CWA LOCAL 1036

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The State Legislature must vote to place a Constitutional Amendment to protect public worker pensions on the ballot this November. The deadline for that vote is August 9.

MAKE ONE CALL TO YOUR STATE SENATOR:
844-402-4286

You’ll be prompted to enter your zip code to connect to your legislator.

The State Senate has yet to take the final vote on SCR2, which would place the Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in the November election. The Amendment would require quarterly pension payments, protecting taxpayers and saving billions.

Call your State Senator and say:

Hello, my name is _________ and I live in ___________. Vote YES on SCR2 to protect public worker retirement security and to ensure the health of our pension.

MAKE ONE CALL TO EACH OF YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBERS:
855-346-9471

You’ll be prompted to enter your zip code to connect to your legislator.

The Assembly has voted to put the amendment on the ballot. But they also voted to reduce the sales tax from 7% to 6% as part of a deal to fund roads and bridges. That won’t save working people any money, but it will cost $17 billion over the next ten years. This will harm the state’s ability to fund anything–and derail eforts to fully fund public pensions.

Call your State Assembly member now and say:

Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _____. I am disappointed the Assembly passed A12, which would blow a nearly $2 billion hole in the budget every year, and could bankrupt my pension fund. No sales tax reduction to fund roads and bridges.

You have two Assembly members. Make sure you call this number two times!

Statement to CWA Members on the IFPTE Local 195 Tentative Agreement

July 12, 2016

You may have heard that IFPTE Local 195 has a Tentative Agreement for a 4 year Contract Agreement with the Christie Administration. IFPTE represents skilled trade and craft employees in the executive branch and is a smaller bargaining unit than CWA.

We do not as of yet have details as to all aspects of the Agreement, but we understand that it is a 4-year agreement with wage increases of 0, 0, 1.75% and 1.5% across the board each July 1st of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, over 4 years and a $450 onetime bonus in 2017 only for workers at who have been at Max pay for at least 3 years. It also appears that chapter 78 health care contribution percentages are maintained through the contract, and that there are no improvements in healthcare.  There may also be important “work rules” and grievance language issues that we have to assess.

As soon as we have further information as to what language and other changes are contained in the IFPTE Local 195 agreement, we will share our analysis and reaction with you.

We advise all of our members to remain patient while the CWA bargaining committee reviews all of the facts to determine if there is any reason to change the approach we have had to date.  CWA’s 35,000 members across all Locals have stuck together these past several months, and we remain committed to fighting as long as it takes to win a fair contract. 

In Solidarity,

Hetty Rosenstein, NJ Director

John Rose, CWA Local 1031

Patrick Kavanagh, CWA Local 1032

Gaye Palmer, CWA Local 1033

Adam Liebtag, CWA Local 1036

Ken McNamara, CWA Local 1037

Shawn Ludwig, CWA Local 1038

Lionel Leach, CWA Local 1039

Carolyn C. Wade, CWA Local 1040

NJ Executive Branch Bargaining Report
June 28, 2016

General Negotiations Update:

The Bargaining Committee continues to regularly meet and discuss our strategy for contract negotiations with the Christie Administration.  Over the past year, we have not seen any reason to change our minds that negotiations with the Administration will not bring about a satisfactory contract.  We are not prepared to accept zeros, we have no interest in further concessions, and we do not want to be distracted from our urgent and immediate goal – saving the pensions of our members and retirees.  We do not envision a scenario in which the Christie Administration would bargain a Contract that CWA would consider acceptable.  We don’t only want a Contract.  We want a good Contract.  We know that we cannot make concessions.  Our members have already lost too much.

Increments:

The most difficult issue we face in not negotiating a contract is the fact that the Christie Administration has refused to pay increments.  They did this in violation of our Contract, relying on decisions from the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) in the Atlantic County and Bridgewater cases.  In these cases, PERC overturned 40 years of precedential decisions and allowed employers to not pay increments.  On March 9, 2016, the Appellate Court ruled in favor of the unions, however, and unanimously overturned these cases saying that increments must be paid.  The Christie Administration appealed that decision to the New Jersey Supreme Court.  We do not yet know if the Supreme Court will “accept cert” and hear the case.  If the Supreme Court does not hear the case — we won — the increments must be paid.  If the Supreme Court does accept the appeal, we will have to present a case to the Supreme Court.

We have also filed a grievance about the fact that the State missed the contractual deadline for asking to start negotiating the new Contract and thus should pay the increments even after expiration. The State is challenging our right to arbitrate the grievance and so that too is delayed by litigation.

Next Steps:

As we have said for the past year— our primary focus is winning the Constitutional Amendment in November, protecting our pension.   That means that we have a difficult path.  In CWA we will take a more difficult and less traveled path, if we believe it is time to stand and fight. That is where we are on pensions and on concessions. We must protect the pension plan.  We aren’t going to wait for someone else to do that for us.  We are pressing forward on our immediate fight for the Constitutional Amendment. 

