Ganim threatens layoffs if unions reject austerity measures

By Cedar Attanasio

June 22, 2016

BRIDGEPORT — Mayor Joe Ganim's administration took negotiations with city employees public on Tuesday, calling on union officials to accept concessions or face layoffs.

“We have been in negotiations with organized labor for months, but time is growing short to close our current fiscal year deficit,” said Bridgeport Chief Administrative Officer John Gomes, in a statement. “We are willing to be as flexible as possible but the bottom line is we need more savings.”

The administration says that if city employee unions accept $4 million worth of cuts by July 1, the administration can avoid the “last resort” decision to lay off more workers.

Ganim inherited a $20 million budget gap when he took office on Dec. 1, according to Bridgeport Director of Communications Av Harris. The city has already laid off around 100 workers and incentivized another 51 into early retirement.

Those early retirements and unpaid furlough days represent significant concessions by city employees, argued Bridgeport Supervisor Association counsel Edward J. Gavin.

“This administration fails to recognize the sacrifices the Union members have and are continuing to make to support the City,” Gavin said by email. “Unions such as the Bridgeport City Supervisors Association have, in the past, gone years without raises to meet the fiscal needs of the Administration. It is reckless and dangerous to layoff dedicated employees who serve the citizens of Bridgeport.”

Gavin offered no additional concessions and predicted that the city would start cutting positions.

“We anticipate new layoffs will be announced on Friday,” he said.

Unions ask ECC board to reconsider layoffs

By Madhu Krishnamurthy

6/22/2016

Two Elgin Community College employee unions made a plea to the college board Tuesday to reconsider layoffs and elimination of a surgical technology program.

It comes on the heels of the college board adopting an $80.3 million 2017 operating budget, which includes reductions to stave off a projected $2.7 million deficit next fiscal year.

Anywhere between seven and 30 full-time and part-time support personnel positions could be affected by layoffs, saving roughly $482,000, officials said.

Support personnel were given the option of taking a salary freeze to stave off layoffs, which the union membership declined because college officials could not guarantee there would not be layoffs later.

"We are the lowest paid work group," said Bob Treadwell, president of the Support Staff of Elgin Community College Association.

Treadwell said his members are concerned about rising health insurance costs and having no guarantee that their jobs would be safe, which sealed the membership's vote against giving up raises.

"There's other ways of saving money," added Treadwell, suggesting the college temporarily mothball its newest Public Safety Training Center in Burlington.

The nearly $20 million center, situated on about 120 acres along Plank Road, was built for training firefighters, police officers and emergency medical technicians. The college has budgeted roughly $1 million to run classes there starting this fall. Closing it would save $670,000, said Sharon Konny, the college's vice president of business and finance.

Treadwell said so far only 90 people are enrolled for fall classes, adding "That's very expensive, per student."

Another union official questioned why the administration isn't tapping into its reserves.

"That's what you gotta do when times are hard," said Chris McCoy, support staff union vice president. The message that our people are hearing is the bricks and mortar is more important than the people that work here."

Layoffs are not unique to ECC. College of Lake County in Grayslake eliminated 20 jobs in March, and Harper College in Palatine will lay off 29 employees on June 30.

"There are several schools in this state that are in their second or third round of layoffs," ECC President David Sam said. "We are among the last to talk about layoffs, not because we are afraid of it. We worked hard to make sure that it will not happen, but we have reached a stage we have to balance the budget."

Among the cuts are imposing a travel freeze for nonessential out-of-state trips, raising the minimum age for senior citizen tuition waivers, not filling vacancies unless critical, and deferring nonessential maintenance and capital projects. Sam and administrators also have given up salary increases, he said.

Next school year, the college will begin phasing out a 26-year-old surgical technology program.

Elgin Community College Faculty Association President Luis Martinez said employee morale has taken a big hit with the administration's decisions.

