The demonstration, organized by a coalition of unions representing New Jersey public employees at all levels of government—including state and local government employees, teachers, nurses, college faculty, firefighters and police officers—was held in response to legislative proposals to grab pension and healthcare benefits from workers to pay for property tax relief.

Proposals on the table would raise the threshold at which employees would qualify for pension benefits, reduce pension payouts and raise the retirement age for public employees in the state pension plan. Also, all public employees would see higher copays and reduced health benefits.

To put the pension benefit in perspective, the average annual pension is $17,902 for state government retirees and $11,216 for local government retirees.

The union coalition supports legislated pension reforms that address core problems with the systems, including state and local governments’ failure to pay their tab to the systems since 1997—more than $8 billion—and pension abuses by political appointees and government contractors due to loopholes in the systems.

The special legislative session convened last summer to address property tax relief ended in December with lawmakers deadlocked over a solution. Some lawmakers, resolute that public employee benefits should be pared, continue to call for legislative action on pension and healthcare benefits. Gov. Jon S. Corzine, however, has publicly stated his support for union workers and his belief that pension and healthcare benefit changes should be addressed at the bargaining table during contract negotiations.

AFT member George Dikdan, a researcher at the University of Medicine and Denistry in Newark, told the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform last fall that the value of the pension and healthcare benefits narrows the gap between public sector and private sector total compensation—the dollar value of salary and benefits—which makes the government a more competitive employer.

“It has been the guarantee of good health insurance coverage and a pension program that has been the driving force in our remaining in the public sector,” Dikdan said, speaking on behalf of his 2,000 colleagues represented by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT. “As you know, public employees are paid far less than their counterparts in the private sector. ... A researcher at a pharmaceutical company would make $10,000 to $20,000 more than researchers in the public sector.”

Other unions representing affected government employees in New Jersey include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Communications Workers of America and the National Education Association.