The feud between Governor Christie and the state’s
largest teachers union is entering a new phase in the courtroom.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson on
Wednesday ordered the New Jersey Education Association to appear next week to
explain why key members missed meetings on health care plans that the
administration says could save taxpayers $70 million the next two years. The
lead plaintiff, Attorney General Christopher Porrino, had requested “emergent
relief” by the court Tuesday so the state can set employee health care rates
before the open enrollment period begins Oct. 3. Without the rates, Porrino’s
office argued in court papers, “school employees will be unable to make informed
decisions about which health benefits plan to choose.”
But the teachers union said it will “vigorously” fight
the Christie administration and what it said is the governor’s “failure” to
fill a vacant seat on the School Employees’ Health Benefits Commission, which
is responsible for the health plans and whose meetings are at the center of the
dispute.
Christie has battled the teachers union from the moment
he took office in 2010 and successfully launched an overhaul of employee
pension and benefits that forced workers to pay more out of pocket. But
Christie’s refusal to commit to his end of the bargain of paying defined
amounts into the public employee pension fund deepened the divide and prompted
a legal challenge from unions, including the teachers’, which ended up in state
Supreme Court.
And Christie recently launched an effort that could erode
the union’s power in Trenton – it is not only the largest union, but often
spends heavily in support of Democrats in the Legislature – by proposing a flat
school-funding plan that would likely force school closures and layoffs in
poor, urban districts.
The latest battle, like the original between Christie and
the teacher’s union, focuses on health benefits.
The nine-member commission is comprised of Cabinet members,
gubernatorial appointees and representatives from the teacher’s union and the
New Jersey chapter of the AFL-CIO labor union. The AFL-CIO and chair positions
are empty, leaving seven members. Five members must be present at meetings for
a quorum, but because two seats are vacant, at least one commissioner nominated
by the teacher’s union must be in attendance, according to court documents.
The commission must vote rates for the next year’s health
plans in July or “shortly thereafter,” according to court documents.
But the three teachers union members have not attended
those meetings, according to the Attorney General’s complaint. The commission’s
consultant had recommended that the commission consider converting its Medicare
supplement contract with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey into a
Medicare Advantage contract, which the state says provide the same choices but
would save taxpayers $70 million through the 2018 fiscal year, according to
court documents.
Meanwhile, the State Health Benefits Plan Design
Committee agreed to similar health plan changes for state retirees after
Christie froze 2017 transitional aid to towns.
The three teachers union members “have repeatedly and
willfully refused to attend meetings,” Assistant Attorney General Jean P.
Reilly wrote in Tuesday’s brief. “This truancy has prevented the commission
from establishing a quorum and conducting time-sensitive, essential state
business that affects every school employee and taxpayer in the state.”
Wendell Steinhauer, president of the education
association and one of the three commissioners who has not attended the
meetings, said the union intends to challenge the state. He said Christie has
not filled a vacant seat on the commission but is trying to force change in
retiree health benefits that can only be made by a separate body, the School
Employees’ Health Benefits Plan Design Committee. Steinhauer called it “another
attempt” by Christie to “manipulate” the commission by “refusing” to appoint a
labor representative, which, he said, “has created an imbalance on the
commission in favor of the administration.”
“Christie’s blatant disregard for the law and his
attempts to manipulate the commission are utterly inappropriate. We will fight
vigorously and look forward to the opportunity to present our case in court. We
will pursue every legal opportunity to uphold state law and defend the legal
rights of our members against the governor’s inappropriate actions,” Steinhauer
said in a statement.
Christie’s office declined to comment and deferred to the
Attorney General’s office.
Judge Jacobson ruled in favor of the administration,
saying the teacher’s union must appear in court next week and argue why it
should not provide a list of dates between Sept. 8 and Sept. 15 where members
are available to consider the health plan changes.
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