SPECIAL EDITION

LET'S GET TO WORK! THE STATE OF LABOR 2 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

WELCOME TO THE INSIDERNJ SPECIAL EDITION IN HONOR OF LABOR DAY

P.O. Box 66 Verona, NJ 07044 [email protected] www.InsiderNJ.com

It’s called struggle for a reason, because You will find labor leaders and elected no one ever thought the fight for a just of ficials considering some of the most Max Pizarro wage would be easy. “We were very wel - pressing issues impacting the workforce, Editor-in-Chief come to the workers,” IWW organizer including unemployment, labor expan - [email protected] Elizabeth Gurley Flynn said, in reference sion, the infrastructure bill before the to the Wobblies’ 1913 forays into Pater - U.S. House that would fund the Gateway son. “But we were set upon by the city Tunnel project, project labor agreements, authorities with vicious fury.” minimum wage, diversity among labor groups, the deadly impact of Hurricane “Vicious fury” doesn’t accurately convey Ida , and, of course, the COVID pan - the ongoing tensions between private demic. sector versus public sector labor in New Jersey. But it may relate those deeper You will also encounter our InsiderNJ Pete Oneglia disaffections and agonies experienced by Labor List recognizing the main players General Manager laborers not protected by unions, forced in the New Jersey Labor Movement, [email protected] to work for an unlicensed temp agency, among them the leader of the guild help - like Edilberto Caicedo, a forklift operator ing Gannett reporters in their quest to who died on the job in Kearny in 2019. unionize, some other new names based Michael Graham CEO on their political impact in 2020, and In the pages ahead you will find an essay those enduring labor leaders you’ve no John F.X. Graham on the political collisions of the Labor doubt seen over the years. Publisher Movement in New Jersey over the course of the past few years, and what they mean “Enduring.” Ryan Graham for this campaign cycle as Governor Phil Associate Publisher Murphy and Senate President Steve That’s a fitting description for labor in Sweeney pursue reelection. New Jersey on Labor Day.

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Whatever the movement’s altered aims, imperfections, impediments, cross purposes, or work undone, the roots here remain, going back to the Paterson silk strikers who marched under a banner that read:

“We Weave the Flag. We live under the Flag. We die under the Flag. But Dam’d if we’ll starve under the Flag.”

Happy Labor Day, New Jersey! from InsiderNJ

Max Pizarro Max Pizarro Editor, InsiderNJ

4 5 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 A POLITICAL HISTORY OF NJ LABOR IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: PART 1

One of the most union friendly states included “No Irish Need Apply,” and Education Association (NJEA) versus in the country, notoriously disjointed worse, the trades find themselves chal - the Building Trades, the latter most New Jersey simultaneously lags dis - lenged now by other populations visibly represented by Senate Presi - mally in Blacks and Latino family net striving for fair wages, searching for dent Steve Sweeney (D-3), vice presi - worth and median household income, respect from the ranks of those others dent of the Ironworkers International according to the Bureau of Labor Sta - at the heart of the labor movement, (see no. 1 on the Labor Power List, tistics. In an era defined by a deep - and resisting the cyclic conditions of below). ened divide between the super-rich poverty. and the working class, workers fight - A lifetime of trades irritability welled ing among themselves benefits the Nowhere do the fractures appear up in him in a state absolutely coddled few not the discomfited starker than in the clash of non-citi - poleaxed by property taxes (an average many, and easily arm-twisted New zen and citizen workers, non-union - of $9,112 annually), Sweeney and Re - Jersey happily obliges. Made up of ized and unionized labor, and public publican Governor mostly white ethnics who forced their and private sector workers, amplified partnered to require state workers to way into jobs in defiance of edicts that with a vengeance by the New Jersey pay between 3% and 35% of their

6 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 healthcare pensions on a scale based ning the tricorn hats of imperial de - they would return fire at some point. on phased-in income. That set the sign provided someone had the Even though he beat them, and it felt public sector – leery of Sweeney in the money to back up their maneuvers. good, the contest depleted independ - senate presidency to begin with – and They tangled with each other as a ent expenditure coffers he counted particularly the NJEA on the matter of course, even if the price tag on, and showed – even if they fell warpath. Their backing the cause of – as it obviously did here - went hay - short - that the teachers didn’t mind a no-name Republican challenger Fran wire. In this case, the political conse - good ornery labor scrap. Better can - Greiner against the reelection of quences of the NJEA forcing the didate next time? They make things Sweeney, more than just a punch in Senate President into the most expen - difficult again, if come short of nuk - the mouth, by extension, to Sweeney’s sive legislative contest in U.S. history ing him. Targeting them didn’t make benefactor, insurance magnate splattered mostly on Governor Phil any sense. Well, he could target them. George Norcross III. The 2017 colli - Murphy, not an innocent bystander, Just not jump up and down on them. sion resulted in $18.7 million (unof - but also not properly a union mem - ficial estimates run higher) expended. ber. The teachers’ union might have They were labor, after all. proved a sufficient target for revenge Sweeney won. in the aftermath of Murphy’s Kind of. statewide – and Sweeney’s 59-41% And that meant there would be hell districtwide - win. Going back to his More on that later. to pay. 2005 pre-Christie proposal to cut 15% from state worker salaries and But “Middle Class on a Good Day” Union leadership never minded don - benefits, Sweeney had to have known Murphy?

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The best the Goldman Sachs multi - Public and private sector didn’t get governor, just like that actor played a millionaire could do in the way of along. dish scrubber? Sweeney would humil - projecting a pro-labor vibe was to iate him the way Murphy had humil - allow his campaign to run an ad fea - Everyone knew that. iated him. turing an actor playing a teenage Murphy on his summer job as a dish - But to have a Wall Street goody- “What the NJEA has done is shit,” washer. Not only did Murphy lack goody suddenly surface, wrestle the NJ Building Trades President Bill union cred, that ad all but mocked governorship away from him on the Mullen bull-horned to a crowd of labor. Moreover, and this part infuri - strength of North Jersey support union craftsmen ready to march for ated Sweeney – Murphy, as the Dem - heavily undergirded by the public sec - Sweeney on Election Day. ocratic nominee for governor, chose tor, and then essentially give his tacit not to intervene with the leadership approval to one arm of labor going “Elections have consequences,” he of the teachers to persuade them to ape on another, enraged Sweeney. added with an edge. abort their massively funded, Repub - It went deeper than Murphy, of lican-assisted (ah, the irony; after course, although Murphy, aloof from The last time someone had said that all the teachers’ protestations of the murk of New Jersey politics with in relation to LD3 was four years ear - Sweeney’s alliance with Christie) ef - his out-of-town Ivy League creden - lier, when Christie declared, “Elec - fort to take down the sitting senate tials – would prove a suitably vulner - tions have consequences,” in response president. able incoming foil. He wanted to play to Tom Kean, Jr. running someone

8 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 against Sweeney without the financial backing of the NJEA. Sweeney didn’t need Kean anymore to prop up as his own personal Thurston Howell polit - ical punching bag. Without Christie around, the Republicans radiated in - sufficient relevance. If the teachers’ union thought their relationship with a Democratic governor would give them the clout they lacked during the Christie years, Sweeney and Mullen – never the most eloquent book-learned players – would promptly and sav - agely educate. Beating the NJEA in the ultimate labor versus labor gladi - atorial contest gave them the right.

They would start by binding and gag - ging Murphy on the train tracks of Trenton. He wanted a millionaire’s tax?

Easily reupped as senate president, Sweeney – in blue Braveheart face paint – derailed it. Murphy wanted free college? Almost overnight, the brotherhood Trying to be a good guy, Murphy gave politically beheaded Ballantyne. He a job to Ballantyne’s also suddenly Sweeney killed that, too. showed up at the union offices of the jobless political director at the Car - Northeast Regional Council of Car - penters, Lizette Delgado Polanco. Someone from Building Trades had penters, and there were none. the notion of trying to make nice with Surely, she’d be safe in the administra - the governor. They had restructured the union tion of one of the most on-paper around him; dissolved it out from powerful governors in the country. “Can’t… we… all… get… along?” under him. John Ballantyne of the Carpenters She wasn’t. seemed to say when he resisted It sent a chilling message to the lead - Mullen’s rejection of Murphy’s pick to ers of the 15 New Jersey Trades who And so it went: a season of Sweeney run the New Jersey Economic Devel - represented 150,000 workers: if you stampeding the halls of the Statehouse opment Authority. Then Ballantyne team up with Murphy without the whenever Murphy tried to exert his accepted a position on the Sports Au - rest of us or in defiance of the Build - influence. Forced into temporary of - thority, courtesy of the governor. ing Trades prez, you’ll find yourself fices down the street after Christie or - out of a job, out of a political orbit, dered a Building Trades-affirmed That went too far. and expunged from the union family. renovation of the Gold Dome – an -

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other dagger thrust - in his wake, the Christie served as U.S. Attorney and The most cynical interpreters of New new governor couldn’t even occupy selectively prosecuted for his own po - Jersey politics attributed Christie’s af - the premises. litical benefit, toppling leaders in fection for the south to his having Middlesex, Bergen, Essex and Hud - something on them. Why throw If it seemed overly vindictive and son, leaving South Jersey Democratic someone in jail for a headline today heavy handed – Murphy worked on Party boss George Norcross alone, when they can work for you in perpe - Wall Street, so what? – it belied – their alliance with Christie gave them tuity? again – the deeper discord at the core leverage to extract northern allies. of New Jersey politics. They had an in with Kaiser Sose. Of - But why the south, a relatively un - ficially, from 2010 through – as it populated – and relatively weak Dem - Labor versus labor – of course, but would turn out – at least 2021, they ocratic Party region of the state? In with a decided regional context. remained the one upper-hand con - 2009, Republican Christie defeated stant in the dealmaking that forged the Democratic incumbent in Long neglected, South Jersey in the legislative leadership, with Essex, Sweeney’s home country of Glouces - new millennium had at last gained a Hudson and Middlesex taking turns ter by 4%. Just last year, Republican sustaining statewide power when they in the speakership while Sweeney of turncoat would beat vaulted Sweeney to the senate presi - South Jersey remained on the senate Democrat Amy Kennedy in Glouces - dency. Presumably forged when throne. ter by about 3,000 votes.

10 Newark, NJ Jersey City, NJ Camden, NJ New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Basking Ridge, NJ Lambertville, NJ 973.533.0777 201.469.0100 856.968.0680 212.566.7188 215.564.0444 973.387.7800 609.773.6150

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11 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Why not snow some shlemiel up soothed over time – and years of or - Those who attempted a relationship north? ganization – by very powerful mon - with South Jersey (or who inhabited eyed interests. a fiefdom where the boss did) – then- Christie would grab some bodies up Assemblyman Ruben Ramos (a there, too, of course. A lawmaker or political leader might teacher who opposed Sweeney’s and sympathize with the teachers. He or Christie’s public pensions and benefits But it started with the South. she might be married to one. Cer - overhaul), then-Speaker tainly – and this was huge, they had (who opposed charter schools, be - No one else had the deep impact, the temerity, after all, to go after cause of their potential harm to public conservative-leaning, full service po - Sweeney , the threat of the NJEA’s con - schools), and then-Assemblyman litical operation of the south. siderable financial coffers created a Jason O’Donnell (who vociferously certain conformity among Democrats bucked pensions and benefits) all No one had organized Labor quite fearful of offending the organization. found themselves separated from like they did. But they did not all come from the their titles, the perches they had oc - root of the same oak of labor. They cupied reinstalled with supposedly It really boiled down to labor. did not all adhere to the same prag - more pliant players. matic transactionalism that grounded Other regions of the state had their the politics of an organization like the The message? own ties to the movement, some of Building Trades. them substantial; a movement of Confronted by a law enforcement- forms as various as AFSCME and They could be bullied. manipulating governor who had in - CWA, the bricklayers and steelwork - flamed property taxpayers and had ers, the cops and clerks and teachers. Those who refused to be bullied Building Trades labor on his side, In Union, for example, state Senator could be removed. everyone could fold eventually, or be Joe Cryan maintained close ties to an folded, especially when northern army of public sector workers, includ - Democratic leadership (in many cases ing cops. In Essex, Assemblyman Tom lobbyists who curried favor with Sen - Giblin developed a boss’ reach within ate President Sweeney) had the ten - the electrical workers local and be - dency to promote public dime yond. workers to the legislature. Easier to control them that way, use their Labor influence ran deep. would-be public sector power against But outside the south overall they them, when power – intimidating lacked, critically, the summit of the South Jersey, Christie-welded power - pyramid of Building Trades power - as came knocking. the elimination of Ballantyne proved. They lacked uniform dedication, and In the South, and this was critical, the maybe – this was sensitive – they labor leaders were also the political lacked the built-in survival skill of leaders in the engine room of the ma - those who thought at any moment chine. The men who built the South and maybe for moments that Jersey Democratic Party came from stretched into months – that they the labor movement, specifically the might lack work and a wage; anxiety Building Trades.

