The author is a toll worker on the New Jersey Turnpike.
We all have heard the news of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s “Bridge-gate” scandal, but little has been mentioned in the mainstream media about the situation facing toll collectors on the New Jersey Turnpike, one of the country’s busiest highways.
As a collector on the New Jersey Turnpike for seven years, I have seen the impact of austerity measures taken by Chris Christie’s administration. Working part-time, my pay has been driven down from $17.83 an hour to $14.00 an hour; my personal vacation day was eliminated.
Full-time collectors who depend on the turnpike to feed their families have seen their pay reduced 30 percent. Instead of earning $50,000 to $60,000 dollars a year they are now earning $30,000 to $40,000. Overtime for full-timers has practically been eliminated. Supervisors are required to call all lower paid part-timers, and seasonal collectors, who even earn less, to fill in.
Toll Collectors in New Jersey once numbered 1000. But due to EZ Pass and budget cuts, the state has become more aggressive and we have dwindled to 200.
This all combines with a 100 percent toll increase over the past two years. Where is all this money going? The turnpike’s profit in 2012 was $992 million, according to NJ.com, which made it the most profitable road in the nation!
We are unionized but our union has made major concessions because they claim it is the only way to hang on to our jobs. The state is organized against us. Strikes have been banned and are considered illegal. Cameras have been put in the lanes at some plazas. They tell us the cameras are to keep us safer, but I have a feeling it is to keep tighter surveillance on us.
Work conditions
A normal day in the Turnpike consists of an eight-hour shift trapped in a booth breathing in exhaust from motorists who are often rude. Supervisors are only required to give us two 30-minute breaks, and due to those austerity measures there are many times when we are short a jumper (someone who jumps lanes to give collectors breaks) or an extra collector. The employees who are present are forced to work harder. This is the essence of capitalism, increasing profit while tightening the squeeze on the workers.
The capitalist Turnpike administrators do not even offer their own employees toll-free travel to and from work. We are no longer given free travel with our passes on the turnpike; that was eliminated with Christie’s arrival. The union fought him and the Turnpike came to an agreement with the union that if we give them all our receipts, we will be reimbursed. They could have just given back the passes, but they are counting on collectors losing receipts or not filing the paperwork on time. They know that 90 cents here and 90 cents there adds up, meaning more money for the Turnpike.
I have been held up at gunpoint on the turnpike, at interchange 15x on an early summer morning, along with three other collectors. When I looked over to the car, I had a revolver and a shotgun pointed in my face. I gave them everything they wanted — money is not as important as my life.
But subsequently the state troopers grilled me as if I was a suspect and could have been part of the plot. The robbers had taken my phone so the state police wanted permission to review my phone records. At 23 years old I was naive and agreed. After reviewing my phone records they determined I was not a suspect because none of the people I called were “Black,” as the suspects had been described. My part in the investigation ended, but I still cannot believe how they nonchalantly used race as the key issue in this robbery.
I was not allowed any time off, despite what I had experienced. After a medical evaluation, the doctors paid by the state deemed me fit to work, and I was ordered back on my next scheduled day.
Christie and the capitalist system
Chris Christie’s bully tactics on a public roadway have led to widespread skepticism about his administration’s sincerity towards the people, and allegations of other under-handed tactics. But the viciousness revealed in the Bridge-gate scandal is just one small example of what Chris Christie and his political allies have done in the open to state employees. They blame budget deficits on unions, but there is more than enough money in the state.
The state’s Democratic leaders are enjoying Christie’s crisis and claim they will do more for workers. But given that they collaborated with him to rip apart the state employees’ pension system and freeze cost-of-living adjustments for retirees—Christie’s signature “achievement”—they cannot be trusted.
New Jersey is a state of vast inequality. My daughter just got out of the hospital in Paterson, a working-class community ravaged by the ills of poverty. As I drove there every night on the highways I would dwell on the situation in my home state. I passed million-dollar homes on my way to a beautiful hospital, but the city is full of foreclosed homes and homelessness, luxury high-rises bordering run-down housing projects.
In cities like Paterson, unemployment is high and education is low; schools are underfunded and overcrowded. The posh millionaire communities that I saw along the highways do not face these problems. Christie takes care of these communities so that they will give him their votes and support.
Capitalism allows this to go on unabated; it pits poor and working people of different backgrounds against each other. Christie’s assault on toll collectors, and the working class in general, is his way to keep those of us on the bottom poor while those already at the top see their profits skyrocket. Socialism would do away with this, it would guarantee living wages and needs for all workers; it would give the workers the power.
