All Ny-NJ Joint Board News

The economic crisis that is affecting all of us has shown America that it's time to put working people first - not billionaires and corporate special interests.

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the election of President Obama and the new Congress to make real progress on jobs, health care, a path to citizenship, and the right of every worker to organize. 

January 21,  2009 - Ninety Five members of the New York New Jersey Regional Joint Board's Manufacturing Division have finalized a new contract with their employer, Book Covers Inc in Newark, NJ.

Due to the weak economy, Book Covers Inc has recently suffered from decreased customer orders, and has been forced to temporary layoff 20% of the workforce. Despite this tough economic situation, the union bargaining committee was able to win the following:

January 15, 2009 - Members of Local 96 at the Hilton Hotel in East Brunswick recently achieved an important victory against the subcontracting of union jobs. Last Summer, management at the Hilton East Brunswick fired all three members of the night cleaning department, replacing them with temporary workers from a subcontracted cleaning firm.

Local 96 fought back, arguing that our union contract prohibits employers from displacing union members by hiring temporary contract workers. This essential component of our union contract ensures that employers can not erode union standards by slowly outsourcing all union departments to outside employers, who typically provides much lower wage and benefit levels than what union members have been able to win.

November 4, 2008 - On election night, leaders from the New Jersey Democratic Party gathered at the Heldrich Center to participate in the making of history, as Barack Obama was elected this country's first African-American President.

This election season, 51 members of the New York New Jersey Joint Board participated in our union's get out the vote political program!

November 4, 2008, New York: Barack Obama’s victory is a victory for working people across this country. Regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, immigration status, sexual orientation – all working people have taken a giant step forward today.

Barack has renewed our faith in what is possible for those who are trying to stay in the middle class and for those who are seeking to become a part of the middle class.

With great vision, he talked with us about what he wants to accomplish for the American people. And with great candor, he called for every person to become engaged in the effort.

October 25, 2008: NY-NJ Regional Joint Board Members hit the streets in Newark and Bayonne, NJ today for the third consecutive Saturday as part of their effort to mobilize fellow union members to vote in the Presidential election on November 4th.

To date, over 40 members from each of the union's three divisions (manufacturing, retail

October 10, 2008: New York New Jersey Regional Joint Board members, together with members of the Teamsters, UFCW, AFSCME, the NJ Laborers, SEIU, the Carpenters, the Plumbers and RWDSU rallied today in support of Senator Barack Obama for President.

Dennis Brooks, a Local 96 member from the Hilton Newark Penn Station, addressed the crowd about his reasons for supporting the Obama-Biden ticket.

September 18, 2008: The newly elected union negotiating committee at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick came to the Newark union hall on Thursday to begin preparing to negotiate their first union contract.