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They grew up in Pennsauken, the brick. He flossed. He didn’t weld. The ful man would not become wistful, as core guys. core group was labor. might a screen actor remembering his lean years of stocking grocery shelves. Sweeney and shared He could work for them as a Repub - Finally, the worlds for Sweeney the or - a personal and professional history lican. They never worked for him. ganizing ironworker and Sweeney the that went back to the work sites of organizing lawmaker occupied the South Jersey. The former punched the They called the shots. same seamless space. iron, and the latter did the electrical work, and they organized their respec - They promoted the men from key But labor itself – labor was still di - tive union halls. These were union labor roles into critical political posi - vided. men to the core; not just people tions. They sawed the boards. They whose parents came up in labor, but banged the nails. They knew how to And Sweeney didn’t mind reminding men who actually knew the trades build a structure from the foundation people of that fact. and worked the jobs. up. That is the shared skill offered to a state otherwise entangled in multi - If teachers would make their case to And yes, their parents came from ple private interests and competing unaffiliated taxpayers, as Jon Corzine labor, too. public agendas, often with no direc - did when he said people who didn’t tion and no leadership. like the services here could move to Sweeney’s late father served as a local the Dakotas, as Murphy, in NJEA- Ironworkers president. The Norcross Someone else – a Goldman Sachs ex - speak, eventually would when he said brothers hailed from an AFL-CIO ecutive – might suddenly appear and if tax rate is your issue, “We’re proba - household where their father privately declare himself a friend of labor. bly not your state,” that teachers con - complained about public sector work - tributed to the state’s unique quality ers. They enjoyed Cadillac benefits, Why? of life, Sweeney – like Christie - and their leaders didn’t have to nego - would make his own case in a state tiate from job to job, he railed. They Because he worked one summer as a with $44.37 billion in bonded debt, had it made, not like the trades. The pearl diver and wanted to be gover - that the teachers and their ilk drained trades guys only had one another. nor? too much money from the residents, the schism be damned. As they expanded, they would partner Steve Sweeney was labor. with others who occupied their own The senate president would widen it, power bases and enlist allies to their In 2011, during a break from redis - if he had to, dammit. ranks. Those who became loyal tricting in the Heldrich Hotel, princes of the realm and eventually Sweeney looked out a window and “Look, if we don’t make changes, became political encumbrances, like saw a scaffold on another building in we’re going to have a $4 billion deficit Congressman Rob Andrews, never – the dizzying grey height of a New by 2023,” he said, repeatedly. “All of or seldom – came from the inner Brunswick rain. He mused about how our revenue growth goes to [public] sanctum. Andrews was an attorney he had gone from that to this, from pension and healthcare. We can’t pro - who got jammed up finally and run the hand tools of the ironworker trade vide more funding [for other pro - out of town. Congressman Jeff Van to the maps and Mephistophelian grams]. Drew? He’s a dentist. They didn’t re - motives and intrigues of the political ally give a damn when he changed game. He might have allowed himself “Nothing in this life is free,” Sweeney parties. Or rather, it didn’t altogether a moment to reimagine the working added. “In 2001, there was a nine per - surprise them. Van Drew never laid man world of his youth, but the will - cent increase in their [public sector]

13 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 pension retroactively, with no money. about Sweeney, but about themselves. The ironworker shouldered a spud We created a system that was not sus - How far would they go? wrench and ratchet. tainable. Everyone can point fingers at each other, but the problem’s not Up at 3 a.m., again, younger than He hadn’t gotten COVID yet – as far going away. How do we fix the pen - Sweeney but not by much, with no as he knew – but his daughter had it. sion system without hurting anyone?” political future ahead of him, another He reflexively strapped on his mask ironworker bused over the river into next to his fellow workers as they rose The jeers from the ranks of the public 30 stories above the East River and Manhattan among his fellow travel - sector rained, and he felt the reverber - stepped gingerly out on a scaffold. ers. Three months out of a job during ations, most notably when the NJEA took that run at him, and again , as he the pandemic, h e r eveled in work. The ironworker grinned. What else ran roughshod over the Democratic When he reached the site, the fore - could he do? governor. man ranted about public sector em - p loyees g aming the system . Then he “My boss thinks I’m falling prey to He heard them. mentioned that he had just heard the the Nazis,” he thought. Biden administration had ordered a They said he was a reactionary. mask mandate for federal workers. Damn, he shrugged, “At least I have a job.” All – or most – the Building Trades “That’s Nazism,” the foreman guys heard the same buzz, not just sneered. EAS CARPENTERS BEST TRAINED MOST SKILLED LEADERS IN YOUR COMMUNITY

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14

SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 PART 2

If Murphy didn’t feel humiliated by Disgraceful. senate president’s reelection. But Sweeney it was only because he while the white companies and white charged underlings to sweat the de - Embarrassed and bloodied, the front building trades made money, the tails – and take the hits. But early in office fought back by having Murphy mostly black and Hispanic residents his first term the supposedly fancy- condemn the eight-year Christie-Nor - of Camden lacked access to the good dress balls where he and the first lady cross-Sweeney relationship epito - jobs. Outside the tourism district, lit - presided began to look more like mized by a positively hypocritical tle – or nothing - in the under-siege MASH units for political casualties $11.5 billion tax incentive package city changed. than the New Jersey version of benefiting Norcross’ corporate net - Camelot. work, the same network that relied on Heading into 2021 redistricting, New the trades to rebuild the Camden wa - Jersey (pop. 9,288,994) is one of just We’re supposed to be Democrats here, terfront. Grateful for the work, the eight states (including the District of the mostly neophyte Murphy world unions in return funded Norcross-in - Columbia) nationwide with a diver - operatives moaned. Christie limped terest political action committees, sity index above 65%. In New Jersey, out of office with a 16% approval rat - which funded the political empire, non-Hispanic whites clock in at ing, and they were letting the lackeys which Sweeney fervently leaned on, 51.9% of the population – down who propped him up push them especially in 2017. The union halls from 59.3% in 2010. The state had around? kicked in manpower to ensure the become very nearly a “majority mi -

15 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 nority” state and coming into office, New Jersey. Even before the pan - 35,000 workers employed by the Ex - Murphy – another redundant Irish demic, the acceleration of weakening ecutive Branch under the Administra - guy on the Statehouse slag heap – had headlines began to move the governor tive/Clerical, Professional, and wisely packed his cabinet with diver - – new to the game – toward making Supervisory bargaining units, encom - sity. political peace with South Jersey. passed two Across the Board (ATB) He just didn’t need the headache of increases: a two percent increase effec - As the governor too made his case guys with samurai swords chasing tive the first full pay period after Au - that the supposedly fiscally responsi - him around West State Street all the gust 15, 2017 for employees on ble South Jersey machine had actually time. payroll; and a second two percent in - gorged their corporate network on crease effective the first full pay period hundreds of millions in tax breaks, Simultaneously, sticking by his play to after July 1, 2018. The contract also suddenly, after months of bullying, reward public sector labor, Murphy included a full withdrawal of costly Sweeney and Norcross, already hammered out new contracts with the pending litigation filed during the slumped in an unhip realm of Eisen - CWA – which represents half of all Christie Administration – and backed hower era atmospherics, found them - state workers – generous enough to by Sweeney. A subsequent four-year selves on the defensive. ultimately prompt the union’s leader deal Murphy struck with the CWA – Hetty Rosenstein – to take a job in stemmed healthcare costs. The senate president and his allies vi - Murphy’s reelection campaign upon ciously counterattacked in a variety of her retirement. The contract targeting Sweeney broiled. ways, tracking and forcing Delgado Polanco out of her job at the Schools Development Authority; and ulti - mately rolling out a panel dedicated to uncovering allegations of sexual impropriety – and worse – in the 2017 Murphy Campaign. Colliding task forces – one convened by Mur - phy to examine the tax incentive pro - gram, the other focusing on Murphy crony misogyny, vied relentlessly for the public eye, with considerable heartbreak along the way, until both – against their will, found not wis - dom, to mangle Bobby Kennedy, fi - nally dissolved in a horrific conflagration of COVID that none of those frantically sniping at one an - other had seen coming. Regardless of their performance in the aftermath of the virus, the two sides spent the lead- up to the pandemic in an insider oc - tagon that had nothing to do with the rest of the poor shmucks living in

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His so-called Path to Progress tour – Everyone seemed to be getting along Building Trades against each other – a public worker belt tightening alter - great. the Laborers, who already did a lot of native to Murphy’s millionaire’s tax – the work included in the expansion, derailed by COVID, the senate pres - “Nice mask,” Murphy even managed and the Operating Engineers, who ident took a crack at repairing his sul - to clumsily crack at a positively stone- would have a crack at a lot of that furic relationship with the public faced Sweeney. work. sector. If he would never be the CWA’s favorite politicians – the Mur - If they still hated each-other – and The bill also empowered Building phy backers chased him around the gave every indication that they would Trades – to the detriment, its critics state like extras in a community the - resume artillery fire after Nov. 2nd, as argued, of minority workers. Accord - ater staging of Les Miserables – Murphy planned to more vigorously ing to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta - Sweeney did sit down with his old ri - undertake a presidential run and tistics (2019), only 17.8 % of New vals, the NJEA, and manage to secure Sweeney continued to focus on gov - Jersey’s private construction work - their coveted goal of Chapter 78 re - ernor, they had found a way to mo - force is represented by a union. lief. The senate president-championed mentarily submerge their feelings measure provided the 200,000 mem - under the pragmatic transactional de - “This ill-conceived PLA legislation di - ber-strong NJEA with relief from mands of the 2021 reelection cycle. rects public project funding to politi - high healthcare costs imposed during cally-connected union firms at the the Christie era – while lowering costs Still, the Building Trades didn’t feel expense of the more than 80% of for local educational employers and they had enough from the governor. New Jersey construction workers who the state. Yes, he had declared them essential have chosen not to join a union,” said workers during the pandemic, and John Harmon, head of the New Jersey In return, and in the ultimate symbio - that helped. They wanted more. African American Chamber of Com - sis of labor financial influence, the Sweeney too would have to show his merce. “Furthermore, 98% of minor - powerful – and obviously wealthy – brothers some love after helping their ity-owned construction-related union cozied up to Norcross’ inde - old enemies the teachers’ union. businesses are nonunion and will re - pendent expenditure empire. The alize no benefits from this law. In fact, pandemic made it easy for Sweeney – What about us? many have told me that it could dou - long obstinately opposed – to sheep - ble their costs by forcing them to con - ishly back Murphy’s millionaire’s tax; The always Building Trades-benevo - tribute to pension funds, health care and the governor, for his part, threw lent senate president moved on a projects and union dues of which in with the Camden County Demo - long-Building Trades coveted Public their workers are not beneficiaries. cratic machine’s choice for Camden Labor Agreement (PLA) expansion. City Mayor. The governor even got In New Jersey, public works projects “Moreover, this decision is devastating behind a new Economic Develop - with a value of $5 million and up, because there was ample room for ment Authority corporate tax incen - which include construction, recon - compromise and it demonstrates an tive plan. The amount? $11.5 billion. struction, demolition, or renovation unwillingness to take a small step that of buildings, may be subject to PLAs. could have had a transformational im - The NJEA partnering with Sweeney Sweeney’s legislation augmented them pact on Black-, Hispanic-, women-, spun heads, sure, while Norcross allies to include highway, bridge, pumping veteran-owned and small businesses replenishing the kingpin’s independ - station, water, and sewage treatment in our state. It appears that the fact ent expenditure coffers with public plant work. that Blacks receive only 1% of public sector flow offered an even more de - contracts is inconsequential to the ad - lectable irony. The bill – for a change – pitted two ministration; notwithstanding the

17 18 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

94% percent of their vote to elect this giving Sweeney a heads-up. The sen - of labor engines – was running a flail - administration. The irony is, the more ate prez had wanted to milk specula - ing and increasingly irrelevant cam - things change, the more they remain tion about his own 2013 run against paign. Why throw Jack a life raft by the same in New Jersey. This would Christie, not knowing, as Pocino did, giving him a shot at scoring one or have been the perfect time for this ad - that no one ever believed he would some of the supposedly allied crafts ministration to demonstrate their challenge the former U.S. Attorney. and, as a Democratic Party incum - support for the national call for eq - bent, leading a divided building uity.” Still, the Laborers represented but one trades into November’s reelection? of 15 unionized crafts. Yanked at by the Laborers and Blacks, Remember, Christie consolidated Murphy conditionally vetoed Did Murphy really want the other 14 power by stripping the Trades away Sweeney’s bill. ganging up on him, no doubt led by from public sector labor and attaching the Operating Engineers, who obvi - them to his other little hillside of fa - The Laborers rejoiced. ously celebrated the public roadwork vorite lambkins seeking a champion: provisions in the bill? the New Jersey taxpayers. Pocino himself and Sweeney had arm- wrestled at least going back to when Plus, Jack Ciattarellli – trying to po - Why let Ciattarelli – no Christie, let’s the Laborers chief backed Christie’s sition himself as the earnest taxpayer face it – siphon the trades? reelection bid, apparently without champ amid all the constant revving

