New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court ruling on Harris v. Quinn regarding public sector home care workers in Illinois:

New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said the state labor movement is determined to do whatever is necessary to save the 2,100 jobs jeopardized by Caesars Entertainment’s announcement to close Atlantic City’s Showboat Casino.

Last night, the State Senate and Assembly adopted a resolution (AR-137/SR-82) urging the Newark School Administration to engage in meaningful negotiations and to reach an agreement with hundreds of non-instructional and food service workers – represented by Workers United – who have been without a contract for five years.

This evening, the New Jersey State Senate and Assembly approved a balanced budget plan for FY2015 which includes full funding for public employee pensions in accordance with actuarial recommendations. Charles Wowkanech, President of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, released the following statement:

At Newark public schools, hundreds of food service and non-instructional workers, represented by Workers United, have been without a contract for five years and are not getting any closer to resolving this stalemate given the school administration’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful negotiations. Rather than hearing the concerns of workers, whose wages have been frozen for five years, Governor Christie and Newark Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson, decided to give substantial salary increases to high level administration staff.

CLICK HERE to contact your legislators and pass along a simple message for them to “please support AR-137/SR-82 to help Newark public school workers achieve a fair contract” The resolution could be voted on as soon as this Thursday.

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO announces the hiring of Trenton political reporter Angela Delli Santi as its new communications director.

Senator Donald Norcross Becomes State’s First Labor Candidate to Run for Congress

Over 600 delegates, representing 1,000 labor unions and the one-million union members of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, convened at Caesars Atlantic City from June 10-11, 2014, to participate in the endorsement process for one U.S. Senate seat, 12 U.S. House Districts, and a slate of 24 rank-and-file union members running for public office from the town council to federal level. Since the inception of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates Program, 781 election victories have been achieved to date.

CLICK HERE for a list of this year's endorsements.

When Gov. Christie announced his illegal plan to slash pension funding, the unions representing public employees vowed to sue to protect our members’ rights. Together, we are moving forward to file that suit quickly.