For the per diem interpreters of New Jersey, Carla Katz, president of Communications Workers of America, Local 1034, is going to be a very important person. Since the spring of 2000, efforts have been underway to have New Jersey’s Administrative Office of the Courts recognize CWA-1034 as the collective bargaining representative of the per diem interpreters. If we are successful, CWA will be able to help negotiate better pay, better benefits and fair working conditions.
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Interview with
Carla Katz, President of Local 1034, the Communication Workers of America
OC: How long have you been the president of Local 1034 and what are your responsibilites?
CK: I've been president for the last eighteen months but I've been with CWA as an officer, staff person and organizer since 1981. I am primarily an advocate for the people who are a part of CWA-1034. It's a big group now: 13,000. Some of the biggest contracts that we hold are for state employees in both the executive branch and in the state judiciary.
New Jersey State Workers Rally Against Cuts
May 23, 2005
Hundreds of state workers and retirees in New Jersey represented by CWA and other unions rallied outside the statehouse in Trenton on May 16 to protest possible cuts in their medical plans and risky changes to their pensions.
Protesters shouted, "We are not the problem," and said some state officials are unfairly pinning the state's budget problems on them. Other leaders are firmly standing by the workers.
"Without these people, our state would be in vastly worse shape than it is," Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein said, quoted by the Trenton Times. "The (benefits) are tremendous costs, but we can't talk about threatening or cutting things people already have."
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In an op-ed column published in the Asbury Park Press, Carla Katz, president of CWA Local 1034, said the "overheated anti-union rhetoric" in the press and from the governor's office has "created the worst climate for public workers since the anti-labor days of the Whitman administration."
"Public workers are not getting rich on the backs of taxpayers," Katz wrote. "Public workers, who earn an average of $50,000 a year and who can retire after 25 years with an average pension of $27,000, are not the culprits in the state's fiscal crisis. Public workers have traded hundreds of millions of dollars in wage increases, and forgone promotions and higher private-sector wages to help the state and local governments meet their fiscal challenges."
Katz said further that CWA's public sector locals, and other unions, have tried to work with the state to contain health care costs, "such as pooling the purchase of prescription drugs, expanding disease management programs and increasing the use of generic drugs."
"The state needs to work with public sector unions, not attack our members' benefits," she said.
This is mainstream method for business/politics in NJ!
Oh don't fret this. This is fine behavior because he's a Democrat liberal. God help him if he was Republican Senator, he'd be impeached.
Wonder how Carla's rank and file feel about her getting half a mil tax free dollars from a DEMOCRAT pol?
They bring it on themselves. They listen to the BS, spewed from the mouths of the leadership, only to be led over the cliffs.
The only ones that ever come out ahead in the end is the leadership.
“There is something fundamentally wrong when a key litigant vacations with a justice who is about to rule on his case. It's even more troubling when their trip is funded by an oil company that has a direct interest in the case," said Corzine. “Unfortunately, this reflects the Administration's long-standing pattern of improper influence and special favors for special interests. President Bush needs to establish clear rules to prevent this type of conduct from ever occurring again. I also hope that Justice Scalia will reconsider his decision to not recuse himself. There should be no doubt about the Court's objectivity and impartiality.”- JonCorzine, January 17, 2004
From :
CORZINE: CHENEY-SCALIA DUCKHUNTING TRIP REFLECTS PATTERN OF SPECIAL INTEREST INFLUENCE Says Bush should set rules prohibiting such conduct and Scalia should reconsider recusal
http://www.politicsnj.com/corzine011704.htm