Saturday, February 26, 2011

Jersey Workers Take Fight to Capital


The class war continues to spread, as thousands protested outside the New Jersey Capitol in freezing rain on Friday. Gov. Chris Christie has called for drastic cuts to education, health, transportation and other services. He wants public workers to pay for 30% of their benefits, while refusing to renew a tax on millionaires. The benefits cuts would amount to a $5,000 pay cut for teachers. Christie also wants to gut tenure protections and increase privatization of public schools.

As typical, the union bosses were there, too, shedding crocodile tears for their members, while bending over backwards to accommodate the demands of the ruling elite. AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, for example, suggested that union leaders were willing to "find reasonable answers" to budget deficits at the bargaining table. Similar concessions were made by the WEAC and SEIU in Wisconsin. "They've been abusing us for years," said Trumka. "They've taken a lot from us. But they can't take our rights."

In other words, the unions will help the ruling class to squeeze workers as much as they like, so long as they allow unions to exist and the union bosses to continue getting their six-figure salaries.

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