Posts tagged New Jersey
NJ Freelancer Advocate Kim Kavin Honored with I4AW’s Defender of Worker Freedom Award
December 19, 2025 // “Kim Kavin continues to publicize the struggles independent workers face against government overreach and bring real life context to how specific regulations would hinder their ability to prosper,” said I4AW President F. Vincent Vernuccio. Kavin is a lifelong writer and editor who started as a freelancer in 2003 after a decade in staff roles. In 2019, she co-founded the grassroots advocacy group Fight for Freelancers, where she organized and educated thousands of independent contractors.
Commentary: A Cautionary Moment for Union Transparency as Former NJEA Leader Seeks a National Role
December 17, 2025 // Most notably, a pair of New Jersey teachers have filed suit against the NJEA and its former leadership, alleging that millions of dollars in mandatory dues were used for political activities—including a nearly $50 million governor’s race—without meaningful member consent. These allegations are serious. They speak not only to how decisions were made, but to whether educators had clear information about how their own money was being deployed. At the same time, the New Jersey Policy Institute has filed complaints with both the IRS and the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, asking regulators to examine whether the union’s funding structures and political accounts complied with federal and state rules.
New Jersey’s GOP congressmen make rare break with Trump on collective bargaining
December 15, 2025 // New Jersey is one of the nation’s most heavily unionized states, and the state’s powerful unions frequently support politicians of both parties. Smith and Van Drew have received backing from the New Jersey AFL-CIO in recent re-election campaigns; during Kean’s 2024 campaign, meanwhile, the AFL-CIO chose to stay out of the race, which was seen as a victory for the congressman in a district that Democrats hoped to flip. Notably, though, none of New Jersey’s Republicans were part of the original effort to bring today’s collective bargaining bill to the floor in the first place. A discharge petition to force a vote on the bill got signatures from every House Democrat and five Republicans, but Kean, Van Drew, and Smith did not sign on.
New Jersey: ACR177 Joins SCR138
December 12, 2025 // New Jersey Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn has introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution 177, which is a companion to Senate Concurrent Resolution 138 that Senator Declan O’Scanlon introduced last month. ACR177 and SCR138 would declare the proposed independent-contractor rule at the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development inconsistent with legislative intent.
David Osborne: Unions spend big on politics — often at the expense of their members
November 17, 2025 // NJEA funneled general funds through Garden State Forward, Working New Jersey, and Protecting Our Democracy—all election-focused organizations that not only backed Spiller but also were headed by the NJEA president. These questionable activities landed NJEA in court with a lawsuit alleging that the union misled its members, including Dupont, who is a lead plaintiff.
New Jersey Education Association Under Fire for Promoting Antisemitism
November 14, 2025 // Its convention, held Nov. 6-7 in Atlantic City, featured a program, Teaching Palestine, whose lead presenter, Adam Sanchez, is affiliated with the Racial Justice and Organizing Committee, which has described the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel as “resistance” and blamed the attack on Israel.
Shawn Fain: Future of UAW ‘hangs in the balance’ as strike looms at Volkswagen plant
November 7, 2025 // To Fain, anything shy of total job security is not good enough. The current negotiations at Volkswagen remain stalled over a clause in Volkswagen's current offer that stipulates the company will not close the plant or cut jobs "unless conditions beyond the control of the company arise that make compliance with this commitment impractical." "American workers live in fear," Fain said. "Fear that if they ask for a dollar more, the boss is going to fire them or move the damn plant. That's economic terrorism."
‘DRAG IS NOT A CRIME’: NJ Teachers Union Backing Sherrill to Celebrate ‘Queens’ After Election
November 3, 2025 // The New Jersey Education Association, which has 200,000 members as the Garden State’s chapter of the National Education Association, will host its annual convention on Nov. 6 and 7, two days after the gubernatorial election. At the convention, the NJEA Consortium—a union project undertaken with education and “social justice” organizations—will host a Friday event called “Drag is Not a Crime: The Past, Present, and Future of Drag.” The convention’s floor plan also includes a booth dedicated to the drag theme. The NJEA convention theme puts “learning” third—after “equity” and “justice.”
Opinion: My teachers union calls it representation. I say there are $114 million reasons to sue them
October 28, 2025 // But during the current election cycle, I learned that the NJEA quietly sent more than $40 million from our dues to a political action committee — without the knowledge or consent of members, and without a shred of transparency. Even worse, union officials used that money — including my money — to serve themselves. Those funds fueled former NJEA President Sean Spiller’s failed gubernatorial run, while he was still president of the union. Even when it was quite clear that Spiller had no chance of winning (he ended up finishing a distant fifth in the Democratic primary), PACs supporting him recklessly burned through piles of our dues money as Spiller was on the campaign trail — all while he somehow also served "full-time" as union president, collecting his enormous salary and benefits package from that job.
California’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Hike Cost the State 18,000 Jobs. That Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone.
October 23, 2025 // The trio looked at fast-food employment in California and found a decline of 2.64 percent between September 2023 and September 2024—six months before and after the law went into effect. During that same time period, fast-food employment in the rest of the United States slightly increased. Those different outcomes make it likely that the law caused fast-food businesses to hire fewer people, with a probable effect of lowering such employment 2.3 percent to 3.9 percent. At the middle of the range, that means about 18,000 fewer jobs in California.