CWA Continues Push To Educate Lawmakers About Attacks on Public Workers

The action was in North Jersey last Thursday, as CWA members had meetings with Senators Theresa Ruiz (D-Newark) and Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn). State and local government workers met with the Senators to discuss concerns about an anti-worker package of legislation currently being considered in Trenton, called the “Toolkit.”

 

Natalie Exum-Peters, a shop steward for CWA Local 1037, raised the issue of politicians being able to furlough workers for nearly any reason. “The furloughs in the past have been financially a burden for me. I have small ones and I’m a taxpayer here in New Jersey,” she said.  Check out a video of Exum-Peters and Lillian Pichardo, another Local 1037 steward here:

 

CWAers had another meeting in North Jersey on Thursday with Senator Gordon.  For information on that meeting and a video reaction, click here.

 

And on Monday, two dozen CWA activists were at the Statehouse as the State Senate convened. CWAers cornered the Senators anywhere they could, in hallways, between meetings, in the cafeteria. The consensus was that Senators need to hear more from CWA constituents in their districts. “We know they want to reform Civil Service somehow, but we don’t know what they have in mind,” said Jennifer Geisenheimer, a staff rep for Local 1040. “If our members aren’t constantly calling their elected officials, their rights on the job are going to get trampled.”