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Join Fellow AFT Members to Stand Up For Our Rights and the Future of Education in New Jersey

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On Monday, the State Senate passed a series of bills that attack the rights of public employees and our health and pension benefits. These bills were rushed through the Senate without fair hearing or discussion with the unions of the thousands of teachers and support staff targeted by the legislation. Even worse, the package of bills, if enacted, would not achieve significant cost savings to protect our pension— it’s just a cheap political stunt to attack our rights. As for the threat to our health benefits, the legislation circumvents the collective bargaining process and could lead to a unilateral imposition of costs on all of us.

If you can take a few minutes to call your legislator, please complete the form below to be connected to your Assembly member’s office (we’ll provide some talking points and a basic script for you).

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Here are a few “lowlights” of the legislation (all of the following would be done outside of the collective bargaining process):

  • The pension bill reduces the benefits formula for new in members PERS and TPAF from n/55 to n/60. This would mean all new hires would face at least an 8% cut in pensions.
  • The health care bill requires all active employees of the State, local governments, county colleges, and boards of education to contribute 1.5% of base salary toward the cost of their health care coverage. This amount will be in addition to any other amount that may be required through the local collective bargaining process. The provision would begin with the expiration of existing contracts.
  • The health care bill requires new employees (not already employed) to pay 1.5% of their pension benefit in retirement toward post-retirement medical benefits.
This makes it incredibly important for all of us to reach out to members of the State Assembly to call for careful deliberation in their house before benefits are put on the chopping block and collective bargaining rights are trampled on. Now is the time for all AFT members to stand up for our rights and let our legislators know that we expect to have a seat at the table when it comes to our jobs, our schools and our future.

In addition to the pension and health legislation headed to the Assembly, we face the current fiscal year freezes in school aid made my Gov. Christie. His executive order will lead to mid-year cuts in aid to school districts—without any legislative input. The Governor claims these cuts ($475 million statewide) will have no effect on the classroom since local districts will be forced to spend their own funds to cover the difference. It’s impossible for school districts to empty their coffers in this fiscal year to cover the Governor’s cuts and, at the same time, plan for reasonable budgets next year. This will directly affect teachers, students and property taxes. Please call on legislators to stand up to the Governor’s unilateral cuts to public education.