"It's this trickle down decision making that happens here because there is no shared governance," he said. "We are willing to be part of the solution. We have not been invited to the table."

Sam defended opening the Burlington center as a step toward the future, but added he doesn't want to see the surgical tech program close either.

"We are living day-to-day because we don't know what is going to happen with the state budget," Sam said.

"To think that the fund balance is what will save us is the biggest mistake we could make."

Unions boycotting Democratic fundraising dinner over layoffs

By Neil Vigdor

May 23, 2016

The names of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson — scrubbed because of their ties to slavery — won’t be the only glaring void when Connecticut Democrats hold their annual fundraising dinner next week.

At least five of the largest state employee unions are boycotting the June 2 banquet in Hartford, in protest of ongoing layoffs under Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that have reached 1,000. That number is expected to grow to 2,000.

A strategic source of financial and grassroots support for the state’s majority party, the unions traditionally buy several tables at $1,850 each for what has been rebranded as the Connecticut Democratic Progress Dinner.

But not this year, coming off the standoff between Malloy and his labor base over salary reductions to close a $1 billion budget deficit. Union leaders had called for Malloy to raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents instead. Now, they’re planning to demonstrate outside the dinner.

“The decision was prompted by the governor’s Jekyll and Hyde behavior,” said Larry Dorman, a spokesman for Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “He was able to force through a budget that’s going to be devastating to the people of Connecticut and the values that we stand for, and it just made no sense to be a part of that (event) this year.”

Rift between party, labor

Malloy’s administration stood by the austerity measures and the $19.7 billion budget, which passed along mostly party lines in the Legislature earlier this month. It referred questions on the boycott to the Connecticut Democrats, who tried to downplay the tiff.

“The Connecticut Democratic Party continues to share many of the same values and goals as our friends in the labor movement,” said Leigh Appleby, a state party spokesman. “And we remain committed to working with our state’s labor unions to grow our economy from the middle out. It is unfortunate that some would attempt to undermine an event with the sole purpose of raising the resources to elect Democrats up and down the ticket, including Sen. (Richard) Blumenthal, but we expect the Progress Dinner to be a success with help from Democrats across the state, including friends in organized labor.”

The event, which is marking its 68th year and typically draws 1,000 people, was previously named the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner. This year’s keynote speaker is former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

In a move that garnered national attention — and some criticism for political correctness — Democrats voted last year to change the name. They cited Jefferson and Jackson’s ownership of slaves as a key factor in the decision, as well as Jackson’s role in the removal of Native Americans from the southeastern U.S. in what was known as the Trail of Tears.

The event’s third namesake, John Bailey, who led the state party and then the Democratic National Committee under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, was preserved in a new award for service to the party.

“We are not purchasing any tickets this year,” said Lori Pelletier, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. “We are going to be saving our money and investing it in our own political program.”

Making their point

Pelletier said the union, which represents 30,000 state employees, including 700 of those laid off, has instructed its members to withhold political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. Each year, she said, those add up to $75,000 to $100,000. But the AFL-CIO only buys a table at the Democratic fundraising dinner, where Pelletier said union members will be passing out literature and asking attendees to contribute to a special fund for the employees affected by the layoffs.

“We are going to be out there raising awareness about our displeasure with the budget that governor signed,” Pelletier said. “We’re not going to be stopping people from going in ... just an educational thing.”

The 30,000-member American Federation of Teachers of Connecticut is planning to pull a no-show.

“Our members have made clear that they don’t want their limited political contributions being used to further devastate Connecticut’s quality of life,” said Jan Hochadel, the group’s president. “What they do want is for their pooled resources to support women and men who will fight for the services they provide the people of our state every day.”

Two arms of the Service Employees International Union — SEIU 1199 and CSEA SEIU Local 2001— are also joining the boycott.

“Affiliation with the Democratic Party simply does not guarantee that a politician supports working people,” said Ben Phillips, a spokesman for CSEA SEIU Local 2001.

