Christie Admits Failed History of Privatization in New Jersey, Vows to Push Forward Anyway

Just one day after acknowledging that he has to follow the contract between CWA and the State of New Jersey, Chris Christie announced a commission to privatize as many as 2,000 jobs beginning next January.

Christie acknowledged that privatization has a long and failed hisory in New Jersey of leading to higher costs and lower-quality services for taxpayers.  He then vowed to push ahead anyway.

CWA responded by pointing out that privatization is a one-way street to corruption and special favors that benefit the few at the expense of working families.  "Past privatizations have resulted in terrible reductions in the quality of services and haven't saved the public any money," said Bob Master, regional political director for Communications Workers of America. Christie is "approaching the problem with a kind of religious conviction that government is the problem or government can't do the job and looking to what clearly are failed solutions from the past."

Christie responded by saying "It's a new day and a different administration," saying he would ensure there was no corruption this time around.  The irony was apparently lost on Christie, given that he was announcing a privatization task force chaired by a Washington lobbyist, Dick Zimmer, while three of the other four members of the task force will be business executives or industry representatives that directly stand to benefit from privatization.

Christie created the commission by signing his 17th Executive Order in less than seven weeks since taking office--just the latest in a series of attacks made against public workers as he refuses to meet with CWA.

"My office door is open," Christie said, even though he has not answered numerous requests made by CWA to have a meeting.

Christie seemed misinformed in his press release, saying, "I don’t think you will find private sector employees anywhere enjoying the luxury of an 11 percent raise next year," implying that state workers have received such a raise recently.  In reality, state workers have not received a single raise since July 2008.

Check back soon for more information from CWA about how we are responding to this announcement.