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It’s time to stand up for our rights, our schools and our future. Join with other AFT members in New Jersey to send a message to our legislators.

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.

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.

If you can take a few minutes to call your legislator, please click on this link to be connected directly to your Assembly member’s office (we’ll provide some talking points and a basic script for you)

http://www.aft.org/click2call/aftnj.cfm

If you would prefer to call through the legislative switchboard, you can call 1(866)584-3962.

If you would like to email your legislator, please click the following link (form letter included):

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/NJ022410

Here is a sample letter/email to your Assembly member on the current situation:

Assemblyman/Assemblywoman,

My name is _____________. I’m a member of the American Federation of Teachers in _____________. I’m calling to urge the Assemblyman/Assemblywoman to stand up for schools and respect the collective bargaining process. The recently passed bills in the Senate, coupled with the Governor’s executive order to freeze aid to school districts amount to an attack on teachers and support staff. Even worse, these actions will lead to diminishing resources to educate our kids.

· The Senate bills on health and pension benefits for public employees are a direct attack on our rights to bargain our own contracts. The only equitable way to solve our budget problems is to include the thousands of teachers and support staff in the process of fully funding the pension system and ensuring fair health benefits. This should be done at the bargaining table. Please stand with us in our call to respect collective bargaining rights and ensure school employees have a seat at the table when it comes to our jobs, our students and our future.

· Please call on the Governor to work with the legislature on the current year’s budget gap. His executive order that froze school aid will hurt classroom education and cripple local budgets going into next year. His stated goal (property tax relief) will not be met by forcing the hand of local school districts and bankrupting education.

Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know how if you would like any more information or a meeting with other AFT members.

Sincerely,

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