Public Employment Conference
has a wealth of info
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
The New Jersey Public Employment Conference April 17 in East Brunswick feeds one of
the components for furthering the
organization that NJ State PBA President Pat
Colligan values most: information. Good information. Reliable information. Information that
can help Locals represent their members most
effectively.
Many PBA members have seen President
Colligan in a familiar posture: Smartphone up,
eyes intensely focused on the screen. He’s not
always texting his daughter at college but more
likely scrolling and trolling through emails and
websites to get out the latest and greatest information on the latest and greatest happenings.
The 2015 New Jersey Public Employment
Conference was put together to provide such
information. Heavy-hitters from labor unions,
the legal field and major employers in the state
fill the panels of speakers addressing the most
important topics in labor, including Public
Employee Pensions and health benefits.
Not surprisingly, NJ State PBA Attorney Paul
Kleinbaum, one of the program coordinators,
tabbed President Colligan to speak as part of
the pensions panel.
“All the speakers are individuals who are
intimately familiar with the most important
issues in labor,” Kleinbaum says. “Pat brings a
very forceful perspective, and we have a crosssection of viewpoints to provide the kind of
information that whether you are a lawyer,
administrator from a municipality or a PBA
member, you will get a lot out of it.”
The NJ State PBA is one of the event sponsors, having taken on that role in 2014, joining
the Labor and Employment Section of the NJ
State Bar Association, the Rutgers School of
Management and Labor Relations, the NJ
Labor and Employment Relations Association
and many of the state’s other prominent labor
unions. The conference was originally presented by the Public Employment Relations Committee (PERC) of NJ, which backed out several
years ago much to the chagrin of many.
“I’m just glad somebody decided to pick up
the baton and run with it,” President Colligan
asserted. “I attended when it was a PERC conference, I attended while I was a PERC Commissioner and I will always attend. It’s a very
insightful conference, and that’s why we are a
sponsor.”
Colligan put out the word to all PBA Locals
to attend, because of, well, the information
available. It’s tough to find a one-day conference anywhere in the state to learn as much
about all the latest and greatest trends in labor.
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NEW JERSEY COPS
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APRIL 2015
Topics presented all in panel format address:
“Recent Developments in PERC Law;” “Saving
Public Employee Pensions;” “Public Employee
Health Benefits and Collective Bargaining;”
and a session called “Arbitrators’ Panel: How
would you decide?”
Recommendations from the Study Commission Report on public employee pensions and
healthcare, that status of the pending pension
litigation, the impact on collective negotiations
of the “Cadillac Tax” and the sunset provision
in Chapter 78 and the medical homes model
and patient-centered care fueled the download
of information. Kleinbaum noted some of the
golden nuggets available amidst this plethora
of detail.
“One of the panels on PERC cases is of
tremendous importance because PERC has
reversed years and years of precedence,” he
explained. “And the panel about how arbitrators decide cases deals with the kind of information and evidence helpful to them in
reaching different decisions, the type of evidence that might turn a case. These are about
grievance arbitration disputes that arise under
collective bargaining agreements, and that’s
something all unions experience.”
President Colligan pointed out that added
value comes from getting the perspective of
management and being able to give management the perspective of labor all in one forum.
“They get to see how we think, and we get to
see how they think,” he said. “This isn’t a
‘gotcha’ thing. It’s a chance to get the message
out to a broader audience.”
No labor gathering would be complete without some back-room dealing. In the case here,
however it’s more lunchroom dealings. President Colligan said that the conference also provides a chance for two sides negotiating to
make a labor deal sitting down and talking
about around a table that is not a negotiating
table.
“If you’re involved in an arbitration or dispute with a particular employer or
counterpart, it is not unusual for the parties to
get together here and talk about some of the
issues that are pending,” Kleinbaum said. “It’s
a good chance to talk to people who you are
involved with away from the forum in which
those battles are being fought.” d
New Jersey Public
Employment Conference
April 17
8:45 a.m.-4 p.m.
East Brunswick Hilton, East Brunswick
THE SPEAKERS
Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson
Member. Newark Board of Education
Arnold Shep Cohen, Esq.
Oxfeld Cohen, PC (Newark)
Patrick Colligan
President, NJ State PBA
Mary Crangle, Esq.
Arbitrator (Delmar, NY)
Lou Greenwald
NJ Assembly Majority Leader
Seth Hahn, Esq.
NJ Political Director, CWA (Trenton)
Thomas J. Healey, CFA
Study Commission Member
Partner, Healey Development, LLC (Morristown)
Lawrence Henderson, Esq.
Former Chairman of NJ PERC
Henderson Dispute Resolution Services, LLC
(Mountainside)
Kevin J. Kelleher
Director, NJEA Research and Economic Services
Robin McMahon, Esq.
Cleary Giacobbe Alfieri Jacobs, LLC (Matawan)
Jim Mets, Esq.
Mets, Schiro & McGovern, LLP (Woodbridge)
Kenneth Nowak, Esq.
Zazzali Fagella Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman
(Newark)
Patrick Nowlan
AAUP-AFT Executive Director, Rutgers (New
Brunswick)
Susan Osborn, Esq.
Arbitrator (Trenton)
Julia Sass Rubin
Associate Professor, Rutgers University
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Mark Ruderman, Esq.
Ruderman & Glickman, PC (Springfield)
Douglas Solomon, Esq.
Genova Burns, LLC (Newark)
Erica Tener, Esq.
Arbitrator (Mt. Tremper, NY)
Keith Waldman, Esq.
Seilkoff & Cohen, PA (Mt. Laurel)
Arnold Zudick
Arbitrator (Morrisville)