continued to be healthcare contributions. A new proposal presented by the school board was rejected by the REA.
Brogan said the “comprehensive” proposal addressed issues that had been raised during previous negotiation sessions and modified the district’s “original proposal in a number of significant ways.”
“Our offer was designed to address the REA’s goal of increasing the actual take-home pay of its members without jeopardizing the district’s financial position,” Brogan said.
“The REA did not respond with a comprehensive proposal of their own,” she continued. “They chose to focus only on the amounts their members contribute towards their healthcare benefits.”
REA members, however, believe that the BOE did not make a real effort to come up with terms that would be acceptable to both parties. They also said a counteroffer was not seriously considered by the board.
JULY 31, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Despite the start of the school year rapidly approaching, the Board of Education and Ridgewood Education Association (REA) have been unable to agree on a new contract.
The current contract, which began on July 1, 2012, expired at the end of June.
Mike Yannone, president of the REA, confirmed this week that the organization’s members are working without a new contract. The REA represents 550 teachers, secretaries and counselors in the Ridgewood school district.
“When our contract expires, we continue to work under the terms of the old contract,” Yannone said. “We will honor the contract, and the kids will be taught.”
However, the optimal result is for an agreement to be hammered out as quickly as possible.
“I would love to be able to talk to the other side,” Yannone said, adding that he understands that setting up a meeting can be difficult over the summer.
The main sticking point of the negotiations is a dispute over health insurance premium contributions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A major federal union says the cyber theft of employee information is more damaging than it first appeared, asserting that hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for every federal employee.
The Obama administration had acknowledged that up to 4 million current and former employees are affected by the December cyber breach of Office of Personnel Management data, but it had been vague about exactly what was taken.
But J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter Thursday to OPM director Katherine Archuleta that based on incomplete information OPM provided to the union, “we believe that the Central Personnel Data File was the targeted database, and that the hackers are now in possession of all personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree, and up to 1 million former federal employees.”
The OPM data file contains the records of non-military, non-intelligence executive branch employees, which covers most federal civilian employees but not, for example, members of Congress and their staffs.
The union believes the hackers stole military records and veterans’ status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance, and pension information; and age, gender and race data, he said.
Also Thursday, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic Senate leader, said that the hack was carried out by “the Chinese” without specifying whether he meant the Chinese government or individuals. Reid is one of eight lawmakers briefed on the most secret intelligence information. U.S. officials have declined to publicly blame China, which has denied involvement.
Reader says NJ Transportation Trust Fund is a Black Hole of Waste
Raising the gas tax is only for one reason… decades of bad management, deceptive accounting, and the continual awarding of higher wages and benefits to union workers without adequate funding by governors and legislatures.
Raising gasoline taxes in a state that is already the nation’s highest taxed isn’t plausible, and it only goes to fund a BLACK HOLE… NJ spends 12X the national average and 3X the next highest state at over $2 million per mile of state road; the whole system is corrupt (see this if you haven’t read it already https://watchdog.org/201704/new-jersey-gas-tax-highways-cost/ ). Given the gravity of the situation, no part of the status quo is acceptable, and yet Senators Sarlo and Sweeney just blindly want to raise taxes on our gasoline to keep their gravy train for overpaid union labor going..
Readers voice concern over weakening of residency requirements
I think they are looking to hire more Hudson county partisan people to work in Ridgewood by ditching the residency rules.
The previous Village Manager is referred to as a “carpet bagger,” but yet this VC plans to do away with the residency requirement for all employees except police & fire? Do as we say and not as we do.
While other readers insist , ” We should be hiring for police & fire from the surrounding communities Paramus, Glen Rock, Midland Park, Waldwick and Ho-Ho-Kus, as well as Ridgewood. This would give the Village access to a wider pool of applicants and might stop us from hiring a majority of legacy candidates.”
The Mayor wrote in a PolitickerNJ Editorial on 03/04/11 , “my Party has largely stood on the sidelines as union workers were vilified and scapegoated. Silent and passive, many Democrats did nothing as others attacked the very people at the center of our Party. No defense. No counteroffensive. No nothing. During the past year’s great debate over worker’s rights and responsibilities, the Democrats – by and large – refused to show up.”
The Mayor received massive campaign contributions from unions :
Paul Aronsohn (D)Political Action Committee Total ContributedTeamsters Union $10,000.00 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $10,000.00 United Auto Workers $6,500.00 Carpenters & Joiners Union $5,000.00 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $5,000.00 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $5,000.00 Sheet Metal Workers Union $5,000.00 Laborers Union $3,500.00 AFL-CIO $2,661.00 American Federation of Teachers $2,500.00 Operating Engineers Local 825 $2,500.00 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 475 $1,000.00 Service Employees International Union $1,000.00 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 274 $1,000.00 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union Local 9 $500.00
Bergen County Police would be due hefty pay raise in consolidation with Sheriff’s Office, union says
MAY 16, 2014, 6:41 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014, 10:58 PM BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
A rose is a rose is a rose, author Gertrude Stein once wrote.
But is a realignment a merger or a consolidation?
That’s the question left dangling after a four-year contract that the Bergen County freeholders approved unanimously this week with the union that represents officers in the Bergen County Police Department.
And it’s a $1-million-a-year question.
The board’s Democratic freeholders contend that their plan to put the 89-member county police force under the command of the sheriff is a realignment, not a merger. The ordinance, approved by the freeholders in October, uses the word transfer, not merger.
Thus they hope to avoid a so-called poison-pill clause insisted upon by the union that would scuttle the deal if the department is merged, consolidated or disbanded into the Sheriff’s Office.
Under that interpretation, the new labor contract would be undone and the final overlapping year of the old contract would kick in.
Three years ago, at the request of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the union agreed to defer pay increases until 2014, the final year of the old contract.
This year, the union made concessions on wages in exchange for job security. It inserted the poison pill to protect against a merger.
If the transfer is not called off or voided by a court, and the union succeeds in invoking the poison pill, then instead of getting a 1.5 percent annual pay hike under the renegotiated contract, the officers would get a 10 percent raise starting this year under the terms of the old agreement. And they would have to negotiate a new one for future years.
The difference is about $1 million in annual salaries.
The freeholders voted for the realignment only after receiving written assurance from the county’s labor lawyer that nothing in the new contract limits which department can supervise the County Police.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-county-police-would-be-due-hefty-pay-raise-in-consolidation-with-sheriff-s-office-union-says-1.1018056#sthash.yZidHCIC.dpuf
