WTFX
Reprinted with Permission

TRENTON, N.J. - The troubled economy brings another round of union members to the statehouse in Trenton.


This time, it's thousands of police and firefighters trying to get their message out to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Organizers said they were they expecting up to 10,000 participants, including retired police and firefighters. They say all of the layoffs of their colleagues have made New Jersey a much less safe place to live and work.

This comes just one day after the governor said he loves collective bargaining and he is ready to start negotiation with the state worker unions, the contracts for which are up in June.

Unlike the governors of Indiana and Wisconsin, Christie says he is in favor of collective bargaining but plans to be a tougher guy to bargain with then his predecessor, former Gov. Jon Corzine, who attended a public worker union rally outside the statehouse and told the workers he'd fight to get them a fair contract.

Christie says that right there ended any need to bargain for Corzine, and he gave the workers a 7-percent raise in a zero-percent inflation rate. Christie says he won't be so giving with the taxpayers' money.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, says pension and health care benefits for the average public safety worker cost local governments $47,000 a year. He says those costs will cause the systems to collapse unless workers start paying more.

Sweeney says the pension and benefits reform he's proposed are designed to keep the systems solvent, not hurt workers.

Fox 29's Katy Zachry's reports from Trenton on Thursday morning included an interview with two of the union presidents behind the rally (see the second video clip above).