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As Jersey City cuts workers amid budget crisis, unions make their voices heard
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Jul 22, 2026
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Keren Vered - Finally Home / Getty Images
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Jul 22, 2026
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The harsh reality of Jersey City’s financial crisis is striking dozens of city workers.
Thirty-one provisional workers were laid off this month by Mayor James Solomon’s administration, without any prior notice given to the City Council — on a Friday, July 10. Some of the workers were led off their worksites with a police escort.
Solomon has warned for months that fixing Jersey City’s $255 million spending gap will take steep local tax increases, cuts to city services and likely layoffs of public workers. City departments had previously been told to identify possible cuts, but the mass firing of provisional workers was the first layoff since Solomon took office.
The layoff, done just hours before Solomon released his budget proposal, sparked outcry from members of the City Council and outrage on social media. But it also invigorated Jersey City’s public workers unions, which have begun to assert themselves in the budget debate. Union leaders say their members are worried about their jobs and frustrated by financial uncertainty. And with almost every union working without a contract, tough negotiations with city leaders are overdue.
Hundreds of union workers — from police officers and firefighters to crossing guards and public works laborers — filled City Hall during last week’s City Council meeting. Over hours of public comment, they urged city leaders tasked with fixing the financial mess to value and protect the workers that make Jersey City run.
“Do not mistake the people who keep this city running for the problem. We are not the enemy,” said Letia Nalls, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association. “We are the workforce. We are your neighbors. We are your community.”
“Our members remain grossly underpaid, despite the essential services they provide. Our union was hit especially hard with the recent layoffs. I lost 16 employees,” said John Kilroy, president of Jersey City Public Employees Inc. Local 246, the city’s largest civilian worker union. “ These are people who come out here every day and do a job for you, and they were treated like garbage.”
It was a reminder of the important role that city worker unions will play in dealing with Jersey City’s budget crisis, and of the bubbling tensions between those unions and city leadership, which predate Solomon’s administration.
There are 11 unions representing city workers in Jersey City. Only three of those have current contracts with the city, and two of those expire at the end of the year. The other eight have all been out of contract for at least a year, and one — Local 245, which represents crossing guards, public works and parks workers — has waited more than six years for a new contract.
Nathaniel Styer, a city spokesperson, said Solomon is committed to negotiating new contracts and working with the unions through the budget crisis.
“Leading Jersey City to a stronger, more stable future will only happen with the partnership of the city’s labor unions,” Styer said in a statement. “Our employees work hard every day under difficult circumstances to deliver quality services with less, and it is a shame that so many of them were left to fall out of contract for so long.”
Steyer said the administration held a formal introductory session with the unions earlier this year. Bargaining sessions are expected to resume this month, now that the state aid package has been accepted by the city council.
Jack Collins, president of IAFF Local 1066, said the honeymoon period is over, and union members are getting increasingly frustrated.
“This was left to this administration to inherit, but nonetheless, they knew it coming in,” Collins said. “ Let's get to the table, let's get this locked in, secure this, and let's move on to fixing the rest of the city.”
Union leaders expect the city will be asking them to do more with less in their new contracts.
“That could mean less manpower hires to cover attrition losses, such as promotions or if members retire,” Collins said. “That could mean that some of our apparatus that we need to replace don't get replaced the way it has to be replaced, which puts our members' lives in jeopardy.”
Solomon has warned for months that cuts are coming to the city government. His proposed budget combines a 15.5% local tax hike with $58 million in cuts, taking money away from almost every department.
“At the core of the Solomon administration’s work is balancing the fiscal health of the city, protecting core city services, managing the burden on taxpayers, and honoring the city’s hardworking civil servants,” Styer said. “That balance is made especially difficult in the midst of a historic deficit.”
The budget proposal is now being considered by the City Council, which kicked off hearings with each department this week. Councilmember Jake Ephros, a former union organizer, promised to advocate for labor through the budget process.
“I will be standing on the side of rank-and-file workers who make the city run,” Ephros said. “I'm going to fight against layoffs of workers in these rank-and-file positions because I think that's just a disaster to the city.”
It won’t just be union and city negotiators at the table in those sessions. The state government’s $120 million aid package for Jersey City comes with strict conditions — which the City Council voted unanimously to accept last week — that give the Department of Community Affairs broad oversight of local spending issues, including final approval authority for agreements with the unions.
The DCA declined to comment. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Tagged
Politics
Workforce
economy
new jersey
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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