Daily Targum: Governor speaks out for unions at local picnic
By Ariel Nagi, Published: Monday, September 7, 2009
The Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers kicked-off the annual Labor Day campaign Saturday at Johnson Park in Piscataway with a picnic featuring live music, a barbeque and a visit from the governor.
The campaign was put together to celebrate workers organizing unions and standing up for negotiated contracts in the midst of an extremely challenging economy, URA-AFT Executive Vice President Nat Bender said.
Read the full article at http://www.dailytargum.com/university/governor-speaks-out-for-unions-at-local-picnic-1.1868584.
“It’s about celebrating and supporting our workers,” said Bender, an employee at Rutgers Business School in Newark.
He said the picnic was one of four events that make up the 2009 Labor Day campaign, one of the few times of the year they have to take a look at some of the campaigns and tie them together in a way that makes people take a closer look.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidate Sen. Loretta Weinberg met at the picnic to show their support of unionized workers.
“I am glad that you all have fought so hard to have the right to collectively bargain,” said Corzine, who has a history with the union. “It’s a tough world and there is a high competition for resources.”
He said workers throughout the state, especially in the public University sector, are faced with unfortunate circumstances such as a shrinking budget, which fell from more than $33 million to $29 million.
“It’s a tough time I think everyone knows that,” Corzine said. “It has led to a tough dynamic … [but we will] try to keep our economics as safe as possible.”
Bender said as a public sector union at the University, they do not bargain directly with the state, but the way the state deals with state workers affects them.
Although Corzine said he’s seen the public sector drive grow in the last month, he would like to see the administration be more responsive.
Adrienne Eaton, a professor of Labor Studies at the Labor Education Center, said there is a lack of focus on labor issues.
Most students look at unions as blue-collar workers and people wearing hard hats, Eaton said.
“Bread-and-butter issues like benefits affect a lot of workers [in a wide range of professions],” Eaton said.
She said many people, especially students, do not have a full understanding of what unions are.
Corzine said students ought to look at these unions as their friends because administration and faculty have fought for academic freedom and achieved that through unionizing.
“Academic freedom was the fundamental source that drove University professors to join together to get tenure and be able to do their research and move forward,” he said.
Dorothy Grauer, an employee for 20 years at Dana Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department at Rutgers-Newark, said she joined the union because she was tired of unfair treatment by University management. Since she joined the union, her work life became more positive and comfortable.
“We really had nobody to stand in for us,” Grauer said. “We formed a union to have someone stand up for us so we could go to them with our issues and we’ve been doing well [ever since].”
Grauer said a big issue she faced before joining the union was being overworked.
Many departments laid off a lot of workers and had other workers take over their duty, she said.
“Now you’re one person and you’re doing the job of two people and they think that’s fine but it’s not fine,” she said.
Now management is forced to abide by the guidelines of their contract, which is a four-year contract approved in 2006, Grauer said.
The union began three years ago with a few members in response to salary cutbacks and an excessive amount of layoffs at the University that began in 2006, Bender said.
Now the union has more than 1,900 members and works with other unions locally and throughout New Jersey and New York.
AFT member Catherine Stanford said she encourages more staff members to join the union to fight for their voice.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” she said. “Without a union, you don’t have a fighting chance.”