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19 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Murphy simply couldn’t afford to em - It was weak, hogwash even, but good It was an election year, after all. power the statewide Republican nom - enough to shut up the critics and to inee. Yes, Trump and Christie had have something vague enough to No one needed the cops going off destroyed the Republican Party in scrawl on a mail piece that could be half-cocked in one of those battle - New Jersey, but COVID created too worded to seem credible. ground suburban districts – like any wildcards ahead of the election. Sweeney’s, for example. Just look at Andrew Cuomo. It would never happen. And yet, and yet… Teachers? Sure, once. Murphy didn’t want to alienate urban Blacks long ostracized by the trades, Cops, never, not with Sweeney and which – again – infamously dragged Coughlin and Murphy in power. their work boots in the area of recruit - ing more diverse members. If he They wouldn’t let it get that far. signed off on that PLA bill without at least some inclusive language for mi - Ciattarelli? norities he could contribute to de - If Sweeney would never be a natural pressed urban numbers in a general He was screaming about high taxes, election. ally of public sector labor, Murphy carried a double affliction through the and he was right, but he had no run - way of law enforcement to scare De - Progressives, public sector workers Building Trades halls. Not only had mocrats to his side in a state where and Newark voters – not the Building he arrived in politics affixed to the Dems outnumber Republicans by a Trades – numbered among his natural NJEA, but he was a lib. They just did - million registered voters, and if he was allies. n’t like him. But Murphy had given them PLAs, just as Sweeney scored never in the market to get public sec - Murphy couldn’t afford creating ene - NJEA relief for the Teachers. Once tor workers, obviously, he also lacked mies in his base. merely a misfit tool of public sector Building Trades labor, as he attempted labor, Murphy too, with the stroke of to inflate his street cred with Trump his pen, had attained the Tao of New He had staff monkey around with the supporters. Jersey labor relations. He had also language with Speaker Craig Cough - helped the nonunion labor force by lin and Sweeney. They brought back It felt small; like he was deflating in - increasing (but not too much!) the stead of expanding. a bill that included provisions for ap - minimum wage (long backed by the prenticeship programs for women and AFL-CIO), and legalizing driver’s li - By the time the Republican Party “disadvantaged communities”, requir - censes for non-citizens. He rode a $10 ing “the public body to monitor, or billion surplus to parceled middle dredged a nonunion (and of course arrange to have a State agency moni - class tax breaks, and legalized mari - non-funded) truck driver to run tor, the amount and share of work juana in semi-controversial fashion, against Sweeney in the 2021 general done on the project by minority but the legislature stopped short of election, one could picture the senate group members, members of disad - further alienating law enforcement by president and NJEA Prez Marie Blis - vantaged communities, and women refusing to advance enabling legisla - tan behind closed doors at the State - and the progression of minority group tion for civilian oversight of local po - house high-fiving in uncontrollable members.” lice departments. hysterics.

20 21 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 PART 3

In the early 20th Century, the term “I don’t know what it’s like in New Jersey,” he said, “but here, these guys are “New Jersey feelings” became synony - just not relevant.” mous nationally with labor unrest. If a workplace began to teem with dis - By way of comparison: content and hover at the edge of a strike, management fretted about New Jersey (8) “New Jersey feelings.” • Percent of workers in unions: 14.9 percent • Change in union membership (2008-2018): -3.4 ppt. (8th largest decrease) It’s interesting. I had occasion to work • Union workers: 587,219 (8th most) in Georgia once, and when I would • Avg. annual wage: $63,563 (5th highest) set about organizing stories I’d go to labor leaders for comments, until my Georgia (45) editor turned around in his chair fi - nally and snapped, “Why are you • Percent of workers in unions: 4.5 percent talking to these guys?” • Change in union membership (2008-2018): +0.8 ppt. (3rd largest increase) • Union workers: 200,070 (20th most) “Huh?” • Avg. annual wage: $53,035 (17th highest)

22 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Suffice to say, no one down there held even if they lacked population or plu - in order to maintain their loyalty, if a Peter J. McGuire Labor Breakfast on rality. A partnership of Middlesex and not undying passion for a cause. a scale annually observed in Essex offered the possibility of sup - Pennsauken, or wielded inner sanc - planting them, but the South showed Now sin is the very stuff of politics, tum power that programmed gover - no signs of going away. Plus, they and the Murphy era exposed some of nors and embodied a senate president. spread around some core believers. the worst of them in the south. If organized labor diffused itself un - Their trades allies in Mercer (Wayne equally through the grubby recesses of DeAngelo) and Middlesex (Joe Egan) Blacks would be expected to shoulder New Jersey, the South – with auda - lived for the labor movement. Those the party, even if they got little of real cious leadership and the senate presi - that didn’t – lawyers, for example, al - substance in return. dency – consolidated the trades in a ways hanging around the party – well, way that made them power players they could get some public legal work

23 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

But for the Pocino-led Laborers, the and that fact hung out there like a cast by the labor boss. Those critics on-average $25-plus-an-hour trades giant beer belly for the whole state to perhaps failed to understand the (compared to an average of $20-per- see. The era of independent expendi - fundraising capacities essential to the hour in the public sector) lacked tures and the gulf between the 2% operation. Still, the tax incentive scan - African-American representation (less and everyone else had strengthened dal at its worst revealed the disconnect than 5% of the trades’ 150K mem - Norcross not weakened him. That between waterfront development and bers, according to the state Depart - bothered those labor backers of the rest of a despairing $27K median ment of Labor) and lacked women Sweeney who wished they could or - household income city, a food desert members (2%, via the state DOL), ganize without the ominous shadow that lacks a full-service supermarket.

“Our current local leadership has neg - pulling out after this year and the res - an injustice that we do not have a full- lected this,” said upstart mayoral can - idents still do not know about this in - service supermarket.” didate Elton Custis, who stood in the justice that is about to be put on us. parking lot outside PriceRite less than My administration will be working Custis lost to the Democratic Party two months removed from the June hard to make sure that we have a full- machine-backed candidate, con - 8th Democratic Primary. service supermarket that will serve all trolled by the same organization that of the residents’ needs Today, Camden empowered Sweeney and kowtowed “They know this has been coming is most certainly a food desert. I am to Norcross. down the pipeline,” added the local told this PriceRite will be closing at School Board member who beat the the end of the year. We have to come He also rightly predicted Camden’s machine last year in his off-the-line to the table and get people involved. loss of the supermarket. bid. “I believe this gentleman has People have to take buses to called them and told them that he is Collingswood and Cherry Hill. It is Sweeney bemoaned “market forces.”

24 To Our Friends In Labor Fighting On The Front Lines During This Pandemic Crisis: THANK YOU!

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25 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

When he appeared at the microphone Democratic Organization) for the But as the casualties of political time in front of the Governor’s Task Force people of Camden gaped in the center mounted and the stagnant reek of the examining the administration of NJ of the South Jersey organization. swamps enclosed those who re - Economic Development Authority mained, by contrast, Sweeney and (NJEDA) tax incentives in his home Just as bad, for all of its amassed Norcross looked like Sumo wrestlers city, Camden Council President Cur - power and propensity to punish peo - strutting around the statehouse and tis Jenkins said, “If we don’t prepare ple, the machine suffered the absence its shadows, merely eager to throw our folks to take advantage of these of thought leaders. By 2021, so many skinny armed foes out of their circle opportunities, it’s going to be all for had left or retired, died, or found po - and – between election cycles - con - nothing.” litical lives anew elsewhere. John tenting themselves with the occupa - Adler. Andrews. Bill Castner. John tion of settling scores. Sheridan. Even Wayne Bryant – at his best – offered insightful public policy, For after all, what else was politics? not just full contact karate. Certainly, the organization lost the deeper power They had become arrogant. At the of big ideas when Joe Roberts retired. same time their campaigns reflected decay, or at least a lazy tendency to When the Camden-based speaker appeal to the lowest common denom - championed clean elections in 2007 inator, as when a Camden Dems ma - and the likes of DeAngelo and his fel - chine-assisting indie mailer in LD1 low combatants in LD14 participated carried more than just a tinge of in no fewer than 10 public debates racism. It felt like the smarmiest of with campaign contributions limited operatives crafting a piece to appeal to There must, he insisted, be some kind to $10 per person, the legislative cycle his vision of a fat white guy watching of mechanism in the tax incentive came alive with something more than Fox News with a white hood over his program to prepare residents for jobs bodies lugging signs and campaign head deep in the woods of the Pine in the city. ads cooked up by the devil and mas - Barrens. It felt stupid and hateful. sively amped in million-dollar televi - “The people of Camden are my main sion ads. In the packed, sprawling “They never evolved,” a Democratic concern,” added the grandfather of a theater of Steinhart High School in source told InsiderNJ, referring to murdered grandson. Hamilton, the contest had a certain South Jersey. civic intellectual – yes, it was the right “Anyone receiving these tax incentives word, even in New Jersey – electricity. The Norcross relationship with the needs some kind of mechanism to companies he tax incentivized to train people for these jobs,” said Jenk - In another pendulum swing indica - Camden prompted skepticism among ins, who retired from the Laborers’ In - tion of the coming political chill, rank and file guys who felt the old ternational Union where, over the which augmented the corporate fi - Pennsauken fox had become too cor - course of a 30-plus-year career, he nancial arm of the outfit, the Citizens porate himself in his cocoon of heli - spent just a handful of months on United Supreme Court ruling killed copter pads, Mar-a-Lago membership projects in his home city. clean elections. (later canceled) and country club back rubs. The absence of jobs (not just jobs Roberts had been a worthy statesman connected to the Camden County successor to Joe Doria.

26 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Each in the presence of the other, the But he wasn’t labor. portunity, and its lack of the “big non-election year resentments in par - ideas” Joe Roberts once exhorted his ticular crawled into the skin of both Others saw it differently. fellow assembly people to engage, in - sides of labor: public and private. In cluding – funny now in retrospect – the minds of the trades, they looked The years of Christie chumminess clean elections, of all things. in the mirror and radiated macho and wink-winking with Trump and know-how on par with Sylvester Stal - blurred lines between corporate The unimaginative corporate build - lone’s Expendables ; while the public power and labor had caught up with ings equipped with security details sector members, many of them Sweeney and Norcross at last. They and protective gates and helicopter women, increasingly derided them as looked less like the robust labor lads pads rose with union labor. But they MAGA hat-wearing dinosaurs and a from Pennsauken than mummified did not transform the neighborhoods drag on civilization. The NJEA did its passengers of a tug run aground and of real people. Neither did they in - own dance with Sweeney, but so did maybe ready for a come-clean Repub - spire; nor uplift a state submerged in the CWA. “As long as he still wants to lican Party makeover. The Demo - the same architectural squall of glass be governor, we’ve got him right cratic Party in New Jersey had moved and steel and highway sprawl from where we want him,” a communica - on, diversified earlier and oftener one generation to the next, or succeed tions workers-allied source confessed while the South remained mired in in bringing communities closer, if to InsiderNJ, noting how the senate the grim enthusiasms of the same safely physically distanced. Just as the president’s presumably ongoing white male uneducated voter who country would pour trillions into statewide ambition kept him vainly backed Trump. Afghanistan while its own cities slid searching for Democratic Party Pri - into violence and decay, Camden mary acceptance. Still, though, the north usually found leading the way, the state prioritized a way to fumble its advantages, as gated corporate construction while its Others scorned those gyrations for the when its top elected official got briefly biggest city, Newark, offered drinking sake of belonging to the Democratic jammed up and – even in his inno - water out of antique lead pipes to Party. Confronted with the persistent cence – had to depend on the south children. howls of MAGA machismo in his and its tentacles to remain politically midst, Van Drew – a longtime reluc - viable, at least for that first fragile elec - In Sept. 1983 in Atlantic City a tant Democrat – finally folded, em - tion cycle. Moreover, and even more young visiting U.S. Senator – barrassing Sweeney, who looked even to the point, in the local sinister rush chummy with Building Trades - said more flummoxed when LeRoy Jones for ratables everywhere in tax-crushed the Democratic Party “had failed to stepped over South Jersey to cut a deal New Jersey, the contact list of luxury remember what got us this far and with North and Central Jersey (Mid - commercial and residential develop - how we got here – moral indignation, dlesex having quietly branched off – ment complete with PLA furnished decent instincts, a sense of shared sac - but not totally – from South Jersey) Building Trades labor, made every rifice and mutual responsibility, and a for the state party chairmanship. Fol - denizen of every town and city hall in set of national priorities that empha - lowing angry phone calls and chest the state a potential partner – and a sized what we had in common. … thumping all around, Sweeney neg - potential southern subject. The party that was the engine of the lected to personally attend Jones’ national interest – molding our plu - swearing-in ceremony. The trades had a functioning model ralistic interest into a compelling new in a dysfunctional state. The Murphy social contract that served the nation Jones might have been the new chair years revealed its incompleteness, its well for 50 years – became perceived of the party. excruciating gaps in equality and op - as little more than the broker of nar -

