URA-AFT Joins Trenton Rally
URA-AFT members met up with other AFT affiliates from around the state and more than 30,000 public workers and concerned citizens to call for a fair budget for New Jersey working families.
Members who attended the rally report back:
Tara Kelley
What struck me the most at the rally was the series of "man-in-the-street" interviews they conducted and broadcast. When you allow people to tell their own stories, you take abstract talk of "service cuts" and make it personal and direct. Now that issue has a name and a face - and one of these stories is bound to speak to everyone. Also, the fact that Christie intends to cut such a broad spectrum of services ensured that we heard unique voices.
Sandra Jenkins and Joyce Sagi served as event staff
Sandra Jenkins
The most interesting part for me was witnessing people from across the labor/skills/educational spectrum standing together to voice opposition to unfair political manueverings by the current state administration. I believe that unionized workers, public servants, "have nots" and others being offered as the scapegoat for state government failings prompted people to come out and stand up and say let's ACT against the assault on the everyday citizens of the state. The divide and conquer tactics of the governor are shameful. For me the ACT buttons we wore meant All Come Together. We can do more together than we can do apart.
Audrey Boyd
My most important reason for going to the rally was to boost the attendance. The fact that it turned out to be the largest rally in NJ history shows that if we each take some action and stand up and be counted, our message will be heard. My decision to go shows how each individual's effort to participate can make a difference.
My next reason for going was to hear the issues spelled out and see who was supporting us. I was very pleased with the speakers and it was great to hear from others about how the budget cuts are affecting their organizations.
Kathryn Neal
When I got to the rally, I was very lucky to have arrived at the very moment Larry Hamm was speaking. He is the president of the People's Organization for Progress and a long-time activist for social justice. He spoke eloquently and passionately against the Governor's budget priorities, and I especially appreciated that he put the issue into a larger context of U.S. history and the progress that has been made by various movements in this country, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and so on.
It is so important to realize this is not just about balancing New Jersey's budget. It is about doing it in such a way that people do not suffer unnecessarily, and we do not roll back the gains we have made in terms of caring about and valuing children, the elderly, the rights of workers to a living wage, and so on.
I have been constantly thinking that Christie is pro-business and anti-child and I believe that his budget cuts reflect that position. I was extemely moved when Larry Hamm literally said, I care about children. I am a taxpayer and a home-owner, and I do not mind if the people who are taking care of and teaching my children earn a decent wage.
Now that is a value system I agree with. Thank goodness for all the people who came to the rally and spoke out against the governor. It is exactly at moments of crisis like this that we must rally together and shout what we believe. This country was founded on principles like freedom of speech. If we do not speak out, why are we here?
Theresa O'Neill
It’s funny, what affected me most—where we were, not just the rally itself. Until then, I had never walked through the historic section of Trenton near the capitol, and I discovered a real hidden gem. I was completely bowled over by everything: the Pre-Revolutionary War architecture, the New Jersey State Library, and even a barrack preserve dating all the way back to the French and Indian War (1758). It hit me that all of this was in danger, with the Governor’s proposed budget. Going to the rally was no longer about simply advocating for myself and our members, it was about so much more. *Everybody* loses if this Governor’s budget is implemented.
If we want to be sure that everything in the proposed budget comes to pass, then absolutely we should sit back and do nothing. But as I saw at the rally, we all deserve better than that.
Helen Pirrello
The rally in Trenton brought together not only a united force but those who truly care for the welfare of others. For me, sharing a bus ride down and back with dedicated and enthusiastic union representatives from Rutgers local 888 not only added to the spirit of the rally but illustrated to me that no one stands alone when the welfare of others truly are at risk.
See photos from Saturday's rally in Trenton.
AFT New Jersey State Federation press release
AFT NJ State Federation Members Rally to Take Trenton Back
1,500 AFT members join 30,000 allies to stand up for a fair budget for working families
EDISON…AFT members planned for months with public worker unions and community allies, promising New Jersey state capital Trenton’s biggest rally ever. “We delivered Saturday and sent the Governor a message that attacks on public workers and a budget that punishes the needy hurts New Jersey,” said AFT State Federation president William Lipkin. “Our job now is to make sure this event resonates as a defining moment in our campaign for a fair state budget that supports public services such as quality education and healthcare.”
With official crowd estimates ranging between 30,000 and 35,000, teachers, nurses and those who rely on state services surrounded New Jersey’s capital complex with signs urging Democratic lawmakers to oppose Gov. Chris Christie’s austere budget. Speakers such as Educational Opportunity Fund students advocates for the developmentally disabled and library patrons criticized the priorities of the Governor in slashing their deserving programs, while vetoing a millionaires’ tax proposed by the legislature two days prior to the rally.
AFT organized 25 buses from locations around the state and 1,500 AFT members jumped on board or took trains to attend while others drove down early to coordinate the impending flood of foot traffic. New Jersey AFT members face threats from the adversarial Governor on numerous fronts. In addition to the large-scale layoffs and loss of services in the budget proposal, the Governor’s office introduced 33 bills he terms a “tool-kit” to lower New Jersey’s high property taxes by attacking public workers.
Further, in shifting the tax burden to municipalities by cutting school aid along with support for public safety and essential services, the Governor’s budget is forcing towns to increases taxes.
“Although couched as ‘reform’ measures, Governor Christie’s dramatic budget cuts and the bills he proposes to weaken collective bargaining constitute would severely impact our ability to educate students from kindergarten through college and still drive up taxes,” said AFT higher education vice president Dierdre Glenn Paul, a professor at Montclair State University. “As AFT members, we need to continue to call on our legislators to override the Governor’s veto of the millionaires’ tax, to propose a budget that values education and healthcare and to oppose the anti-union gimmicks in legislation proposed by the Governor.”
AFT New Jersey State Federation consists of a higher education division including full-time and part-time faculty and staff at state ten state colleges and universities and six community colleges and a pre-kindergarten through 12 division representing teachers and support personnel in schools throughout the state.
