Union officials do no public work, costing millions, report says
A report released this morning shows that New Jersey taxpayers spend millions each year so public employees -- cops, firefighters, teachers -- can take leave from their public jobs and do union business. Once Gov. Christie reads the report, if he hasn't already, he is likely to add these tidbits into the rhetorical arsenal he aims at public employee unions.
Union officials do no public work, costing millions, report says
Matt Katz, Inquirer Staff Writer
Full story in Thursday's paper, here.
A report released this morning shows that New Jersey taxpayers spend millions each year so public employees -- cops, firefighters, teachers -- can take leave from their public jobs and do union business.
Once Gov. Christie reads the report, if he hasn't already, he is likely to add these tidbits into the rhetorical arsenal he aims at public employee unions.
In Camden, $2.3 million has been spent over the past five years to pay the salaries and benefits for three cops and three firefighters who do full-time union business (not policing or firefighting), according to the report from the independent State Commission of Investigation. In the Camden schools, the report found that the district is reimbursed by the teachers' union for a union official's salary -- but such reimbursement payments have not always been made.
We're working on getting responses from all of the Camden unions, but in an initial interview the Camden police union president says there are only two, not three, government-paid union officials in the city.
Statewide some union officials have been on paid leave for decades while "occupying government job titles but doing no government work," according to the SCI. Contracts -- and in some cases, unofficial agreements -- allow some union officials to get a salary, health coverage and additional benefits like perfect-attendance stipends, overtime, cars, office space and computers.
The report said: "Although it is not uncommon, nor it is necessarily improper, for government employers to grant some form of time-off for union work, the Commission found significant and questionable variations in how such leave is authorized, who qualifies for it, who keeps track of it, how it is constituted and who ultimately pays the bill."
The state's largest teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association, released a statement in response saying that the report indicates that these “work release arrangements” are “legal and commonplace,” and had been negotiated by school employees before being ratified by school boards.
NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said: “Providing negotiated release time for the purpose of conducting union business saves both time and money in districts and provides for a better school environment for all concerned…. The fact that the release of this report comes in the midst of a sustained attack on public education and public sector unions in New Jersey is a remarkable coincidence.”
The investigation looked at more than 120 school districts, 17 municipalities, all 21 counties and 12 departments of state government. In that slice of public sector, between 2006 and 2011, government-paid leave for public employees cost taxpayers more than $30 million.
The commission recommended that taxpayer-funded union leave be eliminated or at least "substantially curtailed."
Unions have become what they fought against, corporate greed and exploitation.— j$- Unions, especially public employee unions, defend the uneducated, lazy and incompetant making Democracy harder for American's to realize BECAUSE UNIONS make access to Govt services harder to get. Ever needed a permit, or a varience, pay or fight a parking ticket or some other form of Govt action? Its like dealing with the mentally challenged making life miserable.
- Here's the deal: union contracts at some point are negotiated between two sides. So someone at some point gave them these concessions. Now are you going to fault to the unions for garnering these concessions? That's like being angry at Ryan Howard because the Phillies wanted to give him a $125 million contract extension. Maybe next time someone will negotiate a little better.— beegal99
- Long before them, dude. — mike l
- The problem in NJ is that the contracts are not negotiated between two sides. They are negoiated between the union saying 'We want' and the other side saying 'I will give you that so, the union will vote for me' The taxpayers are not represented in that type of negotiation.— jwhite
- "All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service." -- Saint Franklin Delano Roosevelt, August 16, 1937
- Really, dude? How many school board candidates have ever run promising to help unions? The next will be the first. More gop myths. — mike l
- Full time union work and benefits should be provided by the union, not the taxpayers.— jwhite
- bee - precisely. if the policy is so bad, simply negotiate it out or have the legislators pass a law that forbids it. at the same time, how many millions of dollars have the NJ taxpayers paid to the gov's office for business that does not pertain to the state...fundraising, trip to israel, indiana, ohio, mets games, giants games, etc. christie knows darn well he takes advantage of his position just as well. helicopter rides to son's baseball games sound familiar. i'm sure christie will vilify every teacher, firmen, police officer, etc because thats he rolls. but its blatant hypocrisy. great politician - bad dude.— slanted and enchanted
- Christie's probably too busy eating meatball hoagies to read this report. Dude is FAT.— squirrelpants
- I'll take Christie and his dietary habits vs those criminal Democrats McGreevey and Corzine any day of the week. Wasn't McGreevy busted having sexual relations in a truck stop with a man and wasn't Corzine presiding over MFGlobal when they went bankrupt and "lost" over $1B in customers money?!?!
- Name the crimes either was convicted of. Name calling? That the level you rise to. — MikeP
- Dont be so naive you dolt. Its people like you that have turned this country into a second rate nation.
- Where did you get that McGreevy story? Faux News? — Jen D
Reach him at mkatz@phillynews.com or 609-217-8355.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattkatz00. Reach Matt at mkatz@phillynews.com or 609-217-8355.
