Corzine last year in the Ironbound.

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) today voted 68.8% to 31.2% in favor of an agreement reached earlier this month with the Corzine Administration that ensures no layoffs for 18 months and defers a contractual wage increase until January of 2011. 

According to a release issued by the CWA, over 13,000 members participated in the vote, with 8,977 voting in the affirmative and 4,078 voting no. 

Who is minding the Asylum!

In 2006, legislators met all summer trying to find ways to keep the pension funds from insolvency, O'Toole said. Now, in an election year, the governor plans to increase pension benefits without providing any of the resources needed to pay for the benefits. The governor is pushing the pensions closer to insolvency.

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean asked why Governor Corzine has not released cost estimates of the concessions he agreed to before a campaign rally with Vice President Joseph Biden. According to a letter written by state union leaders to all their members, the concessions included putting hundreds of temporary workers into permanent positions at an unspecified cost to taxpayers. Kean called on the governor to live up to his promises of transparency and accountability, and release the Treasurer's best estimates of how many workers will become permanent and how much this policy change will cost taxpayers.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie campaigns in Somerville in the closing days of the Republican Primary.

Repeatedly using the word "timid" to characterize Gov. Jon Corzine, Republican nominee for Gov. Chris Christie in a conference call with reporters charged his general election opponent with caving in to the special interests of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). 

"The deal he's proposed with the CWA shows his inability to manage his priorities with the budget,"Christie said of a deal the governor struck with CWA leadership that would provide state workers with ten unpaid furlough days and a deferred wage increase in exchange for a pledge of no layoffs through 2010.

"The CWA deal will injure middle class taxpayers in New Jersey," said Christie. "The deal is a complete recipe for tax increases. (If elected governor) I'm going to do everything I can to not honor this deal."

SWEENEY STATEMENT ON AGREEMENT ON WAGE FREEZE AND FURLOUGHS

Senate Majority Leaders Applauds Corzine Administration for Saving Taxpayers Money, Negotiating Give-Backs

TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem, issued the following statement today on Governor Corzine’s announced agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) for wage freezes and 10 unpaid furlough days in the fiscal year beginning July 1:

“This agreement is good news for the State of New Jersey at a time when we can use all the good news we can get. Our economy is suffering due to the national recession, our State revenues are lagging behind even the most conservative estimates put forth earlier in the year, and our unemployment figures are through the roof. In a few weeks, I and my colleagues in the State Legislature are going to have to advance a balanced “Doomsday Budget” for FY 2010 that slashes State spending to the bone.

“It’s about time something went right for the taxpayers of our beleaguered State.

Getty Images Photo

According to pubished reports, Gov. Jon Corzine is a possible candidate for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in Barack Obama's administration

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has asked potential administration officials to fill out a 63 question form, according to a report in the New York Times.

Question 13: "If you have ever sent an electronic communication, including but not limited to an email, text message or instant message, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-elect if it were made public, please describe."

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has launched a probe of ousted CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz and federal agents served a subpoena at the CWA national headquarters in Washington yesterday, according to a Star-Ledger report.  Katz is the former girlfriend of Gov. Jon Corzine, who could face Christie in the 2009 gubernatorial election.

As labor is burning, our National union leaders are fiddling. Some of them are simply arsonists. While the labor movement has made tremendous progress in the past, every working American knows that we are facing exceptionally challenging economic times and a union movement that continues to decline. Everyone, that is, except for some national union leaders, who these days seem too focused on creating internal divides and engaging in selfish politics to focus on the fight for their members' rights. 

According to the new Quinnipiac University poll, New Jerseyans don’t think Governor Jon Corzine should be forced to release personal e-mails sent to his former girlfriend, CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz.  More than half of the voters (52%) say they should be kept private, and 39% say they should be released.  Even Republicans have mixed feelings: 46% release, 44% keep private.