Ex-workers picketing on Seaview Drive
In recent weeks, residents have called the Reporter to ask why there are demonstrators with signs on Seaview Drive. According to former workers of AFL Web Printing, the protests stem from a round of layoffs announced last month.
The company, which owns a plant in Secaucus on Seaview Drive and another one in Voorhees, maintains that it had to downsize its local staff after making the decision to send more of its business to Voorhees. Nine men were laid off in late June.
Workers claim that the men who were laid off were specifically targeted because they had been trying to organize a union.
One of the nine men, Secaucus resident Joe Fix, said the group wanted to unionize to improve “working conditions [and] break and leave policies.” Fix had been one of the lead union organizers, he said last week.
Even though Fix was terminated and is currently looking for another job, he said the ex-workers continue to picket outside AFL to help the remaining employees get unionized.
Christie signs property tax cap bill into law
Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation last week that will cap local property tax increases at 2 percent. Under the new law, towns won’t be able to raise property taxes more than 2 percent unless they get voter approval to do so. The law does allow some exceptions, however. For example, increases in health care premiums are not subject to the cap.
Originally the governor had proposed a constitutional amendment to cap local property taxes at 2.5 percent. Christie’s proposal included only one exemption. The Democratic-controlled Assembly and Senate proposed a 2.9 percent cap that included several exemptions. The Democratic proposals also made the cap a law, but not a constitutional amendment.
Ultimately, the two sides compromised. The cap was dropped to 2 percent, includes more exemptions than Christie had wanted, but fewer than the Dems’ proposals. Christie also abandoned the requirement that the cap be a constitutional amendment.
Days after the compromise bill was signed by the governor, the state announced that costs for municipal workers in the state health plan will rise 11.7 percent next year, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper. Since health insurance premiums are among the exceptions to the tax cap, analysts believe the 11.7 percent increase will be passed on to voters.
Hartz donates $97K to vets group
Secaucus-based Hartz Mountain Industries donated more than $97,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project to support the organization’s work to honor and assist wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The donation is part of Hartz’s three-year commitment to raise money for the organization. Over the next three years, Hartz will donate a percentage the purchase price of Hartz pet care products sold by the Defense Commissary Agency, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the Navy Exchange Service Command, and the Marine Corps Exchange Service.