| | | | |  | | By Jonathan Custodio | Seven South Jersey bus drivers represented by the National Right to Work Foundation are suing the South Jersey Transportation Authority and Local 196 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers in federal court in a dispute over dues collection. The suit argues that the union, which represents SJTA workers, seized funds from the paychecks of the bus drivers — Tyron Foxworth, Doris Hamilton, Karen Burdett, Karen Hairston, Ted Lively, Arlene Gibson, and Stanley Burke — after they formally opted-out of paying dues. The plaintiffs say the union violated their First Amendment rights under the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, which ruled that non-union government employees were exempt from paying dues as a condition of employment. According to the lawsuit, the bus drivers claim that the union has continued to take dues from their paychecks despite signed documentation showing that they maintained the right to request out of dues deduction. The bus drivers requested the opt-out in October and November of last year, with an expectation that dues collection would cease Jan. 1. Their attorneys, however, say that a contract stipulation restricting workers' dues revocation requests to January was never shared with drivers nor was their consent requested. The drivers, who work out of Camden and Atlantic counties, are seeking a permanent stop to dues deducted from their earnings and restitution of the dues that have already been collected, according to the lawsuit. A National Right to Work Foundation spokesperson told POLITICO that an estimated $600 to $1,000 has been collectively taken out of the drivers' wages thus far. "These South Jersey Transportation Authority drivers are just the latest in a long line of Foundation-backed public workers who have discovered, after trying to dissociate from an unwanted union, that union officials brazenly locked them in restrictive dues schemes without even a whiff of consent," National Right to Work Foundation president Mark Mix said in a written statement. A spokesperson for the SJTA said the authority would not comment on pending litigation. The IFPTE could not be immediately reached for comment. HAPPY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON — Hi there, I'm Jonathan Custodio, your Playbook PM author. You can send eastern goldfinch photos to jcustodio@politico.com. We're here with the latest from Trenton and elsewhere as New Jersey moves ahead in the budget process and the Legislature conducts hearings on Gov. Phil Murphy's spending plan. |  | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY | |
PLASTIC BAG BAN — New Jersey's plastic bag ban starts today. The folks at The Record break down what New Jerseyans need to know as they navigate the new shopping scene. Supermarkets, big box stores, restaurants, and small retailers that fail to adhere to the ban risk fines of up to $5,000. However, several small businesses have not yet adapted to the restriction, with some either unaware or choosing to continue to dole out single-use plastic bags, report The Record's Scott Fallon, David P. Willis, and Amanda Oglesby.
COVID NUMBERS — Hospitalizations rose to their highest number in nearly two months as New Jersey reported 2,729 confirmed positive Covid-19 tests and 12 deaths from the virus today. The seven-day average was up 13 percent from a week ago and 129 percent from a month ago. | | ON THE BEATS | |
EDUCATION— The State Board of Education will not reopen a review of New Jersey's sex education learning standards, with a majority of the board and the acting education commissioner defending the language that's come under fire by some conservatives. At the board's monthly meeting today — the first since outrage and misinformation about the sex education standards started circulating in April — most members stood behind the standards and defended the local process that allows districts to set individual curriculum for their schools. "Our local boards of education have the rights, responsibility and the direction to do what's appropriate for their community," Kathy Goldenberg, the board president, said. — Carly Sitrin
ELECTION CASH — Democratic and Republican parties in New Jersey's 21 counties have a combined $3.9 million in the bank — the most in more than a decade, according to an analysis by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Most of that money is in the coffers of Democrats, who dominate state-level politics in New Jersey. The 21 Democratic county committees had almost $3.3 million as of the end of March — more than five times the $603,000 Republicans have banked. The GOP figure may be slightly higher, as Somerset County Republicans were not included in the total. — Matt Friedman | | Around New Jersey | |
"NJ Schools Development Authority to pay again in scandal fallout. Here's what it will cost," by The Record's Dustin Racioppi: "The Schools Development Authority has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit with a former employee, the latest financial cost for the agency in the fallout of a patronage scandal three years ago. The agreement with Aaron Goss, a longtime employee who claimed he was wrongly included in a mass firing following the scandal, brings the cost of two settlement payouts by the authority to $900,000, with two other suits pending. Goss, at the time a director at the authority, was fired in July 2019 along with 29 other employees, after independent reviews corroborated reporting by the USA TODAY Network of improper hiring under the former chief executive officer, Lizette Delgado-Polanco."
"'I'm angry:' Hundreds rally for abortion rights at Planned Parenthood in Montclair," by The Record's Julia Martin: "Several hundred people filled the street in front of Montclair's Planned Parenthood on Tuesday in support of abortion rights after a draft U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion, leaked to the press on Monday, signaled that the justices could soon overturn Roe v. Wade. The rally was hastily organized by a coalition of progressive groups and attended by a host of area politicians, including Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Donald Payne Jr., Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Phil Murphy. Sherrill said she'd spent a sleepless night 'thinking about all the fights you've had for every scrap of justice for women throughout your entire life, and how it's all being rolled back.'" "Fight grows to change standard key to Delaware River's health," by NJ Spotlight News' Andrew S. Lewis: "Advocates for the Delaware River's endangered Atlantic sturgeon have intensified their simmering battle with the Delaware River Basin Commission, the interstate agency charged with maintaining water quality standards throughout the watershed, over its threshold for dissolved oxygen in the river, which hasn't been changed in over a half-century. On Friday, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Environment New Jersey, PennFuture and Clean Air Council submitted a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency 'to engage in rulemaking to revise the water quality standards' that would 'override' the commission in order to quickly raise its dissolved oxygen threshold for the Delaware River. The petitioners also want the designated uses for the most industrialized sections of the waterway revised to include protections for resident fish and spawning and nursery habitat for migrating fish, like the Atlantic sturgeon." | | Odds and ends | |
— A man used a flamethrower during a confrontation with police in Lyndhurst.
— Casino workers in Atlantic City are looking for a pay raise. — Jersey City's public employees union says the city missed a court-ordered deadline for doling out back pay. — Montclair High School has gone back to mask-wearing after a new Covid outbreak — The Republican mayor of Englewood Cliffs, Mario Kranjac, has invited Elon Musk to move Twitter's headquarters from San Francisco to his Bergen County borough.
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