TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The AFL-CIO took revenge on New Jersey legislators who supported a pension and health benefits overhaul by voting Thursday not to endorse any lawmaker who supported the deal, including fellow union members and the Legislature's most powerful Democrat.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who pushed the benefits legislation over the vehement objection of organized labor, was the most prominent casualty of the union's payback. Sweeney, an ironworker, has supported paid family leave and other pro-labor issues. But his leading role in muscling through legislation that raised the cost of benefits and suspended collective bargaining over health care this spring cost him labor's endorsement for the first time in his nine-year legislative career.
Sen. Donald Norcross, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was also among the 22 Democrats who voted for the benefits reforms and weren't endorsed at the union's annual conference.
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"We have done right by working men and women our entire life," Sweeney said. "The people that are opposed to us just don't get it. They don't realize the pressures that are on the state. There was never an attack on public sector workers."
Sweeney and Norcross, both from South Jersey, were recommended by the union's executive council and supported by about 60 percent of the delegates — shy of the 67 percent needed for endorsement.
The lack of labor support shouldn't affect the outcome of the race in safe Democratic districts like Sweeney's and Norcross's. While the candidates won't have access to donor lists and other campaign aid that the AFL-CIO provides, local unions could fill the void.
The raucous endorsement conference exposed a division within the AFL-CIO, a federation of labor organizations that includes painters, electricians, teachers, state workers and more.
The private-sector unions voted to endorse Sweeney, Norcross and Republican Assemblyman John Amodeo, a member of the operating engineers union who voted yes on pension and health benefits reforms. But the public-sector unions voted against the endorsements.
"We have our tea baggers in labor and they spoke very clearly," Norcross said.
Dozens of building trades delegates walked out after the vote on Norcross, the last of the three union members to be voted down. Building Trades and Construction Council President Bill Mullen had threatened to walk out if the Democrats were not endorsed, saying the lawmakers shouldn't be judged on one vote.
But Hetty Rosenstein, state political director of the Communications Workers of America, lobbied hard against endorsing those who didn't stand with the union, especially Sweeney.
"There was no question about it, we did not endorse him, we do not support him. He did something he should not have done — he drove this bill, he deteriorated our rights in terms of collective bargaining," Rosenstein said. "He went way past anything he had to do and we did what we had to do."
The vote on Sweeney's endorsement was 586 in favor, 374 against. The tally on Norcross was similar. Amodeo's total was 496 in favor, 473 against with 4 abstentions.
Charlie Wowkanech, president of the state AFL-CIO, said the votes reinforce the importance of collective bargaining.
"Today's statement was that the right to collective bargaining is a cornerstone of organized labor," he said. "There were many people here today who were very disappointed in the way some of our labor candidates and Democrats voted."
Still, he said, the unions will work hard to see that the Democratic majority is maintained in both houses of the Legislature. All 120 seats are up for re-election in November.
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