Christie Sued by Unions Over Pension, Cuts

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) New Jersey public employee unions, seeking to block a law reducing pension and health benefits, sued Governor Chris Christie and other state officials.

More than 20 unions and individuals representing teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees claim the law enacted June 28 violates the U.S. and state constitutions by forcing them to pay more for pensions and health insurance. In a complaint in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, they asked a judge yesterday to block enforcement of the law and order the state to fully fund the pension systems.

The law “illegally takes away benefits that school employees and others have already earned through their service to the people of New Jersey,” Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement on the union’s website.

Christie, a first-term Republican, has made addressing the state’s fiscal crisis a hallmark of his administration. Christie has said he skipped a contribution to the state pension system, which had a deficit of $53.9 billion in June 2010, because of the recession. Skipped payments by previous governors were a “contributing factor” to the current problems, he said. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-01/new-jersey-public-employeee-unions-sue-state-over-pension-health-benefits.html

[HockeyMom]

Rick Scott and Florida sued too

Based on the fact that current state employees signed contracts that they would not have to contriubute to their pensions. The state is breaking their contracts. Yes, they can require this for new employees by their contracts, but they are breaking contracts with current employees. It runs the gamit from FEA, PBA, to Teamsters. It should be interesting.

[HockeyMom]

1. Rick Scott and Florida sued too

Based on the fact that current state employees signed contracts that they would not have to contriubute to their pensions. The state is breaking their contracts. Yes, they can require this for new employees by their contracts, but they are breaking contracts with current employees. It runs the gamit from FEA, PBA, to Teamsters. It should be interesting.

[NNN0LHI]

2. When the pensions and benefits were cut for our retirees including myself we sued too

We lost our case in federal court some years back.

Hope these pensioners have better luck than we did.

Don

[gratuitous]

3. Could be interesting

Depending on how the contracts were worded, it might boil down to whether a party to a contract can change it unilaterally (generally speaking, no). The Supreme Court might get caught in a bind where they want unions and working people to be screwed, but the price for doing that is to interfere with the obligations of contracts, and the robber baron class depends heavily on contractual obligations as their avenue for ripping people off.