27 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 row special interests. Instead of think - vast divide? capacity to collect and extract, lost the ing of ourselves as Americans first, core manly knowledge of how to Democrats second, and members of North of 195, the retirement of Lew build the foundation of a house? interest groups third, we have begun Candura in Morris, the countywide to think in terms of special interests election losses of Tom Giblin, and the An alternative? first and the great interest second. … fragmented nature of public sector We have let our opponents set the labor, combined with the fact that How about a forum for ideas? No, too agenda and define what is at stake.” “labor sympathizers” and hired guns, dangerous. Too politically incorrect. not rooted labor leaders and labor The organization – whatever form it It was Joe Biden. movement members, occupy county took - had to protect – not put at risk party chairmanships. “We have to be through complex or rigorous expres - If the times exposed the south’s slug - careful,” a party leader told InsiderNJ. sion – incumbents dutiful to the party gish mores and its built-in prejudices “Where are we going?” empire. and antagonisms to the larger goals of labor, miniaturized versions emerged Even at a cost, maybe a tremendous Socially liberal? with little hint of muscular manpower cost, South Jersey prioritized the aspi - on the order of the South. rational alpha males of the working Sure, sky’s the limit. class and their families. What was the alternative to the power As long as they arrived ready to vote structure as currently conceived? An incomplete mission? and didn’t have to consider, with any kind of depth, real world-impact eco - Sworn in last week as the new presi - Obviously. nomics. dent of the New Jersey Education As - sociation to succeed Blistan, Sean Yet, Spiller notwithstanding, sources Spiller threatened a Sweeney-like worried about a party – and a two- story-line out of the north. A science party establishment, for that matter - teacher (check, his own professional in the months and years ahead lacking affiliation and dedication to the labor an institutional basis, curiosity, disci - cause he served), he had also gotten pline, guts, and organizational ambi - himself elected mayor of Montclair tions for something more than their and appeared dangerously ascendent narrow special interests (including a to those always wary private sector smattering of public sector support), labor forces long appeased by the lack and chiefly the dedicated protection of a Sweeney-like “star” to resist them of 2 percent wealth (forget the average from the ranks of the teachers. taxpayer interests, they lacked a legit - imate crusader, at least for the mo - Could Spiller penetrate as Sweeney ment). Norcross had his circle of had, with an organization of statewide friends, yes, and they included not power modeled on the public sector just the corporate high-rise occupants union credentials threatened in the but the men who built those high Christie-Sweeney years? rises, if on the backs of too many al - ready squalid towns. If South Jersey Was it more than merely the glut of ever fell, and it would, as everything power on the other side of the still does, would the sole lesson be their

28 29 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

JASON O’DONNELL former Assemblyman from Bayonne

During the pension benefits fight, But along the way, the tough kid as - “Look,” O’Donnell added, “I run former Assemblyman Jason O’Don - semblyman from Bayonne offered into burning buildings for a living nell – a career firefighter – put his po - some of the best oratory to make his and yet the day I felt most vulnerable litical career on the line for teachers. case on behalf of his fellow public sec - to that point was when I handed my The principles and tenacity he tor workers. daughter Caroline over to a teacher showed in opposition to the Christie- on her first day of school and trusted Sweeney overhaul came back to haunt “If you want to pick on cops and fire - her to take care of her. Yet we have a him when the Democratic nominee fighters, okay, I get it,” O’Donnell governor who says, ‘You’re wrong. for governor chose him to lead the told a basement crowd at Raritan Val - You’re overpaid. You don’t work hard. Democratic State Committee. ley Community College where the You don’t deserve it.’ I don’t accept it.” teachers didn’t have a contract in South Jersey – and probably 2011. “But you want to go after Christie – disapproved. teachers? Are you kidding me? What disturbs me is the administration here But O’Donnell was pro-labor. is unwilling to negotiate. They’re tak - ing a tack they learned in Trenton. I Yes, as far as South Jersey was con - feel compelled to stand with you. cerned, the wrong side of labor. There’s anger being projected on They expunged him. teachers, firefighters and police.

30 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

GREG LALEVEE Business Manager, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 825

On working through the pandemic: was in other trades. Our members we’ve seen it slowly and steadily walk from the car to a machine and bounce back within 5%.” “Initially the COVID shutdown was walk back to the car and go home. a shock wave, mostly because not One advantage we had inherently is On infrastructure: much was known about it, but the we are accustomed to working among governor declaring us part of the es - hazardous materials. New Jersey being “We’ve seen first the American Rescue sential workforce, kept the jobs going. what it is, it’s part of the ethos of what Plan, which the White House shored Yes, as everyone, we lived with the we teach: respiratory safety. It’s noth - up, encouraged many local govern - specter of the unknown. What is this ing new to us. ments not to abandon infrastructure disease, this illness? There was a lot of budgets. When they passed the Amer - trepidation. People were scared at the “Private work slowed down. There ican Rescue Plan, the White House beginning. But for heavy equipment were a lot of questions going forward did an outreach plan. The message operators, we're more or less socially about office buildings, for example. was, ‘don’t hold back on local proj - distanced anyway. Did we have mem - What are they going to be [post- ects,’ with a goal of keeping the econ - bers die in last the 17 months? Of COVID, given social distancing pro - omy moving. Paving projects, for course, we did. One early on and one tocols]. A lot of private money came example. The second infrastructure in the surge, both men in their fifties. off the table initially, and a lot came plan already through the senate, we But overall, it wasn’t as rampant as it back. We saw a ten to 15% drop but need the House to pass it now. It’s its

31 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 own kettle of fish. If passed, will take things the unions can applaud, which will need to be thoughtfully replen - some time to get down to the money have caused unions to endorse him. ished. Everything now comes out of in the street, but it’s incredibly ambi - He has done enough in the minds of gas and oil taxes. The question is do tious and aims to improve on the re - many. If I were a state worker with electric cars and vehicles get a free cent past. We will have a long-term full pension payments, I get it. I don’t pass. It’s a good question that needs plan that’s paid for and unlocks the know what Mr. Ciattarelli will or an answer.” door on road and bridge work: won’t do in that regard to labor. It’s at 20,000 miles of roads thousands of a point where it just seems quite frus - On the next generation of trades bridges, water lines, rail tunnels.” trating all the way around. I think people: from our perspective we would like to Including the Gateway Tunnel proj - see more specifics. What’s your plan? “The operating engineers have a ro - ect. bust apprenticeship program. There “We would like to see changes to the are people camped out at our training On the Governor’s Race (the Oper - governor’s energy master plan. We’re center at those times. It’s the equiva - ating Engineers have not yet en - not against green energy, and legisla - lent of putting up hot concert tickets. dorsed a candidate): tively we have to wait until the gover - We’ve become a licensed two-year nor’s race is over and we know for technical college: robotic technology, “At the end of the day, Governor absolute certain who is there. The wind opportunities. We’re not going Murphy champions himself as a Transportation Trust Fund is an eight- to have a people problem.” friend of labor. He’s done several year plan, which expires in 2024. It

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32 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

BILL MULLEN President of the New Jersey Building Trades, Ironworker

On the Infrastructure Plan before “Our biggest competitive threat is the dorsed 22 Republicans this time. Our the House of Representatives: world of non-union labor. In this differences with public employees? state we have great labor laws, and I’ll Hey, competition makes the would go “The infrastructure package is ab - give the governor credit. The AG, the round. We’re not against workers. We solutely needed in New Jersey. It’s treasurer, insurance commissioner live in a different world from public needed to make New Jersey competi - and commissioner of the Department employees. If it rains, our guys get tive and up to date. We need the tun - of Labor have all put our concerns at three hours pay. I still haven’t seen nel into Manhattan.” the forefront. This governor will en - [NJEA President Marie Blistan] her force labor laws.” since they ran against Sweeney and he On Construction Going Forward: beat them. As for their negotiations Main priorities in the State Legisla - since, it's a good thing when people “COVID has changed the game. ture going forward: can make compromises. She actually Construction going to change. Office endorsed him. I’m proud of Sweeney. buildings – how they’re built.” “We could use Sweeney’s Path to I’m proud that he was just reelected Progress. Of course, last time he was first general vice president of our iron - The main challenges right now for out there trying to sell it, we almost workers international.” Building Trades: got into a couple of fistfights. We en -

33 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 FRAN EHRET State Director of the New Jersey Communications Workers of America (CWA)

Deeply rooted in labor, she met Cesar Chavez as a kid in California. The daughter of the late Frank Forst, mayor of Jamesburg, member of the International Federation of Profes - sional and Technical Engineers, and a labor leader who organized the work’s toll roads, as well as the New Jersey State highway workers. Ehret got a job on the New Jersey Turnpike, where she worked as a toll collector for 15 years. Former shop steward, and treasurer of her local.

The labor leader, said then-President Ronald Reagan’s decision to fire I’ve ever seen: raising the minimum and, of course, COVID positives. We 11,345 air traffic controllers changed wage, securing paid sick leave. He’s get a lot of notices in my office. It was the direction of labor in her lifetime. made a difference in people’s lives. pretty scary for a while there, with the Making the decision to endorse Phil concern over a super spreader event. “It’s been 100% downhill from Murphy was really easy for us. What They [the Murphy Administration] there,” Ehret told InsiderNJ. “You we’re going through with this COVID were trying to do the responsible look around from there, unions are pandemic – his leadership has been thing. Workers had to work under in - diminished. We’ve lost so much tra - stellar, working with us to protect credibly difficult conditions and jectory of wages in terms of the cost workers by putting in health and safety risked themselves.” of living.” protocols. I’m pleased we have a gov - ernor who respects collective bargain - On the CWAs relationship with the That said, her union secured gains ing sincere desire to improve people’s Building Trades. under Governor Phil Murphy. lives not just words to him things have been pushing proved that lived “In the public sector we have civil “The Governor is committed to fix - through eight years of cc where we service. We’ve seen the Building ing the pension fund. When Dick couldn’t even have a discussion with us Trades try to be more diverse. There Codey was governor, Murphy chaired hostile from the very first day. is a difference between the way they that committee. This governor has were 25 years ago and today. It always been the most progressive governor “We’ve had our share of casualties could be better.”

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35 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

KEVIN BROWN New Jersey State Director of 32BJ SEIU

“It’s obviously better when we come Brown said his union annually invests budget reflects your values. We’ve se - together,” Brown said, in reference to 25% of its overall budget in organiz - cured gained for our members, but Senate President Sweeney’s deal with ing; that is to say, reaching out to that hasn’t stopped us. We organized the New Jersey Education Association populations in need. another 1k members in 2019, 800 in (NJEA) to secure Chapter 78 relief. 2020.” “The airport came together with “If they invested in organizing, they’re Unite Here! to cover 10K airport unions might be more diverse,” he Next up for 32BJ SEIU: organizing workers with healthcare.” said, in reference to the Building 2,500 mostly minimum wage security Trades. “You’ve got to buck up and officers across the state, fighting along Unions can’t be complacent if they take x percent of our overall budget, the river in Jersey City up to Fort Lee. want to serve the needs of real com - a significant percentage, you figure During COVID, 32BJ lost 26 mem - munities and exploited workers. out what that is, and organize. Your bers.

306 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 CURTIS JENKINS Camden City Council President, retired from the Laborers, managed Local 222

“If you pick Building Trades for your career, understand that most unions work off of a hiring hall list. I wasn’t willing to wait for the work. In my 20’s, when you went on the job you would stay on the job. Contractors hire you get work done, you’re laid off, you’re hired again.

