As reported on Bloomberg.com:
More than 20 unions and individuals representing teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees claim the law enacted June 28 violates the U.S. and state constitutions by forcing them to pay more for pensions and health insurance. In a complaint in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, they asked a judge yesterday to block enforcement of the law and order the state to fully fund the pension systems.
The law “illegally takes away benefits that school employees and others have already earned through their service to the people of New Jersey,” Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement on the union’s website.
Really? Once again irresponsible, short-sighted union leaders seek to put their self-interest ahead of the public good. Were these employees not paid for “their service to the people of New Jersey?” Aren’t the benefit costs paid for by the people of New Jersey? No employer public or private should make commitments it cannot keep, but unfortunately circumstances change, the economy changes, companies change and public entities are not immune to such changes. Unions that do not act responsibly in gradually accommodating needed change and instead force crisis situations are their own worst enemy. New Jersey and many other states knew for many years (at least 1993 in the case of NJ) that their benefit packages for government workers were overly generous, could not be funded and were growing far faster than wages. Yet rather than cooperate in making changes that would deal with this problem over time with minimal impact on workers, the unions used their political clout to not only preserve the status quo but to further expand the benefit programs.
I’ve hashed this topic over and over, but it never ceases to be frustrating. The governor and legislators enacted a fair way to deal with a massive problem affecting every New Jersey resident and caused by these unions in cooperation with past governors and yet that isn’t enough.
Responsible government should be rewarded not subject to lawsuits.
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