Posts tagged New Jersey
Sherrill pulls cabinet member from senate confirmation
October 23, 2026 // Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s nominee for Commissioner of Labor was sitting on the floor of the State Senate today expecting to witness a vote on his own confirmation when the governor’s office abruptly pulled him out of the chamber and asked that the vote be postponed. It’s not immediately clear why Sherrill wanted to delay Jarvis just as he was on the cusp on confirmation. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
Freelance Busting: “They All Had A Different Answer”
October 20, 2026 // Senator after senator described statewide confusion about the rule among business owners, attorneys, accountants and constituents. Senators said people are constantly asking them about the legality of continuing to hire every conceivable kind of working person, from financial advisers to babysitters. One senator described what’s happening in some industries as “panic mode.” Another said he convened accountants in his district to ask about the independent-contractor rule, and “they all had a different answer.” Yet another asked, “Who’s the guru of the determining if you pass or fail the ABC Test?” and wondered aloud if there was going to be a Division of ABC Test Clarification within the state’s Labor Department.
Huge N.J. refinery locks out 400 union workers amid contract talks, negotiators say
October 20, 2026 // Negotiators for Houston-based Phillips 66, which owns Bayway, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union Local 877, which represents 400 workers at the refinery, had reached a tentative agreement on a new contact. However, a narrow majority of rank-and-file union members declined to ratify the deal in a vote on Friday, prompting the company to block union workers from entering its gate on Park Avenue in Linden on Monday at 4 p.m. Phillips issued a statement Tuesday saying it was “disappointed” by the situation, but that the refinery would continue operating without disruption using, “properly trained and qualified personnel to meet all customer requirements.”
Commentary: New Jersey Takes Aim at Freedom of Its Independent Contractors
October 16, 2026 // In 2019, the legislature voted in AB5, and it was quickly signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Enforcement went into effect in 2020, and as Karen Anderson, founder of Freelancers Against AB5, explained on her Substack, four years later, independent professionals are still experiencing the fallout.
New Jersey: Kim Kavin: Carveout Chaos Ahead
October 2, 2026 // Anderson is the founder of Freelancers Against AB5, the leading advocacy group in California that is still trying to figure out how to get that state’s ABC Test law repealed. She is currently a Future of Work Fellow with the Institute for the American Worker in Washington, D.C., an excellent program about labor and employment policy that I completed earlier this year. And, Anderson and I both testified before Congress on this issue in 2023, when her testimony included the following passage, some three years after California’s ABC Test law and a cleanup bill that followed it had gone into effect:
Union workers accuse N.J. mayor of targeting members in wave of layoffs
September 17, 2026 // “We cannot spend what we do not have or continue practices that our finances cannot sustain,” Hyatt said. “We must make difficult choices today to protect the financial health of our Township tomorrow.” Hyatt submitted a 2026 layoff plan to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, with notifications posted in municipal buildings and township departments.
NJBIA: Latest Independent Contractor Carve-Out Bill Highlights Fatal Flaws of New ABC Test
September 15, 2026 // The rule, strongly opposed by NJBIA, New Jersey's business community, New Jersey freelancers and legislators from both sides of the aisle, has been paused until Oct. 1 to give NJDOL and lawmakers time to work out any needed statutory changes. But as there are only 16 days left until the rule takes effect and no statutory changes have been made, NJBIA has launched a grassroots campaign to urge Gov. Mikie Sherrill to delay the implementation of the rule until July 1, 2027. Further, Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-22) has also formally requested the Sherrill administration to pause the rule.
Report: The Battle for Worker Freedom: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws
September 10, 2026 // Union executives are prioritizing recruitment. The fastest-growing category of public sector labor legislation expands collective bargaining into new workplaces. On the strength of these new laws, union executives are slowly replacing their membership losses since 2018. From 2018 to 2025, the country’s four largest government unions report a net decline in membership of 87,919, or 1.3 percent. However, they also report a collective gain of 232,502 members, or 3.5 percent since 2024. This report awards full letter-grade increases to Idaho (now A) and Louisiana (now B) due to their adoption of pro-worker labor reforms this past legislative session. However, the drops in grades—Nebraska (D), Nevada (D), and Rhode Island (F)—are the result of these states prioritizing union executives over workers and enacting laws helping unions recruit, politick, organize, and strike. Thirteen states now have an “A” or “A+” grade—up from twelve in the previous edition of this report—while six states earned an “F”—up from five over the same time period. Overall, the research finds 25 states fall below a “C.”
NJ remains one of nation’s most unionized states, Rutgers report finds
September 9, 2026 // The researchers estimate New Jersey has about 22,000 more union members than in a previous Rutgers study. But the share of workers belonging to unions slipped slightly because nonunion employment grew faster. New Jersey's average unionization rate was 15.47% from 2023 through 2025, ranking sixth-highest among the 50 states and well above the national rate of about 10%.
‘Severe Adverse Impact’
September 8, 2026 // Scutari’s action is good news for independent contractors like me. He is showing leadership on this policy issue in response to all the independent contractors and the broader business community who continue to stand in fierce opposition to the rulemaking, which attempts to impose the Labor Department’s own interpretation of regulatory language that defines who can legitimately earn income as an independent contractor throughout the state.