“The ones that stay on the jobs are the shop stewards for the crafts - pipefit - ters, electricians. If you want a career in Building Trades you have to go where there the work is and accumu - late hours. Learn everything you can. I tell young people, you have to be de - pendable. Be on time. There’s a sched - ule. People don’t care about your private life. Don’t come to complain people very few returned the applica - other trade unions have a small num - about the contract. That’s the way I tions. They did not want to do con - ber of apprenticeships. But even in did it, and I retired at 55. struction. The money you can make the Laborers, I gave out 100 applica - in construction, you can’t make any - tions at a [recent] orientation, 40 ac - “Building Trades have reached out where else. But trying to get people in tually showed up 23 got into the with apprenticeships, but it’s hard to position where they can maintain – it program; of that, how many lasted? get individuals engaged. I have to give frustrated me. Some people got in and “When I started, I was a stranger who credit to Ray Pocino. His people reach walked away from it. came to Camden from over the river, out and try to help people get in the from South Philly. I tried and tried to Laborers with apprenticeships. It was “When I managed Local 222, I get work. I was always turned away. I better during the waterfront; they put wanted local guys rom Camden in. I craved a job. I remember this labor a little more effort. But realize, I gave can tell you I wanted it as a coun - leader, Clinton Hicks, telling me, out 1k apprenticeship applications – cilperson, especially minority mem - ‘You young guys.’ I stood my ground. that’s all trades, during the time of wa - bers - give some kind of tool, if you He said, ‘Okay, I’m going to give you terfront development. Those applica - put the language in, I wanted resi - a shot, and 20 years later I had his tions were for all trades. Out of 1k dents into the unions. Most of the job.”

307 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

RAS BARAKA Mayor of Newark

On Project Labor Agreements fication of projects: the Krueger Man - getting better. Some of the unions do (PLAs) in the City of Newark: sion on Martin Luther King Boule - great. All of them are not the same. vard, the MakerSPACE, a huge The Carpenters, the laborers and “We make sure that every PLA agree - development happening at the same plumbers have tried to chip in. ment goes through the business ad - time; Bears Stadium and Shaquille ministrator, whom we have O’Neill working on high rise develop - On Local mayors looking to make authorized to weight it in accord with ment. We want to make sure local sure PLAs work for the communi - our demands. Making sure that there workers are on all those projects. ties: are Newarkers working on our proj - What it means is when projects get ects is monumentally important, tax abatements and a PLA kicks in, “They have to get in touch with the given the fact there are $3-4 billion we give the business administrator an BA, they have to hold joint meetings, worth of development in Newark. opportunity to waive it if certain and they must have local legislation Sometimes our demands are not met pieces of it are not met. put in to put some teeth into the con - warmly. versation. They have to create “I would say [the Building Trades’ at - amenable local language for their “I think it does help to have a diversi - tentiveness to workplace diversity] it’s aims.”

308 39 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

WAYNE DEANGELO President/Assistant Business Manager at IBEW

The motorcycles piled on the side - An electrical worker since 1986, who struggling. Suburban taxpayers are walks in front of the bars, the barber - first won elected office in 2000, taking it on the chin. All the focus is shops, the tattoo parlors, and inside DeAngelo right now wants to make on the inner cities. We need a better TirNaNog, where the smiling faces of sure government equitably distributes funding formula for school districts. Gerry Adams and the Kennedys stare federal infrastructure dollars so his Places like Robbinsville and Cranbury from the walls, DeAngelo – asked for members benefit. get nothing.” the one word to sum it all up, said un - flinchingly, “Anxiety.” He wants suburban Hamilton, for ex - Ever since Ronald Reagan fired those ample, to get something in par with air traffic controllers in the 1980s, It was already bad. neighboring Trenton. Through the labor has been on its heels. last 17 months, the trades held them - If Labor is fragmented, the Trades COVID made it worse. selves together around here with work mostly hang together. provided by government entities, Too many workers out there remain schools and hospitals. “We’re not fragged to the point of re - unemployed (321,500 in New Jersey lationships, which remain intact,” in July). Still, he said, “Working people are said DeAngelo.

400 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

TROY SINGLETON LD-7 State Senator

On the inequities within the ranks of Building Trades:

“Those of us who believe in the prin - ciples of organized labor have an ob - ligation to make sure the faces of organized labor look like the faces of New Jersey. This is a sentiment that must become a reality; that must go from concept to concrete. It’s a shared responsibility. Labor has to provide the opportunities and the local leaders have to demand that it is a shared re - sponsibility. It’s incumbent on both.”

401 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 SAMANTHA DEALMEIDA President of the Associated Builders and Contractors of New Jersey of America (CWA)

The Project Labor Agreement bill for public projects backed by Senate Pres - ident Sweeney and ultimately signed by Governor Phil Murphy rankled DeAlmeida.

In her view, the guideline gives too strong an edge to the Building Trades, with only a cloak of diversity, which hurts her members.

The all-union model prohibits com - petition, she argued, and cuts out small businesses, minorities and women, because Building Trades no - toriously lags in those departments.

Then-President Barack Obama raised the floor for PLAs to $25 million, and the Associated Builders and Contrac - labor actually follows through on giv - Her group is taking a hard look at Re - tors wanted a similar outcome here. ing some advantages to Blacks, Lati - publican challenger Jack Ciattarelli nos and women. statewide. “We thought projects $20 million and above would have been a fair “There is no good time for a PLA but “We’ve not offered an official endorse - compromise,” DeAlmeida said. at a time when the economy is going ment – you can expect one,” she said. “They ended up going with $5 mil - through ebbs and flows of where the “There are good things the adminis - lion.” infrastructure is going to be, we tration has done.” should get people working in their Moreover, in her view, the bill con - own communities, but they can’t be - But for her, this wasn’t one of them. tains no teeth to ensure proper over - cause of PLAs and unions from sight of local PLA agreements so that around the state,” DeAlmeida.

42 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

SEAN SPILLER President, New Jersey Education Association

Spiller assumed the presidency of the COVID intensified the crisis. public education, and sometimes we’ll powerful labor organization on Sept. be on opposite sides. It’s a testament 1st. “It will require a lot of money to get to issues driving the conversation as them up to where they need to be,” opposed to loyalties.” “The pandemic has thrown us all for the labor leader said of school facili - a loop. We’re worried every day, espe - ties. Going forward, “I think we’re going cially because of the Delta variant. At to have to remain focused on schools the end of the day, we are committed Obviously, the NJEA backs incum - funding and infrastructure funding. to the best in-person instruction we bent Democratic Governor Murphy Also, we’re seeing it now. We’re going can deliver. We want to make sure we over GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli. to need to step up the recruitment of do all we can to keep the children and educators into the profession. Our the educators safe.” “He’s been doing a great job, ab - numbers are at all-time lows. In addi - solutely funding education at levels tion, high student debt. We’re going Heading into the 2021-22 school we haven’t seen and he has handled to have to address that in a compre - year, Governor Phil Murphy man - this pandemic as well as you could, hensive way. Certainly, we want to dated masks for students and teachers with a focus on safety,” Spiller said of keep our schools number one, we and vaccinations for all personnel. Murphy. want higher education funding, all of In the days ahead, Spiller and his or - those pieces. Again,I have to reiterate ganization will press for dollars to As for the NJEA’s election year peace the need for dollars for school build - make school buildings safer. accord with Senate President Sweeney, ings. In Montclair, we had a situation “At the end of the day, as you know, where we had $6 million for schools Many of them were already in bad you find issues you agree on. We’re al - construction, when we needed $60 condition. ways going to be right there on pro million. That’s big gap to figure out.”

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44 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

PAUL SARLO LD-36 State Senator, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee

During the cannabis debate, Sarlo – Until we’ve taken more strides at the an engineer by trade – expressed federal level, until we have more uni - doubts about the impact of marijuana formity at the federal level and better legalization on jobsite safety. testing available to us, it’s going to be a challenge. He wants to revisit the issue in the next session. “I’m going to maintain that the cannabis commission still has not an - “We don’t have that real-time testing swered enough questions for employ - yet,” Sarlo told InsiderNJ. “We’re ers but more importantly – the going to get there. It’s going to evolve. workers,” said the senator.

405 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 RAY GREAVES Vice President of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International

“During COVID, the biggest thing for us was keeping transit workers safe. We had people working closely with the governor and I am very proud of the testing, and vaccinations and very good cooperation from the governor’s office.”

Greaves cited the importance of get it passed. Other politicians are “Climate change is real, and we need Biden Administration stimulus putting their personal politics before to do everything we can to make sure money, and federal transportation the people. We have to keep the pres - we make environmentally friendly in - dollars secured by Congressmen Albio sure on our elected officials. We need vestments, to reduce the carbon foot - Sires and Donald Payne, Jr. Gateway. We’ve been hearing for years print,” said the labor leader. “The how it will bring our economy back. governor is pushing to move us to a “[Senator Bob] Menendez too You see the congestion on the streets hundred present by 2040 – the full reached out to us early, on the surface and on the highways. We need to re - electrification of buses.” transportation bill. If it wasn’t for the main on top of where we need to be Democrats in government, we would to bring this tri- state area back. I feel Other projects? The Port Authority of have been crippled in the transporta - positive that we’re going to see the de - New York and New Jersey bus termi - tion field.” cisions to move us forward to bring in nal. “That needs to happen,” said those dollars. The governor and our Greaves. At the time of this interview, Greaves delegation have been very adamant eagerly awaited passage of the federal about the need and working very hard As for the primary needs, especially infrastructure bill that will pay for the with the Secretary of Transportation during COVID, for his members, the long-delayed Gateway Tunnel to alle - Pete Buttigieg, who was in New Jersey ATU chairman said, “The governor viate traffic to and from New York to talk about Gateway, and expressed gets it. New Jersey Transit is a priority. City. how vital a project that is for the re - He knows how important transit is. gion.” Unfortunately, we have not found a “It’s vital. My understanding is it’s dedicated source of funding. Turnpike positive; looks good. Hopefully, the In addition, Greaves said the surface dollars are keeping us going opera - House understands how vital this is. transportation bill represents an im - tionally, and the administration is fo - Certainly, our delegation knows. portant investment for technology, in - cused on finding a way to work with They’re trying to get enough votes to cluding the electrification of buses. the legislature to finding a dedicated

46 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 funding source. We’re working with changes when they should. They a passenger protesting having to wear [Senate President] Steve Sweeney. We make changes after someone dies or a mask by laying into a transit worker were in talks but that was all pre-pan - gets sick. Our people are on the front with a racist rant. demic. The pandemic put a strain on lines every day. They do the best they those talks and hampered decisions. can. They need support. Passengers “Unfortunately, it happens more than Hopefully we get the economy back need to take into consideration the we hear in the press. We run into a lot up and running again and get people importance of the job we do. of crazies. We run into a lot of nasty back to work and find funding people. That’s the politics in this sources. “Our employees trained. ATU fights country. It doesn’t feel like the USA like hell for our members. We feel anymore. I wear a mask. I just came “It’s a very serious thing [COVID]. what they feel. We’ve been on the job back from western Pa., where I got We think about it every day. Many going through this whole situation dirty looks in the hotel lobby because members were scared to go to work. with COVID. It’s unbelievable the I had a mask on. It does not feel good. Many members contracted the virus. job we’ve done. We will continue to It’s quite scary. Just look at the Jan. We took a big toll. We lost over 20 fight for hazard pay, more safety for 6th attack on our Capitol. Those im - workers to COVID. I lost friends our conductors and drivers. We owe ages will resonate in my mind forever. who contracted COVID and died. it to them. They know that we appre - I never thought I’d see something like We’re always out there promoting ciate it. This pandemic is not over by that in this country, which is now the masks, safety and compliance. I’m any means. We have to never forget divided states of America. very happy the governor made us one the members we lost. of the first states where passengers “We need that infrastructure bill. We must wear masks before the CDC “To date, we’ve been unsuccessful get - need that surface transportation bill. made recommendations. Our mem - ting hazard pay for our frontline I just hope the House doesn’t blow it. bers go to work scared every day that workers. We’re hoping we can find a We endorsed Governor Murphy. they can bring this virus home. But way with the stimulus. We’re not say - We’re going to work our asses off for they also know they have a job to do. ing it’s a reward but appreciation. A his reelection. I will say he has done a Many times passengers become com - lot of members have been bringing tremendous job, not just for transit bative. They don’t want to wear their own supplies to work to try to for this state. He has stood tall. He masks. We can call for assistance. But keep themselves and their passengers has delivered. We were the second most times we’re out there alone. It’s safe, spending money out of their union to back [President Joe] Biden. very serious; very concerning. Most own pockets. We want our elected of - Biden has always been a transit guy. people come on with masks. Every ficials to remember that. There’s no now and then there are those who current hazard pay bill per say. ATU, “We need surface that surface trans - want to challenge the system. It’s CWA and AFSCME and others have portation bill and infrastructure.” something we are concerned about. been raising the subject with our We are pushing for barriers on the elected officials, doing everything we buses for the drivers. There is money can to get our legislators to put forth for that in this surface transportation a bill. One on the federal level bill bill, for barriers and other safety en - died. We have to continue that fight.” hancements. Far too often authorities in government don’t make the Greaves acknowledged a viral video of

47 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 BRITNEE TIMBERLAKE 34th District Assemblywoman

Mentored on labor issues by Assem - blyman Tom Giblin, granddaughter of a Nabisco plant union woman, and a former baker who made nine dollars an hour and rode four buses to work, the first bus out of East Orange, Tim - berlake knows first-hand the struggles of the working class.

