New Jersey Public Workers File Federal Lawsuit Over Pension Cuts

CWA and other unions representing New Jersey public workers are taking the state to federal court to fight costly changes to employees' pension plans.

In passing the legislation, lawmakers and Gov. Chris Christie broke decades of promises to public workers and violated the New Jersey and U.S. constitutions in multiple ways, union leaders said.

"New Jersey made a promise to its public workers: work hard, serve the people of New Jersey, and take a salary that is less than what you might earn in the private sector, and you can look forward to a secure and stable retirement," said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA New Jersey state director. "It is not lavish: the average state pension, including managers, is $23,000 a year; and just $14,000 for local government workers. But hundreds of thousands of public service professionals planned their lives around that deal."

For most of the last 15 years, the state has failed to make its obligatory contributions to the employee pension plan, while workers have never missed a payment. But under the new law, retirees' automatic cost-of-living increases will be eliminated and current workers will have to pay even more into the system.

"Retirees and long-term public workers, who in many cases have devoted their entire working lives to the state of New Jersey, can't go back and choose a different path," Rosenstein said. "They earned every penny of their pensions, and if Trenton politicians won't keep their promise, we have no choice but to go to court to force them to uphold their end of the bargain."