A mere 3 years before that humiliating show of powerlessness, many of those same politicians were running TO Local 1040.  What happened?

As we all know in New Jersey, money talks.  Our Local leadership doesn’t seem to understand that concept anymore.  A review of the public records of New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) shows a disappointing lack of political contributions compared to other Locals who represent state workers like 1032, 1034 and 1037.  It really is quite simple...we have to BE at the table before we can TALK at the table... and the meal isn't free!

A review of the LM#2 report for 2006 shows that we contributed over $86,000 for political purposes; however, what many people do not understand is that this money is not really contributed to a particular campaign.  10% of the President’s salary listed on the LM#2 was attributed to political lobbying, as was 10% of the Executive Vice President Don Klein’s salary, 10% of Tom Bruno’s, 5% of Joe Link’s, 5% of Mike Makara’s and 3% of Staff Representative William Kauffman’s.  That comprises approximately $36,000 of the money.  The remaining $50,000 was actually two separate donations of $25,000 each to non-federal Political Action Committees (PACs).  Nothing was given to individual candidates by the Local so that they could put a face to the money.  In other words, we might as well have been anonymous donors! 

We have lost our political clout in New Jersey politics.  We backed losing candidates like Senator Asselta and Senator Karcher because our leadership did not bother to ask the members in those districts what they thought before we threw our support into the wind.  We threatened Senator Sweeney who is now the Chairman of the powerful Senate Budget Committee and is on his way to take over as the Senate President.

And what happened to all of the Local’s Political Staff?  Fran Fiore? Tom Bruno?? Joe Link???  

The FY2008 Budget rolled through the Assembly and the Senate without a single person from our Local’s leadership commenting at any one of the SIX public hearings that were held throughout the State.

A Bill was introduced (S1090, but now is P.L. 2006 c.61) and 4 public hearings were held throughout the State by the Department of Human Services (DHS) dealing with institutional closures which would put nearly 1,500 Local members out of their job.  Again, not one person from our leadership was there to advocate for our members.  All parties who spoke are listed on the DHS website.  Upper Central Hearing, Southern Hearing, and Lower-Central Hearing, (the Northern Hearing at North Jersey Developmental Center on January 16, 2007 is not available online as yet).

The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) began a Council they call the Olmstead Implementation and Planning Advisory Council.  Again, Local 1040 is woefully absent despite being a major stakeholder in the process!  Instead, DDD decided, “Stakeholder involvement will continue through [the Council] that will start meeting in June 2007. The council members will include people with developmental disabilities, family members, advocates, provider agency representatives and state agency representatives."

Another bill passed both houses and was signed into law by the governor that significantly increases the cost of pension loans to our members who are in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) by nearly double.  Yet not a word from our local leaders to us or to the legislature. 

Is that the kind of mindless leadership we pay union dues for?