“I know how it is,” said the assembly - than renting, but not everyone has an on the state’s new minimum wage woman. “I know how situations opportunity to own. The cost of liv - law. Effective January 1, 2021, the snowball, and you fear the loss of your ing continues to go up. People don’t State of New Jersey’s minimum wage home, having to go against big banks have the funds to think about own - increased to $12-an-hour for most and big landlords without the re - ing. employees working in the Garden sources to have adequate representa - State, a phase-in to $15-per-hour in tion.” “Gentrification pushes people out of 2024. the community; it’s not all bad but it During COVID, she took the lead in displaces renters who are living check “In my heart of hearts, it would go up the legislature on the landlord-tenant to check and month to month, work - to $20 but we can’t put a provision on bill, which provides for the forbear - ing full time. the business owner they can’t meet,” ance of mortgage loans and the sus - said the assemblywoman. “I agree pension of rental payments for any “We’re still waiting to see it [the law] with it being stair-stepped in. Nobody resident who requests a payment re - in practice,” Timberlake added. saw COVID-19 coming. The busi - prieve during the public health emer - “We’re hoping people can also tap nesses are closing all over. I’m glad we gency. into the tremendous amount of dol - had the foresight to do that [make it lars – $500 million allocated for rental a tiered process to $15].” “My main thought was to relieve, not relief and assistance money for energy exacerbate, the housing crisis,” Tim - relief. We imbedded energy into the Going forward, the assemblywoman berlake said. “On the tenant side, landlord-tenant bill, with $250 mil - wants to focus on issues, including rents have been climbing over the lion for energy programs. Still, I think unemployment. “I do applaud the ef - years. Some towns used to be afford - we have to address the issue at its forts of all the state workers who have able that are no longer. I hope to work core.” tried to solve cases; I don’t think the with leadership to create more oppor - system was set up for mass unemploy - tunities for home ownership rather Timberlake also led in the Assembly ment,” Timberlake said.

48 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PRESIDENT & CEO CRISTINA PINZON & ALL INSIDER NJ CANNABIS POWER LIST HONOREES.

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49 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

JEFF TITTEL former Director, New Jersey Sierra Club

The vicinity of downtown Somerville “Politicians get up there and talk Murphy hasn’t put them back in southeast of the Courthouse looked about it,” sad Tittel, in a phone inter - place. When it comes to the climate like it had gotten slammed by a view. “This is the 12th tornado we've crisis, we are second in the nation on tsunami made of mud. had this year.” climate increase and climate impacts. Where’s the action? We have not re - Cars littered the creek. And the worst. duced greenhouse gases under Mur - phy We talk about moving forward Those public parks not submerged by Twenty-five deaths, six missing with offshore wind but in order to water were blanketed by a heavy statewide, according to the governor’s build green you have to decrease fossil brown dust. office, as of Friday afternoon. fuels. Instead of wearing masks, we’re going to have to all wear snorkels. The Residents and shop owners moved “This is not a wake-up call,” said Tit - green jobs are in retrofitting houses grimly as they emptied their homes tel. “We’re in a crisis. Three tropical for energy efficiency and offshore and stores of ruined goods. storms this year. We need to take wind, but the Biden Agenda at the emergency steps to deal with the cli - national level – and no one says Joe Everywhere, electrical workers, fire mate crisis. In New Jersey we have Biden is bold – is double what Mur - fighters and operating engineers made some progress on flooding, but phy’s is in New Jersey.” worked to get the town back in some those rules [former Governor Chris] kind of working shape. Christie rolled back, [Governor Phil]

500 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 TODD VACHON PhD, Director, Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN)

On the Impact of the Pandemic on Employment:

“The labor market will continue to be a bit of a rollercoaster as employers and workers negotiate the new work - place. Determining what amount of work can and should be done re - motely versus at the worksite in vari - ued effectiveness of vaccines, and vac - workers will also influence the deci - ous industries will be a big factor. The cination rates, also spells continued sion-making process for workers who unpredictability of the virus, includ - uncertainty for workers in frontline are often forced to decide between ing the current Delta variant and any and exposed industries. And finally, their health and their wallet when the potential future variants, the contin - the extent of government support for rent is due.”

501 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Employment estimates by Todd E. Vachon, PhD Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

52 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Employment estimates by Todd E. Vachon, PhD Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

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54 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Employment estimates by Todd E. Vachon, PhD Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

55 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Employment estimates by Todd E. Vachon, PhD Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

56 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Employment estimates by Todd E. Vachon, PhD Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

Monthly Employment by Industry Group, New Jersey: January 2020 – July 2021. Employment estimates by Dr. Vachon.

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58 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 INSIDER 100 POWERLIST 1. STEVE SWEENEY Vice President of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. Initiated into Camden Local 399 in 1977, Sweeney became a general organizer in 2008, servicing Philadelphia and the District Council of Northern New Jersey. He won his state senate seat in 2001 and assumed the office of the senate presidency in 2010. In 2014, he became general vice president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.

2. WILLIAM T. MULLEN President of the New Jersey Building Trades

Joined the Ironworkers Union in 1968. Since 1990, spokesman and director of the activities of the statewide trades, comprised of 15 international build - ing unions and 13 county councils, representing some 150,000 members.

3. CHARLIE WOWKANECH President of the New Jersey AFL-CIO

A second-generation member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68, Wowkanech worked on a start-up crew at a Newark airport. Elected AFL-CIO President in 1997, he leads an organization that serves one million members.

59 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

4. RAY POCINO LIUNA Vice President and Eastern Regional Manager

Starting his career in 1956 as a general laborer, he became vice president of the union’s eastern region in 1998. He oversees activities impacting 40,000 laborers in New Jersey, Delaware, New York City, Long Island and Puerto Rico. In addition to his labor duties, Pocino serves as a commissioner to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

5. SEAN SPILLER President, New Jersey Education Association

Former Captain of the two-time championship Rutgers Hockey Team, by trade a high school science teacher in the Wayne Public Schools, Spiller became vice president of the NJEA in 2017, and president last week on Sept. 1st. In 2020, Spiller became Mayor of Montclair.

6. GREG LALEVEE Business Manager, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825

Started working as a crane operator in 1984, elected business manager of the 7K-strong men and women in 2010. Maintains strong political ties around the state of New Jersey; prevailed on Governor Murphy to include roads and bridges in PLA agreements totaling over $5 million, a book to his union.

60 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 7. RAY GREAVES Chairman of the New Jersey Amalgamated Transit Union, Vice President of the ATU International

Greaves joined ATU Local 819-Newark, NJ in 1985 after hired on to the NJ Transit Newark Shops Maintenance Department. Serving as Shop Steward from 1989 to 1994, he later served as Recording Secretary, Legislative Repre - sentative, and an Executive Board member. In 2011, he was elected Chair of the ATU New Jersey State Council and served until 2019, when he became International Vice President. Former Bayonne Councilman. Represents over 7500 New Jersey Transit workers, and over 30,000 between New York and New Jersey.

8. FRAN EHRET New Jersey State Director for the Communications Work - ers of America, District 1 Leader of one of the most powerful unions in the state, former toll collector Ehret leads an organization that represents more than 70,000 working fami - lies in the Garden State — including 40,000 state workers, 15,000 county and municipal workers, and thousands of workers in the telecommunications, airlines, health care and direct care industries.

9. KEVIN BROWN New Jersey State Director of 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Vice President of the union Brown began his organizing career with SEIU in 1987, when he helped organize cleaners in Washington, D.C. Moving to New Jersey in 2001 after a successful organizing run in Connecticut, Brown worked to organize and expand to 13,000 the ranks of unionized commercial, residential, public school- contracted, and airport private sector service workers throughout New Jersey. Significantly, successfully spearheaded the moment to land a $19-per-hour by 2023 for half of all Newark International Airport workers. Now organizing security workers in Hudson County.

61 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

10. BOB MCDEVITT Unite Here Local 54 President

As prez of Unite Here Local 54, the Atlantic County-based McDevitt oversees the activities of over 10,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, and food service industries across New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.

11. MILLIE SILVA President, SEIU State Council, Executive Vice President 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, New Jersey Region

Bronx native, Columbia University graduate Silva stepped forward in 2013 to run on the statewide Democratic ticket with Barbara Buono, largely in defiance of the public pensions and benefits overhaul ramrodded by Governor Chris Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney.

12. ROB ASARO-ANGELO Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor

Son of an Atlantic City labor organizer and himself formerly an organizer with the Laborers International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union Local 111 and formerly executive director with the Democratic State Committee, Asaro-Angelo from 2010 to 2017 served as Eastern Regional Represen - tative for the U.S. Department of Labor under the Obama Administration.

62 BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER

63 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

13. WILLIAM SPROULE Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (EASRCC) Former President and Regional Manager of the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, dissolved and merged into Keystone/Mountain/Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters on May 30, 2018. EASRCC represents more than 41,000 members in Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the Territory of Puerto Rico.

14. PAT COLLIGAN President, New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association (NJPBA)

A veteran of Franklin Township Local 154, the PBA Prez oversees the labor organizing activities of more 33,000 officers in the State of New Jersey.

15. INES GARCIA-KEIM President of NJSCM The New Jersey State Council of Machinists An airline worker by trade, Garcia-Keim began her career at Continental Airlines in 1988. She joined the International Association of Machinists (IAM) following the merger of Continental and United Airlines in 2011. An active member of Local 914 in Newark since 2011, Garcia-Keim is the first woman elected President of the New Jersey State Council of Machinists.

64 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

16. TOM GIBLIN Business Manager, International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL–CIO, Local 68 Elected to the Assembly in LD-34 in 2005, Gibin is the former Essex County Democratic Chairman and the former Democratic State Committee Chairman. Chair of the Assembly Regulated Professions Committee.

17. EDDIE DONNELLY President, New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association

A firefighter for the Union Fire Department for 21 years, Donnelly took on the role of leading the FMBA in October of 2013. Also the chairman of the Police Firemen’s Retirement System (PERS), Donnelly briefly flirted with a 2021 run for the state senate.

18. WAYNE DEANGELO Assistant Business Manager at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 269, Assemblyman

As assistant business manager of IBEW Local 269, DeAngelo oversees the organizing activities of 1200 members throughout Central New Jersey and Bucks County, Pa. He also serves as president of the Mercer-Burlington County Building and Construction Trades. A former Hamilton Councilman, DeAngelo has served as a Democratic Assemblyman in the 14th District since 2007. Chairman of the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.

65 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

19. JOE EGAN Business Manager, IBEA Local Union No. 456, Assemblyman A member of the New Brunswick City Council from 1982 to 2010, Egan first became an assemblyman in 2002. Chairman of the Assembly Labor Committee.

20. RAHAMAN MUHAMMAD Deputy Mayor for Employment, City of Newark

An organizer out of the South Ward for SEIU, Muhammad operated with a central principle when it came to Newark: “You need five votes on the city council, and who’s the mayor.” His union work led him to forge a close rela - tionship with fellow South Warder Ras Baraka, and when Baraka became mayor in 2014, Muhammad went to the cabinet to head workforce development. He’s been there ever since.

21. MICHAEL MALONEY President, Mercer County Central Labor Council

A native of Trenton, Maloney began his work career as a steamfitter apprentice in Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union #9 September of 1977. A member of the first apprenticeship class of Local 9 in Central New Jersey, Maloney is the President of the New Jersey State Pipe trades and, as President of the Mercer County Central Labor Council, oversees the activities of 50,000 families in 49 area unions in Mercer County.

66 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

22. ANTHONY ABRANTES Organizing and Political Director for the Eastern Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters Essex County native Abrantes represents 43,000 Union Carpenters from, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina & Puerto Rico. As a delegate for Carpenters Local 254, he represents nearly 4,000 men and women in NJ.

23. FRED MADDEN Chairman, Senate Labor Committee

Close to fellow Gloucester County resident Sweeney, Madden assumed the oath of office in the state senate in 2004 after retiring from the state police force in 2002. Dean of the Gloucester County Police Academy.

24. RICK SABATO Bergen Building Trades Council

The Sweeney/Mullen ally never hesitates to speak his mind, and has been known to criticize both Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and Governor Phil Murphy when they haven’t backed the Trades to his liking. Retiring in Janu - ary, he will be missed in his official capacity.

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68 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 25. VIRGIL MALDONADO President, International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) Local 1588 A political player. Close to Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis, Maldonado convinced Davis to replace Assemblyman Nick Chiaravallotti with crane operator William Sampson IV.

26. ERIC HOUGHTALING Assemblyman

A Neptune native, former Mayor of Neptune, and member of the LU400 IBEW, Houghtaling, an electrician by trade, won his LD-11 assembly seat in 2015. Serves on the Assembly Labor Committee.

27. ANTHONY VERRELLI Assemblyman A carpenter by trade and past President of Carpenters Local Union 254, Verrelli serves as the vice chairman of the Assembly Labor Committee.

