NJ Union Protesters Suspended for 'Sick Out

Three New Jersey government union workers have been suspended after officials found evidence that the workers called in sick in order to attend a pro-union rally at the state's Capital last week.

NBC New York reports:

Monmouth County officials said the three employees suspended without pay Thursday work for the county's Senior Citizen Area Transportation service and are members of CWA Local 1038.

The county said the workers were among 14 in the department who called out sick; officials alleged that 174 developmentally disabled adults who depend on the county's services ended up "waiting for buses that never came."

"These employees are being suspended without pay based on the fact that we have evidence to prove that they were not home sick as they had claimed," said Lillian Burry, a county official.

The workers' union, CWA, responded by saying that not all the facts have come out, and said the sick out was no big deal since "no one served by the county missed a medical appointment."

Many across the country called for similar action against thousands of Wisconsin teachers who called in sick to demonstrate in Madison. Doctors were even caught writing "fake" on-the-spot sick notes to protesters.