Employees in New Jersey’s largest state-worker union overwhelmingly ratified a revised contract agreement on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 that defers a raise and trades furloughs this year for future vacation days. With a little over 13,000 votes cast online or by phone by the deadline, the margin was 69 percent to 31 percent according to

On Friday, April 17, 2009, The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, upheld the ability of state and local governments to furlough public employees. The court agreed with the decision of the state government that the fiscal crisis that the state and nation currently faces allows for emergency action.

In citing its opinion the

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Treasurer for the State of New Jersey, David Rousseau, the Director for the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and Union officials that I represent.  The purposes of the meeting was to listen to the Treasurer’s doom and gloom speech regarding the State budget, how