Gov. Phil Murphy has spent millions of dollars forging an image that has not matched the reality of his racial bigotry and misogyny.
Murphy ignored women who have been raped and abused, and he has fought to stop measures to correct such injustices as racial segregation and discrimination.
AFSCME New Jersey Council 63 filed a lawsuit in superior court against Murphy and his administration for racial and gender-based discrimination.
Another lawsuit is pending that charges the state government of segregation in schools based on unfair municipal zoning laws and other factors.
Murphy has fought to prevent the desegregation initiative but his lawyers beat back the case filed by AFSCME, the union that represents approximately 6,000 front-line state employees in New Jersey’s veterans homes, psychiatric hospitals, developmental centers, the Division of Children and Families and other agencies.
Murphy is a former Goldman Sachs executive who used his Wall Street fortune to virtually buy his election as governor.
Murphy has a history with the national NAACP as a former board member, but while the governor has opened his checkbook to buy credentials he is often met with criticism — from school integration activists and others, who believe he has not done enough to combat segregation and racism in New Jersey.
For a millionaire like Murphy, money is cheap but it was never easy for him to align his actions with his rhetoric or bribery.
The AFSCME lawsuit came after the March 2022 decision by the governor to raise starting salaries for New Jersey correctional police officers (CPOs) by 20%, while also giving across the board increases of 8% on all steps to existing officers.
A state Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit although the union said Murphy’s administration violated the Law Against Discrimination by not giving raises to certain AFSCME members.
Meanwhile litigation is ongoing for a coalition of advocates and families who claimed the state’s public education system is socioeconomically segregated and that racial segregation exists across every district.
Judge Robert T. Lougy ruled that the state’s actions, policies, and programs have failed to remedy the racial segregation evident in numerous school districts throughout New Jersey — rejecting the state’s defense that it should not be held responsible.
The coalition of plaintiffs includes the families of nine students that attended schools in Camden, Elizabeth, Highland Park, Hoboken, Newark, Paterson, and Union City, and five advocacy groups, including Latino Action Network, NAACP New Jersey State Conference, Latino Coalition, Urban League of Essex County, and The United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey.
The root of their lawsuit — arguing that the state is liable for the segregation that is “unlawful, persistent, and pervasive” across its entire public educational system — is in part driven by a residency statute known as the “home rule.”
Lougy essentially affirmed that New Jersey’s schools are deeply segregated by race, and the state has a constitutional obligation to address this urgent problem.
Studies reveal that New Jersey’s schools remain among the most segregated in the nation, with the fifth highest level of intense segregation among Black students and the fourth highest level among Hispanic students.
During the 2022-23 school year, nearly 248,000 Black and Hispanic students (38%) in New Jersey attended schools with student populations that were more than 90% Black and/or Hispanic, and 27% of white students attended schools with student populations that were more than 75% white.
Leaders of the New Jersey branch of AFSCME — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — sued Murphy over legislation that gave raises to state corrections officers, who are mostly white men.
AFSCME claimed Murphy was being discriminatory by not giving raises to workers in state health care facilities, including veterans homes and psychiatric hospitals, who are mostly Black women.
Among the reasons cited by the millionaire politician for the prison guard pay hike was the fact that CPOs “appear for work, as true professionals, ready to ensure safety, security, and well-being for all,” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff shortages, mandatory overtime and weather-related events.
Essential workers in other critical state facilities, often working on the front lines alongside CPOs, did not receive the same increases despite working under the same conditions.
The biggest difference is that the prison guards tend to be white men while AFSCME workers are more likely to be black women.
“All state employees have worked almost three years under COVID-19,” said Sandra Hebert, president of the Paramus Veterans Home Employees. “We are front-line workers who deserve equal pay.”
“We had to work with limited staff, and because of that, all our scheduled vacation time was canceled because of the shortage of staff,” said Hebert. “We could not use sick time. It affected all of us. Some of us are currently seeing therapists, just to deal with the trauma of pandemic working conditions. It was very stressful, we worked under very bad conditions with not enough PPE.”
At the facility where Herbert is employed, she even lost a coworker to COVID.
“We fully support the increases given to the state’s CPOs, they deserve it, but so do other staff who are in similar positions,” said Steve Tully, executive director of AFSCME New Jersey Council 63.
“We have made every effort to discuss the pay disparity issue with the governor, but he has ignored some of the state’s most dedicated and hardest working employees,” said Tully. “ They do a hard job and they show up every single day under incredibly difficult conditions.”
“We don’t understand why the same governor, who says he supports women and people of color and created a wealth disparity task force to remedy long-standing inequities that affect black, Hispanic and Latino New Jerseyans, would refuse to agree to equal pay increases for state workers, who are primarily female and people of color,” said Tully. “These workers face the same circumstances that led to the CPO pay increases. Governor Murphy is leaving them behind.”
According to data supplied by the state, New Jersey’s CPOs are 82% male with the largest group among them being white males at 43%.
By comparison, AFSCME’s membership is 67% female and 82% minority, with black females making up the largest group at 47%.
“While using millions of dollars to cultivate an image as a liberal Democrat, Governor Murphy’s behavior reveals that he is a genuine racist and misogynist,” said Lisa McCormick, a frequent critic and leading progressive activist.
“In addition to denying fair wages to female minority state workers, he has ignored rampant racial segregation in New Jersey public schools and allowed sexual abuse in his campaign, state government and the professional women’s soccer team he owns,” said McCormick.