Trenton

The gold-domed State Capitol doubled as a divorce court on Monday.

As burly Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president, a Democrat and a high official in the ironworkers union, presided over a vote, his putative union brethren — teachers and firefighters and transportation workers — sat in the gallery above and bared their teeth at his every move.

Hi-sssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

It sounded as if a rattlesnake were loose in the room. Which had a hint of truth to it.

Mr. Sweeney, you see, cut a deal with Gov. Chris Christie, the congenitally pugilistic Republican, in which — if the Assembly goes along with it later this week — all the public workers in the state could be forced to swallow large increases in their contributions to their pension and health benefits.

Mr. Sweeney agreed to revoke the right of unions to collectively bargain for health care.

Nor is he particularly apologetic. Ask him about the unions’ presidents who howl for his head, and he shrugs. To his mind, he’s exposed a family secret in Trenton: The pensions and health care plans are unsustainable, and union leaders have known it for years and said nothing.