Protesting Christie Scheme To Open Civil Service to Patronage & Nepotism With Nearly No Public Input
(NEW JERSEY) – Tomorrow, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) will be protesting Governor Chris Christie’s scheme to change Civil Service as we know it. Christie’s proposal erodes protections for workers by eliminating the current system of merit-based promotions. This plan essentially abolishes objective and transparent measures for promotions and replaces them with politically-motivated "advancement.” This is the most radical change to Civil Service in half-a-century, yet the first time requests for public hearings have been flatly denied.
At workplace pickets throughout the state, CWA members will be speaking out against Christie’s plot to “broad band” titles - which would hurt hundreds of thousands of workers, as well as expose every single New Jerseyan to higher taxes due to corruption, cronyism, and patronage. Christie’s proposal will eliminate most competitive promotions and open the door to a flood of favoritism, nepotism and discrimination. The plan is a wholesale attack on New Jersey’s working families, women, the disabled and people of color. Moreover, it will entirely eliminate veterans’ preference in hiring and promotions.
“This latest Christie scheme to gut Civil Service will create more patronage and corruption at all levels by putting every single advancement at the mercy of political pressure,” said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA NJ State Director. “We’re holding pickets in municipalities throughout New Jersey to highlight how both state and local government will be harmed. This proposal unfairly rigs the rules so those who buy influence or enjoy special connections can get ahead…while disabled workers, LGBT workers, women, workers of color, older worker, and veterans will all have a major barrier to discrimination destroyed and the public will be harmed.”
CWA Protests will be at the following locations: Noon-1 p.m.
Trenton Area:
Department of Labor, 1 John Fitch Parkway
Civil Service Commission, 44 South Clinton Street
Department of Banking and Insurance, corner of Warren and West State
Department of Environmental Protection, 401 E State St
Department of Health and Agriculture, 369 S. Warren St.
Central Jersey:
342 Westminster Ave, Elizabeth
181 Howe Lane, New Brunswick
200 West 2nd Street, Plainfield
North Jersey:
650 Bloomfield Ave, Bloomfield
125 State Street, Hackensack
50-58 Burnett Ave, Maplewood
124 &153 Halsey Street, Newark
100 Hamilton Plaza, Patterson
South Jersey:
101 Haddon Ave, Camden NJ
215 Crown Point Rd, Thorofare, NJ
1601 Atlantic Ave, Atlantic City
Even though New Jersey’s Constitution requires public jobs be awarded through a competitive testing process wherever possible, the Civil Service Commission is seeking to bypass these mandated requirements by "broad banding" titles. They’re aiming to place dozens - and possibly hundreds - of titles into “job bands” where management would be allowed to unilaterally “advance” favored workers through the band rather than requiring competitive examination. This would eliminate objective and transparent measures – such as lists of promotion-eligible workers, public postings of who was awarded the position. Since veterans preference is tied to promotions, it eliminates veterans preference in the 90% of cases where there will no longer be promotions.
The Christie Administration held a single public hearing in Trenton on the proposal at 3pm on April 10th - a workday. To say that the hearing was scheduled at an inconvenient time would be an understatement, as even several legislators had difficulty attending. It was virtually impossible for workers opposed to Christie’s proposal to have their voices heard. Those people directly affected deserve a true public process and an opportunity to have their concerns addressed their concerns.Christie has denied requests for more hearings at times and locations when working people all over the state can have a chance to be heard. So, CWA has launched a petition for supporters to call on the CSC to schedule additional public hearings locations, dates and times. The petition can be viewed and signed at www.cwanj.org.
The Communications Workers of America (AFL-CIO) represents both private sector and public workers. CWA represents more than 70,000 working families in New Jersey, including over 40,000 state workers, 15,000 county and municipal workers, and thousands of workers in the telecommunications, airlines, health care and direct care industries. It represents thousands of public workers both in Civil Service jurisdictions and those that have not adopted Civil Service.
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