The Governor provided to me, along with other union leaders in the NJ AFL-CIO, some inside information that we are sharing with you now. Firstly, he told us that the NJ state servers crashed when 15,000 people, in a single day, applied for public assistance through NJ Family Leave, Temporary Disability Insurance, and NJ State Unemployment. He also reassured us that it is his goal and intent to ensure that none of our members have to experience what those 15,000 unemployed workers experienced; he does not want any of us losing our jobs.
What he told us in private, he said in his daily news briefing later that day. At the briefing, he told the public he met with the Executive Council of the NJ AFL-CIO, and he later said that “New Jersey is a union state, and our union workers are important.” The Governor praised the NJ AFL-CIO’s leadership in yesterday’s press conference and told us on the call that Charlie Wowkanech, the President of the NJ AFL-CIO, is doing an excellent job.