State Budget - Record - Lawmaker squares off with labor

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Published in the Bergen Record, Thursday, July 6, 2006

A steadfast lawmaker squares off with labor

By ELISE YOUNG
STAFF WRITER

TRENTON -- Outside the State House on Wednesday stood a 15-foot inflatable rat bearing a photo of state Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney, the Gloucester County Democrat who is taking on the labor unions with a campaign to align their pay and benefits with those in what he calls "the real world."

Inside, when a group of three-dozen union members spotted Sweeney on the stairs around the corner from the governor's office, it was time to go one-on-one with a guy -- an ironworker, no less -- whom they consider a turncoat for suggesting they give back 15 percent of their compensation.

"You guys will turn your back on us!" a union member called.

Another shouted: "As a union representative, how can you negate our contracts?"

Sweeney shot back: "Because it doesn't fix the problem."

For 25 minutes, the crowd begged him to support Governor Corzine's budget.

Sweeney stuck to the message that he is spreading on his Web site, stopspendingmymoney.com: New Jersey no longer can afford such generous pay and benefits for its employees, and it's time for them to shoulder higher health-care costs and pension contributions, just as workers do in the private sector.

The inflatable rat -- which bore photos of Sweeney and his "real world" campaign colleagues, Assembly Democrats Jerry Green of Union County and Paul D. Moriarty of Gloucester County -- was inappropriate and offensive, he said. And if Corzine's sales-tax increase ensured full payment of union members' pensions, he told them, "I'd be the first one voting for it."

"They're not fully funding your pensions, guys," he said. "You're going to wind up, if you're not careful, losing your pensions and health [benefits]."

When Rae Roeder, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1033, started a high-decibel tirade that suggested Sweeney was betraying his ironworker brothers and union members everywhere, two state troopers stepped in.

The rowdier union members trickled away, but two dozen stayed to resume a calm discussion.

"I'm displeased with the Legislature in general," Karen Marlowe of South Orange, a municipal liaison for the Board of Public Utilities and a member of CWA Local 1037, said after Sweeney left. "We all have a mortgage to pay."

Ron Jackson of Neptune, another BPU employee, said he didn't agree with Sweeney, but appreciated that the senator stood in a hallway and took their questions.

"We're all being hurt by this -- not just the unions," Jackson said.

E-mail: younge@northjersey.com

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