Cristy's rebuttal to teaches
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuTm-ON904&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall[/ame]
http://woodbridge.injersey.com/2010...hers-union-calls-gov-christie-a-bully-update/
Nearly a hundred members and supporters of the
Woodbridge Township Education Association crammed the Board of Education's meeting Wednesday night to deliver a message: the union will not take a pay freeze and they will stand up to "the bully in Trenton,"
Gov. Chris Christie.
It's a school yard fight that will cost the school district at least $2.6 million that could be realized if the 2,000-member teacher and support staff union agree to forgo raises to their yearly salary increments. Christie has also promised extra state aid to districts where employees agree to freeze pay.
School officials had hoped the union would agree to concessions to spare some of the more than $12 million in programs and jobs cut from next year's $182.5 million budget. About 280 jobs will be lost. On Wednesday, only board member
Judy Leidner voted against adopting the budget, which proposes a 4 percent school tax increase.
While unions in other districts, such as Bridgewater-Raritan, Metuchen and Edison, have proposed freezing salaries for year, the Woodbridge association says it is “not backing down now.”
FULL COVERAGE: Visit our ELECTION page Addressing the board, WTEA vice president
William Leahy said members were 9 to 1 against opening the contract.
“Other unions are asking us what we're doing, and we're standing up,” Leahy said. “And if we stand together, we'll beat (Christie) right out of Trenton, and that is what it's about.”
Colonia High School teacher Mary Sue Fisco, a union firebrand who serves on the New Jersey Education Association's county and state panels, said the union's battles are not “just about education. It's about our rights and our jobs.”
“I'm tired of the disrespect from the parents of our community,” she said as her colleagues cheered. “If I begin to pay the 1.5 percent (toward health insurance) I take a pay cut and I will not do that!”
An angry Fisco also claimed that Christie called Woodbridge residents “white trash” on NJN News Wednesday night, but TV news archives do not show the governor making any such comment, which hasn't been reported elsewhere, either.
A Christie spokesman this week did
point to the Woodbridge union as an example of “an unmovable force. . . refusing any compromise whatsoever and putting jobs of colleagues on the line instead.”
Board president
Brian Molnar agreed.
“Mr. Leahy, you have members that are being hurt,” he said.
The meeting was the most raucous of any the forums the school board has held this year. Schools
Superintendent John Crowe called for unity to lobby for more funding from Trenton.
“We must come together and we must understand there is nothing to be gained by allowing the governor to divide the great community of Woodbridge,” he said.
