"In an evening vote, the city chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police rejected a deal that would have reinstated officers in exchange for giving them unpaid furlough days.  F.O.P. Local 1 President John Williamson said the vote was 300-1 against the measure."

Like many cities across the country, Camden, New Jersey has a massive budget deficit.  To plug the hole, Camden has resorted to severe layoffs of their police, fire fighters and civil employees.  The police force lost 168 of their 368 officers to layoffs last week.  The sorriest part of this story is that there was no need for the layoffs!  If the public unions had agreed to reasonable pay and benefit reductions, almost all their members would still be employed.  Moreover, Mayor Dana Redd of Camden offered to reinstate 100 police officers if the union would accept three furlough days a month for six months, then one furlough day a month for the next 12 months. 

So what do you think happened next?  Did the union praise the mayor for coming up with a plan that would save most of their members' jobs?  Hah!  Of course not!  Instead they voted 300-1 against the offer in the finest display of public union greed and arrogance I've ever seen.  Then, to twist the knife further into the innocent taxpayers, they ran fear-mongering campaigns and offered a wage freeze. 

What a joke!  Camden has a $26 million deficit on a $138 million budget.  A wage freeze won't get it done.  But, it's better than what the Camden firefighters union offered:  a reduced wage increase!

To recap, instead of voting for the union members to keep their jobs (at a slightly reduced wage), the Camden public unions have allowed:

  • 1/3 of their members to lose their job
  • a reduced police and fire personnel presence in one of the most crime ridden cities in the nation (I thought their primary goal was to serve the pubic, not gouge them)
The solution to this is simple:  Camden should declare bankruptcy and let a judge decide what the appropriate wage and benefits should be. 



Camden struggles with manpower due to police, fire layoffs