We know in CWA, if we remain unified, and if we maintain our courage and ideals, we can win.  If we negotiate from a position of weakness or anxiety, the outcome will not be good.  We choose unity and courage.  Thank you for your support.  Please participate in all activities.

In Solidarity,

Hetty Rosenstein, NJ Area Director

John Rose, CWA Local 1031

Patrick Kavanagh, CWA Local 1032                                    

Gaye Palmer, CWA Local 1033                                             

Adam Liebtag, CWA Local 1036                                           

Ken McNamara, CWA Local 1037

Shawn Ludwig, CWA Local 1038

Lionel Leach, CWA Local 1039

Carolyn Wade, CWA Local 1040

Today, the Assembly Judiciary Committee approved the resolution that will put pension funding on the November 2016 ballot for all NJ voters. The Committee's vote today is an important next step to moving the resolution to a full Assembly vote, followed by action in the Senate. 

Local 1036 thanks the resolution's sponsors and the members of the Committee voting in favor. ACR-109 was passed out of Committee along party lines with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against.

The Resolution asks voters to amend the NJ Constitution to require the state to make its full required pension payments, on a quarterly basis. Making quarterly payments will benefit from investment returns to further build up the health of our pension funds and will enforce fiscal responsibility during the year. 

Read more at NJ.com. 

Under Governor Chris Christie, our public worker pension systems paid more than $700 million in fees to Wall Street money managers, including high-cost hedge funds that we believe are underperforming. 

It's time to hit the brakes on hedge fund investments.

In 2015 alone, the New Jersey State Investment Council paid $728 million in fees and bonuses to Wall Street firms to manage less than a third of pension investments. The year before, we paid $600 million in fees and bonuses. These fees are paid from the pension fund and from investment returns. 

In total, we have paid over $1.3 billion to outside managers in the fiscal years 2014 and 2015. We won't know the amount for 2016 for a few more months.

Meanwhile, hedge funds are underperforming and many state pension funds are pulling out.

Sign the petition to the NJ State Investment Council to cut back on hedge fund investments and make sure our pension is invested wisely, at lower cost, by our state workers just like us. 

The Membership Committee is sponsoring the 6th Annual "CWA 1036 Night at the Ballpark" event on Tuesday, August 2nd at the Trenton Thunder game at Mercer County Arm and Hammer Riverfront Park.  Members and their families are encouraged to sign up early for tickets since we have a limited amount.  

For $10 per person, members and their families will get a ticket to the game, seating in our reserved picnic area, and a free buffet of ballpark food and non-alcoholic beverages. Gates will open at 6:00 and the buffet will be set up by 6:30. First pitch will be at 7:00.

For more information, please click here or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (609) 530-0060 to reserve your tickets now. Please be advised that members will need to pick up their tickets at the local office (Trenton or Mount Holly) the week before the game.

We look forward to seeing you at the ballpark!

From Shop Steward J.G. in NJ State Executive Branch...

To All CWA Members in My Office,

This is what I can do:

1.    I am going to be sure I am registered to Vote in NJ at my current address in the November Election.

2.    I am going to be sure my wife, immediate relatives and close friends are registered to vote at their current addresses too.

3.    I am fully aware, as well as my immediate relatives and close friends on the urgency of voting YES "down ballot" on the Constitutional Amendment on November 8 to protect our pensions.

4.    I will volunteer to knock on doors and phone bank other Union members to get commitments from them to go "down ballot" and vote YES on the Constitutional Amendment.

5.    I will fill out the volunteer form and I will fax it to the Local at (609) 530-0638 or email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. immediately.

6.    I will post messages on my Facebook and other social media accounts on the urgency of voting YES "down ballot" on the Constitutional Amendment on November 8 to protect our pensions.

January 13, 2016  

It was clear that Governor Christie’s State of the State speech yesterday was not directed to the residents of New Jersey.  The entire speech was focused on his presidential campaign and addressing the primary voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and elsewhere – in other words, people who have not seen the real Chris Christie like NJ has over the last six years.  

Christie said, “The job is not just talking a big game, it’s about tackling problems head on and being responsible for achieving results.” 

We disagree with Governor Christie.  For him, it is always about talking a big game.  In 2011 Governor Christie was on the cover of every newspaper proclaiming a non-partisan victory on pension reform.  Fast forward to 2015, not only has Governor broken the same law he was so proud of in 2011 by not making the required pension payment, but in yesterday’s speech he chose to blame public sector union members and try to pit us against every other citizen and every state program for those in need.  

While Governor Christie continues to spew rhetoric and accusations that public employees are a “special interest” he ignores the fact that the majority of his own political party voted in favor of chapter 78 and a 7-year plan to increase pension funding and increase employee cost-sharing.

Let’s stick to the facts….

Local General Membership Meetings are open to all full members in good standing from any bargaining unit. We conduct Local business like financial and committee reports, with full updates and discussion of hot-button issues like contract negotiations, legislative and political campaigns.

These meetings are in addition to the monthly unit meetings for large groups like Burlington and Hunterdon counties, or State worksite meetings.

See our Events page for a listing of other Local unit meetings and events.

All General Membership Meetings begin at 5pm.