Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in New Jersey participated in a lobby day last Thursday to meet with their legislators and promote CWA’s legislative priorities. After attending a lobbying training, participants flooded the state legislature in Trenton and spoke with their representatives about the need to advance several pro-worker policies that would strengthen New Jersey’s working families, including the expansion of collective bargaining rights for local government and college workers, relief for local government workers from crushing health care premium increases and extension of the New Jersey Corporate Business Tax (CBT) surcharge. The members also attended various legislative committee hearings.
After their meetings with legislators, the CWA members joined community allies in front of the statehouse for a rally to call for the extension of the New Jersey CBT surcharge. This rally included a march from the statehouse to the Trenton office of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, where Christian Estevez, CWA District 1 New Jersey legislative and political director, spoke about the need to prioritize the funding of much-needed public services over tax breaks for big corporations and the billionaires that own them.