28. JULIE DIAZ Chief of Staff to Labor Commissioner Asaro-Angelo

Veteran legislative operator, grassroots political organizer (Obama 2008) and labor organizer (32BJ SEIU) Diaz went to the Murphy Administration in 2017.

69 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 29. DONALD NORCROSS Congressman, 1st District Former assistant business manager of the IBEW Local 351, and former presi - dent of the Southern New Jersey Building Trades Council, Norcross served in the state senate with his old labor buddy Sweeney prior to assuming office in Congress in 2014.

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30. DEBBIE PARKS Vice President, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) A member since 1982, former field coordinator Parks became an International Vice President in January 2018. Formerly vice president of AFSCME Council 73, Parks represents over 20,000 workers. Last month, labor leaders and rank-and file members from the New Jersey State AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions, pro-labor state legislators and AFSCME New Jersey Council 63 members staged a picket line and rally outside behavioral health provider SERV headquarters in Ewing on Thursday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations.

31. MARIA REFINSKI President, NJ Nurses Union The labor leader has grounded cred as a veteran of the Saint Barnabas Medical Center’s Post Anesthesia Care Unit.

32. DEBBIE WHITE President, Health Professional Allied Employees (HPAE) A registered nurse at Virtua Memorial Hospital for 27 years and a long-term Med-Surg nurse, White took over from HPAE founder Ann Twomey.

71 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

33. DAVID CRITCHLEY Secretary-Treasurer, New Jersey Building Trades

A roofer and Business Manager of United Union of Roofers Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local #4, Critchley became President of the New Jersey District Council of Roofers in 2004. Became Secretary-Treasurer of the NJ Building Trades in 2007.

34. CHARLES HALL President of Local 108

Born and raised in Newark, the labor leader who represents department store employees has a long career in labor, which includes organizing poultry workers in the south. An ally of social justice activist Larry Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) who will routinely takes to the streets come crisis time.

35. MARK LONGO Director, Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative (ELEC)

Longo has deep labor roots in government affairs and building trades public affairs. Formerly director of government affairs and political Action for IUOE Local 825.

72 is proud to support INSIDERNJ & CONGRATULATES OUR COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS named to the INSIDER NJ’S LABOR POWER LIST

Sean M. Darcy, President PO Box 397, Belmar, NJ 07719 | 609-610-0543

73 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

36. ROBERT M. FOX President, New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police

A Member of the Fraternal Order of Police since 1973, Fox served as Cherry Hill police officer for 25 years. A union diehard, he held several offices in Cherry Hill FOP Lodge #28, including: Treasurer, State Trustee, Guard and President for 14 years.

37. PATRICK KELLEHER President, Hudson County Building & Construction Trades Council

Kelleher will be at the heart of the matter when the U.S. House passes Biden’s in - frastructure plan and the federal money comes through to build the long-awaited Gateway Tunnel.

38. NICK JAYME Political Director for the Teamsters Trying to re-politicize the Teamsters Local 560 after a dormant period for the labor organization.

39. LINO SANTIAGO Business Representative at International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825 The Building Trades’ Essex-based leader.

74 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 40. HETTY ROSENSTEIN Former President, NJCWA The long-serving and tenacious labor leader retired to go to work for the Murphy Reelection Campaign as senior adviser for progressive coalitions and outreach.

41. WYATT EARP President, Monmouth and Ocean Counties Central Labor Union, AFL-CIO The veteran chairman of the Ocean County Democratic Committee initially came up short in his support for LeRoy Jones as state party chairman; but with Jones chairman now he presumably has a key ally in the north.

42. MARIE BLISTAN Former President, NJEA

Blistan served as one of the most consequential presidents in the history of the labor union, field generaling the organization’s attempt to take down Sweeney, then negotiating with him to attain Chapter 78 relief for her members.

43. TRICIA MUELLER Treasurer, General Majority PAC Deeply rooted in the labor movement, after serving for 15 years as a Political Di - rector for the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, Mueller moved to the independent expenditure side of the PAC with ties to political powerhouse George Norcross.

75 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 44. MARIA FOSTER Director of Government & Community Affairs, Painters and Allied Trades District 711 (IUPAT DC 711) An At-Large representative of the Brick Township Public Schools, Foster was also a Democratic appointee to the Board of Commissioners of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority.

45. EDDIE OSBORNE at-Large Newark Councilman, Director of Govern - ment Relations for LIUNA Spurned in his first attempt at a council seat in 2008, Osborne bounced back on Ras Baraka’s slate, and will take a crack at a third term in office next year.

46. CURTIS JENKINS Camden City Council President

A lifelong labor member, Jenkins retired from LIUNA, but has naturally in his efforts to organize people locally in the Building Trades.

47. BOB HENNELLY Reporter A Paterson native, the former WBGO labor, politics and government reporter, now reporting for the Chief Leader in New York and InsiderNJ, Hennelly this year published Stuck Nation, his consideration of a dysfunctional economic and political system when it comes to working people.

76 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 48. SUSAN DECARAVA President of The NewsGuild of New York

Gannett reporters from the Bergen Record, the Daily Record, NJ Herald, Courier News, Asbury Park Press and Home News Tribune this year announced they are unionizing.

The new unit, which is called APP-MCJ Guild, is affiliated with DeCarava’s NewsGuild.

“These workers are fighting to safeguard the legacy of local news in northern New Jersey and justly advocating for stronger, more diverse newsrooms that can continue to be a critical lifeline, cele - brated storyteller, and most importantly, a necessary watchdog for our communities,” DeCarava said. “We call on Gannett for swift recognition so that we can get to the table to ensure that the col - lective voice of these workers, and the interest of our readers, are heard, and respected.”

Gannet has declined to recognize them.

49. PATRICK DELLE CAVA Business Manager, IBEW Local 102 Grandson of Pasquale Delle Cava, who ran the Laborers Union back in 1932 out of Paterson, the Parsippany-based labor leader oversees the organizing and negotiating activities of 3,100 skilled electrical workers throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

50. PAUL ROLDAN Business Administrator, LIUNA Local 3

Based in Kearny, serves Essex and Hudson, signing contractors to CBA/Demo/Terma/ NMA/agreements; participates with local city councils implementing pre-apprentice programs for participation with Local PLAs.

77 Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey

Congratulations to Insider NJ’s 2021 Insider 100: Labor Honorees!

Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey thanks all of our statewide leaders who pledge to protect and expand access to reproductive health care services.

For more information on ways policymakers can take action to support legislation that advances this goal, such as the Reproductive Freedom Act, visit our website at www.PPActionNJ.org.

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78 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

Labor Day 2021 – Is a Great Reset Upon Us? By BOB HENNELLY

For decades, thanks to the powerful versity Poll found that more than 25 a survey of more than 30,000 global macro forces of globalization, finan - percent of the New Jersey residents it workers which indicated “41 percent cialization and automation, it’s been surveyed who had weathered the pan - of workers were considering quitting capital that has shaped the labor mar - demic by working remotely from or changing a human resource survey ket with workers on the losing end, as home, doubted they would ever go of workers in the United Kingdom levels of wealth concentration and in - back to their workplace. and Ireland which “showed 38 per - come disparity spiked dramatically. cent of those surveyed planned to quit “Just 27 percent say that they’re going in the next six months to a year.” Yet, no more than a year and a half to a workplace full time, with 28 per - into the pandemic, there are a million cent saying that they combine work - Even before the pandemic hit, there more jobs than people seeking one ing at a workplace and home,” was statistical evidence of a major re - and we are seeing desperate employers according to the FDU poll. “This rep - alignment where workers were opting in the restaurant industry offering resents an enormous shift in work to vote with their feet from their cur - $1,000 signing bonuses. Some em - habits, and one that has ramifications rent employment situation amidst ployers are offering double digit raises for mass transit, and the economies of what was then, a tightening labor while others offer sweeteners like pet the states surrounding New Jersey.” market. insurance or the flexibility of remote work. This reset, between labor and capital In January of 2020, a few months be - isn’t just an American phenomenon. fore the declared pandemic emer - In June, a Fairleigh Dickinson Uni - The BBC reported that Microsoft did gency, CNBC reported that in the

79 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 prior year a record number of U.S. and first responders who lost their start of the crisis, 483 police officers, workers had quit their jobs. lives to the virus, often putting their 149 firefighters and 78 EMS mem - families at risk as well. bers have died from the virus, for a “The data goes back to December of total of 737. 2000,” CNBC reported. “In August The pandemic has hit our state par - of 2019, a record-breaking 4,478,000 ticularly hard, with the Garden State’s But the death toll, is tragically only workers quit their jobs. That amounts close to 27,000 virus fatalities ranking part of the story which is helping to to roughly 3% of the total nonfarm us near the top of the nation in terms define the risks benefit reward ratio U.S. workforce, and is the highest of our per capita COVID death rate. that every essential worker, whatever quits rate recorded by the BLS. When “To date, there have been 1,067,758 their job might be, has to live with. seasonally adjusted for annual labor confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Depending on which peer reviewed patterns, that figure is closer to 2.4%, New Jersey, equal to 11,986 infec - study you consult, a COVID infec - still tying for the highest rate on tions per 100,000 people — com - tion you survive can have long term record.” pared to 11,376 infections per health consequences of varying sever - 100,000 people nationwide,” accord - ity. A year into the pandemic we are still ing to 24/7 Wall Street. seeing millions of Americans quitting Edward F. Sullivan, who as president their jobs. According to the Bureau of For a few months, there was a display of the New Jersey Superior Officers Labor Statistics, in February 3.38 mil - of affection for these workers ex - Law Enforcement Association repre - lion, or 2.4 percent of workers moved. pressed by the public with cheers and sents 400 Lieutenants employed by On by June, it was up to 3.86 million, the banging of pots. Elected officials the state's Department of Correc - or 2.7 percent. pledged to push for hazard pay which tions, the Juvenile Justice Commis - failed to materialize. Some of the na - sion and the State College and There are a number of reasons people tion’s largest retail employers added an University Police. are seeking a change, in what some hourly premium with much fanfare, economists have dubbed the ‘Great only to roll it back as the virus ebbed Sullivan said, while none of his mem - Resignation’,” according to the BBC. and flowed. bers had died from COVID, several “For some workers, the pandemic of their subordinates had, with the precipitated a shift in priorities, en - Thanks to the reporting of the Department of Corrections and Juve - couraging them to pursue a ‘dream Guardian newspaper and Kaiser nile Justice Commission the hardest job’, or transition to being a stay-at- Health Care, we know that at least hit. home parent. But for many, many 3,700 health care workers and profes - others, the decision to leave came as a sionals who died as a consequence of “But we have had hospitalizations and result of the way their employer their COVID exposure. We know members in ICU and on ventilators,” treated them during the pandemic.” that by almost a three to one margin Sullivan said. “There’s been ongoing During the pandemic, as part of the they were people of color. Close to health issues with most of the com - government’s attempt to limit the 700 of these healthcare workers were plaints I get is that they don’t have the spread of the virus, we started to des - from New York of New Jersey. same lung capacity or stamina and ignate individuals who had to leave According to the National Fallen Fire - there are a lot more complaints about their home risking infection or worse fighter Foundation, the number of general fatigue with a large number as essential workers. Early on in the public safety employee COVID having lost taste and smell.” pandemic, media reports highlighted deaths has jumped from 15 in July to the awful toll on health care workers 43 in August. All totaled, since the So far, there doesn’t appear to be a

80 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 comprehensive public health study were symptomatic but not hospital - the same time trying to maintain the that looks at how New Jersey’s essen - ized and 19 percent of people whose continuity of services upon which the tial workforce have fared during the claims never reported an acute public relies. Ehret believes that in the pandemic. COVID-19 symptom. That finding age of COVID, those without a refutes the idea that young, healthy union, work at the mercy of their em - Individual unions like the Communi - people will be fine after a COVID-19 ployer. cation Workers of America have tried infection—even for those with symp - to track the scores of their members tom-free cases, there can be lasting “COVID has such a profound impact who have died in the New York metro consequences.” on everything in our lives, including area from COVID, like Rebecca Pina, how we do our work and how we CWA Local 1040, who worked at Across the river in New York City, the think about work,” Ehret said. “And Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital New York Committee for Occupation that has made people decide that they and Sharon Miles, CWA Local 1037, Safety and Health, a non-profit sup - may want to make changes in what with the State of New Jersey’s De - ported by community and labor they will tolerate as far as their treat - partment of Children and Families. unions, calculated about 38 percent ment at work and I think that has of that state’s workforce could work been really important and has sort of In June, Time magazine reported that remotely. driven some organizing throughout a research project that reviewed the the country. I can see that continuing cases of two million people diagnosed The non-profit estimates 250,000 if we nurture it in the right way.” with COVID by the non-profit FAIR workers came down with COVID. Health found that “twenty-three per - There are another 150,000 that tested cent of them reported one or more positive, but showed no symptoms, health issues at least 30 days after but could still have long term health being diagnosed with COVID-19.” consequences from their brush with the deadly virus. “The most common included pain, breathing trouble, high cholesterol, So, if in New York State alone there malaise and/or fatigue and high blood were 400,000 workers that were pressure,” Time reported. “But the re - touched by COVID, how many are ported post-COVID symptoms were there in New Jersey? How many in quite varied, running the gamut from the nation? depression and anxiety to skin condi - tions to heart issues and gastrointesti - It will be up to the nation’s labor nal distress.” movement to ask that question not our friends at the Chamber of Com - According to Time, the study found merce. patients “can develop Long COVID even after a mild initial case of Franceline “Fran” Ehret, the New Jer - COVID-19. Half of the people who sey director of the Communication were hospitalized for COVID-19, Workers of America, which represents then discharged, developed at least tens of thousands of the state’s public one issue lasting 30 or more days, fol - employees, says her union made lowed by 27.5 percent of people who worker safety a top priority while at

