TRENTON, Feb. 21 — Negotiators for state government and for unions representing 35,000 workers have reached an agreement on a proposed contract that would for the first time require that New Jersey employees pay a portion of their health insurance premiums and would increase their contribution to the state pension fund.þþThe proposal, which would raise the retirement age for new employees to 60 from 55, would give state employees salary increases of about 13 percent over four years. The pact, which must be voted on by members of seven locals of the Communications Workers of America, is being opposed by the two largest locals.þþNegotiators for the state hailed the proposal, with its concessions from unions on health insurance contributions and other items, as something that could have a domino effect and influence pending municipal and school district negotiations.þþAngelo Genova, a lawyer who was among the state’s negotiators, said that using the state proposal as a model in local negotiations would go far in helping to keep increases in property taxes in check and help resolve what most agree has been a severe underfinancing of government pension funds during the last decade.þþ“We have breached a dam,” Mr. Genova said, referring to the unions’ willingness to agree to contribute 1.5 percent of the workers’ salaries to health insurance and to increase their pension contribution to 5.5 percent from 5 percent.þþBut Carla Katz, president of Local 1034, the largest of the union locals, said she would work against the proposed contract, which she said union negotiators had agreed to “too soon and in a vacuum.” She said the union, whose contract expires June 30, should have waited until the unveiling of Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s budget on Thursday.þþ“What’s bad is we are paying for health care in a significant way for the first time in our entire existence in the state,” Ms. Katz said.þþBut Bob Master, the main negotiator for the unions, predicted that the rank and file would approve it. He noted that in the last four contracts for state workers since 1995, various locals were at odds, but that in the end the contracts were always approved.þþ“Those who think we could have gotten more are simply not acknowledging the reality of the environment in which we are working,” he said, referring to what he described as a pervasive view that the benefits and salaries of public employees drive up property taxes. “This was the elephant in the room, and there was a legislative uprising against pensions and benefits.”þþMr. Genova, in detailing the costs of the proposed agreement, said preliminary calculations showed that the cost of the first year of the salary increase would be about $90 million. He said that the proposed contributions by the workers to health insurance and other changes along with the increased pension contribution would in turn save the state a total of $196 million in the coming year. Under the proposed contract, state workers would get 3 percent raises in each of the first two years of the four-year contract and 3.5 percent in each of the last two years.þþThe proposed contract had something for both sides. The increases were below the 4 percent cap that the governor has said he would like to see on spending. For the unions, the pact would represent the first time in 15 years in which a contract did not include at least a one-year wage freeze.þþMr. Genova, at a news conference, lauded the willingness of the unions to trust in the collective bargaining process and accept the governor’s challenge to address some structural problems in state pensions. But he insisted that the announcement of the tentative agreement was not “a victory lap” for the governor.þþBut a host of legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, saw it as just that. They all recalled how in December the governor emphatically warned them away from addressing a number of pension-related and health insurance matters, saying that he would address them in the collective bargaining process. There were many skeptics who felt that Mr. Corzine, an official with a reputation as a friend of labor unions, would not be a tough bargainer.þþ“Without question, Governor Corzine delivered on his promise to achieve many of the Legislature’s pension and benefit reform goals through contract negotiations,” said Senate President Richard J. Codey, a Democrat, in a statement.þþSpeaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. of the State Assembly, also a Democrat, called the agreement “a balanced product that will be beneficial over the long term for taxpayers and government employees alike.”þþThe Republican minority leader in Senate, Leonard Lance, also congratulated the governor on what he said was a significant change in state labor contracts, saying that “compensation in the public sector ultimately has to mirror compensation in the private sector, and this seems to be a step in that direction.”þþ
Source: NY Times
