CWA leader ousted from talks; union seeks restraining orders
By: David Campbell
WEST WINDSOR — In a letter sent to the leadership of the Communications Workers of America last week, the Whitman administration said it will no longer recognize local CWA President Rae Roeder as a union representative and is barring her from nonpublic state property, in part due to behavior it called “loud, belligerent, profane and threatening.”
In response, the CWA is seeking restraining orders against the state for its “extraordinary action,” saying it has a chilling effect on labor.
Ms. Roeder, Local 1033 president and Township Council president, was not restrained in her response. She called the state’s claims inaccurate, and said its actions are akin to stripping her of her American citizenship.
“The State of New Jersey cannot decide who it will and will not deal with,” she said. “We stand up to them and speak our peace, and they don’t like that.”
State Employee Relations Director Philip Whitcomb, in a letter to CWA Area Director Robert Pursell, said Ms. Roeder has had “unacceptable altercations” with management representatives and employees of various state departments and agencies.
“This letter is to officially advise you that the State will no longer recognize Ms. Roeder as an authorized representative of CWA for conducting business with the State, nor grant Ms. Roeder access to premises as an authorized representative of CWA,” Mr. Whitcomb wrote.
Mr. Pursell was unavailable for further comment Monday.
Ms. Roeder said Mr. Whitcomb’s accusations of “loud, belligerent, profane and threatening” behavior by her — which Mr. Whitcomb said happened during recent discussions with management representatives from the Department of the Treasury — were not supported by transcripts from the meeting in question.
In response to Mr. Whitcomb’s letter, the CWA last week filed a brief and a motion for temporary restraining orders against the state on behalf of the CWA. The brief, filed by CWA lawyer Steven P. Weissman, said that “while state managers may prefer union representatives to be soft-spoken and submissive, an employer has no right to interfere with the choice of employee representatives because it objects to an individual’s zealous representation of workers’ interests.”
The brief went on to say that the state’s action “chills national and local union representatives from zealously representing workers,” adding that “the ripple effect of this extraordinary action — stripping Roeder of her presidency — will reverberate through the public sector labor community and will serve as a warning to all union representatives: Argue with management, raise your voice … and you run the risk of management refusing to deal with you and barring you from providing representation to your members.”
While Ms. Roeder said the state’s action will have no impact on her work as Township Council president, she said some township residents have begun calling her “Norma Rae,” in reference to the ill-fated union organizer in a union-hostile southern textile mill.
Councilwoman Jacqueline Alberts said that “hopefully the state will not confuse the two,” pointing out that the township does have some state-driven and regional concerns, such as the proposed Millstone Bypass, Route 1 and the Meadow Road overpass.