By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
After the movie “On The Waterfront” introduced America to corruption on the docks, Congress created the New York and New Jersey Waterfront Commission.
Sixty years later, a bill to allow New Jersey to pull out of the bi-state compact passed unanimously in Trenton.
Gov. Chris Christie conditionally vetoed it yesterday, greatly disappointing the shipping industry here.
“The governor in his veto stated that the Waterfront Commission needed to be modernized. He said he was not unsympathetic to the merits of the bill. But then he said we need to get New York to agree for us to pull out. I don’t understand how that helps New Jersey,” said NY Shipping Association President John Nardi.
The commission polices the docks and regulates hiring.
It has 125 employees.
Longtime political figure Michael Murphy is the New Jersey commissioner.
New York has one also.
Shippers complain the Commission gets in the way of hiring.
“Well, we have to make an application to the Waterfront Commission detailing the number of people we need. Last time we did it, it took five months to get our first person in. We need to be more flexible. We need to be able to hire people quickly,” Nardi said.
Sen. Ray Lesniak sponsored the bill and said the governor was mistaken to veto it.
“The Commission has outlived its usefulness,” Lesniak says, “and is only impeding job creation.”
He says he’ll ask Congress to dissolve the bi-state compact it created.
The longshoreman’s union joined the shipping industry in supporting the bill.
“This is one of the few circumstances where we’re on the same page,” Nardi said.
But the Commission itself does not want to be abolished and put out a statement after yesterday’s conditional veto saying: “This legislation was just one more desperate attempt by the ILA and the NYSA to attack the Waterfront Commission’s efforts to drive out the influence of organized crime from the port, and to ensure that hiring on the waterfront is done in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.”
New Jersey now handles 85 percent of the cargo that comes through the port and the bill’s supporters feel the New Jersey State Police could keep things honest here.
Where the Waterfront Commission issue goes from here is unclear. Lesniak wants to take it to Congress, others say the Legislature to override Christie’s veto and others say the courts have never ruled on one state pulling out of a bi-state compact, so a lawsuit is a possibility.