81 82 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

‘Stuck Nation’ Author Hennelly Sees a Chance for Labor to Gain Ground

BRADLEY BEACH – A native of Pa - the compounded capacities of Stuck said Hennelly. “Government is in a terson, Robert “Bob” Hennelly Nation , which happens to be the title position to mediate that so that the earned ten cents an inch when he of InsiderNJ reporter Hennelly’s new public interest isn’t undermined to the started working for the Ramsey Mah - book, published by Democracy at point where you see capital interest wah Reporter , a job in which he all but Work, an on-the-ground dispatch on ruling the roost. acted as a human barricade against the condition of America; how we got total pave-over, as overdevelopment in here, and how we can get out. “Unfortunately in my lifetime, since New Jersey – in the name of lowering the 70s, the balance of power between property taxes – created so much im - “There are two core principals in our capital and labor became skewed so pervious surface that the earth lost its country operating at the same time, heavily toward capital,” added the au - ability to recharge water. one is community-minded and con - thor. siders the collective well-being of cit - That event – and myriad others like izens; and one is rooted in individual The COVID-19 crisis and the deaths it – expressed and continue to express, competition and individual success,” of 613,000 people, including large

83 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 numbers of essential workers, have inequality, slow living-standards ported that from 1973 until 2015, forced America into a position where growth, and a host of other key economic while productivity was increasing more we will either profoundly reconsider challenges: the near stagnation of hourly than 73 percent, hourly pay for workers that balance of power, or further fall wage growth for the vast majority of went up only 11 percent. In other prey to the late stages of vulture capi - American workers over the past genera - words, productivity grew by more than talism, in Hennelly’s judgement. tion. Countering that by generating six times the rise in wages earned by broad-based wage growth is our core workers. The son of North Jersey activists, the economic policy challenge. future award-winning WBGO- Over the arc of Hennelly’s years as a Newark Public Radio, CBS 60 Min - By Labor Day 2016, after eight years of reporter, we traded the diminishment utes and New York Times reporter Obama, America’s workers were really of our natural resources, including originally felt compelled to immerse stuck and even losing ground, as wealth drinking water, for the promise of af - himself in government and politics re - concentration and income disparity ac - fordability, even as the quality of life porting following the assassination of tually accelerated. Despite adding 10 for most declined or remained flat, John F. Kennedy. As a child, he felt million jobs over his tenure, 1.6 million along with incomes. “We fooled our - the loss of idealism in the country as working-age Americans actually selves into believing that we were liv - a consequence of that event, never dropped out of the workforce. The labor ing in the halcyon days of the 1950s, substantially regained. A critical op - force participation rate slid from 66 per - when in reality we were running up portunity – the election of Barack cent to a low of 62.6 percent under debt; going hundreds of billions of Obama to the presidency in 2008 – Obama.” dollars into debt, in part owing to became merely another re-entrench - military investments, which is all ment of a Stuck Nation. The erosion of the middle class that has coming due now. A huge amount of been in the making at least since the wealth is not going to innovation but From the book: 1970s – when American workers LLCs domiciled in the Cayman Is - stopped seeing their wages grow at a pace lands, leveraged to influence our pol - As the Obama years drew to a close, the with their increasing productivity – was itics. Science is a process. It’s not Economic Policy Institute (EPI) ob - continuing By August 2016, EPI re - static. Unfortunately, our politics is served astutely that the country had “suf - fered from rising income inequality and chronically slow growth in the living standards of low – and moderate-in - come Americans.” The 2015 EPI analy - sis continued, “This disappointing living-standards growth – which was in fact caused by rising income inequality – preceded the Great Recession and con - tinues to this day. Fortunately, income inequality and middle-class living stan - dards are now squarely on the political agenda. But despite their increasing salience, these issues are too often dis - cussed in abstract terms. Ignored is the easy-to-understand root of rising income

84 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 stuck. Politics is about propaganda as pened with the 13 colonies,” Hen - jobs and their lives. What we see now opposed to having the courage to nelly said. is there is a national reconsideration evaluate our… circumstances.” about work. People are voting with Significant, but far short of the struc - their feet. They are asking, ‘What is COVID-19 revealed the starkest divi - tural overhaul America requires in my life really about? Is it about mak - sions. order to offset the longstanding im - ing the most money I can or quality balances we created, going back to of life?’ I did see in the aftermath of It revealed a president, – a “white su - those local planning boards Hennelly 9/11, unions, first responders and premacist authoritarian” – Donald covered in North Jersey, and back to lower Manhattan come together to Trump, intent on pitting states the early 60s, to the airbrushed killing make sure there was a program to deal against one another for his own ad - of Kennedy, and the deepening of a with their health issues; acting in a vantage instead of acting as a shield to political system that protects corpo - collective interest.” help those states. His leadership dur - rate power at the expense of working ing the crisis was “as threatening as people. It can happen again, Hennelly in - the virus itself.” sisted, and it must – with greater and “The president denied the [COVID] more sustained impact. “Credit Cuomo, Murphy, Lamont problem and resisted efforts by unions and other regional governors pulling to get testing and masks; the whole Editor’s Note: The piece is reprinted together in a compact to fight notion was we can’t have this disease from August 2nd. COVID-19, which I believe histori - imperil our economy,” said Hennelly. ans will see as significant as what hap - “People had to choose between their

85 New Jersey Education Association: 200,000 proud advocates for members,

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86

justice centered SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

“Normal” was Never Equitable for Working Women By Mary Gatta

As COVID-19 ravaged New Jersey particularly women of color, were dis - Rutgers University found, women some residents experienced unex - proportionally represented in service were disproportionately represented pected job loss, others became respon - occupations (such as retail and hospi - among workers in industries with the sible for overseeing remote schooling tality), along with sales and other re - most unemployment in New Jersey. of their children, and still others lated occupations, as compared to Specifically, women made up 51% of risked their lives to staff the state’s men. Overall, these jobs tend to be workers in accommodation and food hospitals, grocery stores and other es - characterized by low wages, lack of services and 77% of workers in health sential workplaces. The pandemic has workplace flexibility and predictable care and social assistance, two of the amplified long-standing inequalities hours and little job security. And top three industries hardest hit by un - that are endemic in our labor market. many of these jobs cannot be per - employment claims. And these num - Women, particularly women working formed remotely—a waitress needs to bers may be underestimating the in low-wage jobs and those who are be in the restaurant to serve a meal, impact. According to the Center for working mothers, experienced some and a cashier needs to be in the gro - American Progress, since February of the harshest economic impacts. cery store to ring up and bag food. 2020, more than 1.6 million women nationally have left the labor force en - Prior to the pandemic our labor mar - At the start of COVID, many women tirely AND are not looking for work, ket was characterized by high levels of either found themselves suddenly un - therefor not part of the unemploy - sex segregation—meaning that men employed or performing essential ment statistic. As such, the National and women are typically concentrated services with increased health risks. As Women’s Law Center estimates that in different occupations. Women, and the Center for Women and Work at the true unemployment rate for

87 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 women is 7.6 percent in June 2021. As Debra Lancaster, Executive Direc - leave—two important state policies Across race Black women’s unemploy - tor of the Center for Women and that help workers maintain some eco - ment rate was closer to 11.7 percent Work aptly summarizes, “Women are nomic security while caregiving or and Latinas around 10.5 percent. bearing the brunt of the economic cri - falling ill themselves. But that is not sis and social upheaval triggered by enough. New Jersey must ensure ac - Yet sex segregation is only part of the the pandemic. We saw this early in cessible and affordable childcare, story—women also faced increased the unemployment numbers when fe - workplace flexibility, and healthcare responsibilities in the home as schools male dominated industries were hard - for workers. In addition, we must pivoted to remote learning. According est hit. We also saw mothers taking on forward policies toward living wages to NJ Policy Perspective close to a disproportionate amount of unpaid for workers in low wage jobs, many of three-quarters of children live in care work at home to support their whom are women and people of households where all parents work, school age children with online learn - color. and 84 percent of all single mothers ing and care for their youngest chil - are in the workforce. Women with dren through childcare disruptions. The COVID pandemic provides us children under three years old were six And we saw women drop out of the with the opportunity to refashion our times more likely to have left their labor force permanently.” workplace and economic policies to jobs to manage childcare then were mitigate the inequities that were spot - men at the start of the pandemic. In time we will emerge from the cur - lighted. While the rally cry has been They further found that low-income rent crisis, yet as Lancaster notes, “we that we just want to “return to nor - Black and Latino/a parents were 1.5 need changes in policy, culture and mal”, our “normal” was never equi - times more likely than parents overall mindset to reduce the burdens of the table for working women. We need to either take time off from work or next pandemic or crisis on women.” to create a world that truly does value leave their job to stay at home when New Jersey does have paid family the work women perform in our their child is not in school. leave insurance and earned sick workplaces and in our homes.

88 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021

The Property Tax Challenge for Ciattarelli by FRED SNOWFLACK

Jack Ciattarelli says he wants to This is not exactly breaking news. councilman and a county freeholder “scream” when he hears former New (now commissioner). Jersey residents are living in the Car - The obvious challenge for Ciattarelli olinas and paying $3,000 a year in – like it’s been for many candidates The overall problem here is that “so - property taxes on four-bedroom from both parties before him – is to lutions” are easy to say, but almost im - homes. do something about it. possible to implement.

As he has appeared on a number of In contrast to some who seek the gov - Let’s begin with the basics. media outlets after securing the Re - ernorship, Ciattarelli, at least, is well publican gubernatorial nomination, familiar with the problem. We have too much local government Ciattarelli says what you’d expect a in New Jersey – there are 565 munic - candidate to say – property taxes in Property taxes fuel local government ipalities, 599 school districts and 21 New Jersey are too high! and Ciattarelli has been both a town counties. And that’s putting aside

89 SPECIAL EDITION LABOR 2021 such things as improvement and util - Try that and see what happens. If a Another option – at least on paper – ity authorities. town sought to save a few bucks by is to review the state’s entire tax struc - ending recycling pick-ups, there likely ture and consider removing property As many have said previously, with so would be a crowd of miffed residents taxes as the main supporter of public many towns and school districts at the next council meeting. Ditto if schools. The downside of doing that maintaining their distinct police and a school board tried to eliminate a would be that other taxes — sales, in - administrative staff, costs quickly rise. sport or just about any extracurricular come etc. – likely would have to in - And property taxes pay the tab. activity. crease.

This spectacle is fairly easy to see. As frustrating as the topic is, voters Ciattarelli, one hopes, will explain Drive down a main road in this state expect a gubernatorial candidate to what his thoughts are. for 15 miles and you can easily pass have ideas. And in truth, Phil Murphy through four or five municipalities. seldom talks about property taxes and But there is a sobering, if not cynical, the need for bold action to lower reality here. Simple logic suggests combining them. No magic wand is going to reduce towns, or short of that, consolidating property taxes. services. Ciattarelli in general has talked about school funding, which is where most That can’t happen unless we have But logic doesn’t always mesh with of your property taxes go. fewer towns, more regionalization of politics. services and maybe a different tax The school funding formula certainly structure. Just in Morris County, a location I needs reform, but even if it is made know well, attempts to do just that more equitable, the total amount of Candidates have to articulate a vision, have failed miserably – generally be - state aid going to schools may not in - but the public has to be willing to ac - cause of resident opposition. crease; it may just be shifted around. cept change. These failed plans have included That may lower property tax de - merging police in Mendham Borough mands in some towns, but raise them Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted and Mendham Township, contracting in others. from June 18th. for an out of town police department to serve Mount Arlington and even a most audacious plan to merge Mount Arlington and Roxbury.

There have been some success stories – police in Chester Borough and Chester Township have been consoli - dated. But by and large, the public seems to like the idea of “home rule” even if it costs them money.

Another way to reduce property taxes is probably more unpalatable politi - cally – scale back services.

90