We did very well in the November, 2011 Elections. With few exceptions, everyone we supported in the Senate, Assembly, County and local elections won.  More importantly, the Democrats retained control of both the Senate and Assembly. This will serve as a buffer to the anti-union, anti-public employee measures that Governor Christie and the republicans have tried to legislate.

Governor Christie is still pushing to do away with civil service in New Jersey. However, the Democrats are still opposing his efforts. Below is an Op Ed piece by Assemblywoman Linda Stender

Opinion

Assemblywomen Stender: Democrats have solution for civil service reform

Your Nov. 23 editorial “Christie vs. civil service” contained one glaring omission — the Legislature has indeed already passed a measure to reform New Jersey’s civil service system.

Instead of signing it, Gov. Chris Christie conditionally vetoed it, calling for changes that would gut New Jersey’s civil service system entirely to further fulfill his agenda of stripping away workers’ rights.

The New Jersey Constitution requires the state to maintain a civil service system for hiring and promoting individuals for certain government jobs in order to shield workers from patronage and political retaliation, and ensure that decisions are based on merit.

In that spirit, Democrats sponsored and passed a bill that would modernize the civil service system and create greater transparency while, at the same time, protecting workers against nepotism and corruption.

The bill also would enable towns to use the collective bargaining process to avoid costly litigation associated with pursuing disciplinary actions and  remedy other cost drivers such as mandatory terminal leave payment and redundant civil service titles, which often harbor employees who perform duplicative functions.

Unlike the governor’s vision, our civil service reform is a nuanced approach that addresses the cost drivers in the system while still protecting hard workers.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union)