This is not the first time unions have struck back at Malloy. Before last month’s Democratic presidential primary in Connecticut, several labor groups refused to knock on doors for Hillary Clinton despite their endorsement of the former secretary of state. They balked because of Malloy’s alliance with Clinton, who still won the primary over Bernie Sanders.

“The relationship with the Malloy administration has been damaged,” Phillips said.

Malloy To Unions: Accept A New Reality

Christopher Keating

3/24/2016

HARTFORD — The stalemate between the governor and state labor unions continued Thursday.

While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy again chided state employee unions for not accepting that the economy has changed and that, unlike in the past, tax revenues won't come roaring back to pay for state services, the state's top union official repeated labor's position that raising taxes on the wealthy would help close current budget shortfalls.

State AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier Thursday cited New York state, where 40 millionaires said in an open letter this week that they are willing to pay more in taxes for government services for the homeless and the needy.

"There's no reason Connecticut can't do that,'' Pelletier said.

She also urged the legislature to pass the so-called Wal-Mart bill, in which employers with more than 500 workers would pay fines to the state if they fail to pay wages of at least $15 per hour. The fine in some versions would be $1 per hour per employee and could raise as much as $305 million for the state in fiscal year 2017. That money could then be used for child care and for home care for the elderly.

The Walton family that founded Wal-Mart has "five of the 10 richest people in the world,'' Pelletier said.

Labor and the administration continue to skirmish over how to deal with deficits in this and next year's state budgets. Based largely on an unexpectedly sharp drop in tax collections in a still-sluggish economy, the state faces shortfalls of $220 million this year and nearly $900 million next year.

The administration has already proposed tens of millions of dollars in cuts, as well as layoffs. Lawmakers plan a vote Tuesday on the current year's budget.

In comments after Thursday's State Bond Commission meeting, Malloy said he is still willing to speak to unions about possible concessions to close the budget deficit.

"I think this is very difficult for labor. That doesn't escape me at all,'' the governor said. "I think labor, like our citizenry, became used to an economy where growth was more rapid.

"They're in a very difficult position," he said.

"This recovery is totally unlike every other post-World War II recession," Malloy said. "We've had 11 recessions. We've never seen this before.''

"If we hadn't had the Great Depression, we wouldn't call this the Great Recession. We would call it a depression. The Great Depression, for historical purposes, if you take out the Second World War, it had an impact on our economy for 30 years. We're in a different time.''

Since the legislative session opened on Feb. 3, Malloy and the unions have been clashing

"The governor said in his State of the State address that he wouldn't negotiate in the press, but he does,'' Pelletier said.

She also noted that the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, known as SEBAC, scheduled a meeting with Malloy on Feb. 23 "that he canceled.''

There was a dispute because SEBAC wanted about 15 union leaders in the room, and Malloy wanted about three, she said. No further meetings were scheduled.

Malloy's administration declined to comment Thursday.

In other developments, Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney of New Haven and Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk say their caucus will have enough votes to pass the budget-adjustment package Tuesday. Lawmakers have been pushing for bipartisan votes on the package, but the language on the deal has not been finalized.

While the deficit is currently projected at $220 million, lawmakers are still awaiting the annual income tax returns that are due this year on April 18. When legislators passed a budget-mitigation plan before Christmas, they thought they had solved this year's fiscal problems. Now, they are not sure if the deficit will get even bigger after Tuesday's vote.

Jeffrey Walter, interim chief executive officer of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance, said that next week's vote on the short-term budget problem will largely avoid some of the more difficult and painful cuts that are expected.

"We are grateful for all legislative proposals that make human services a budget priority, especially as the discussion shifts in the coming weeks to the spending plan for the coming year,'' Walter said. "We encourage the General Assembly to adopt this plan, understanding that they are supporting life-sustaining services for a half-million individuals who would otherwise have nowhere to turn."

We reject pay freeze

It is wrong of the republicans to threaten severe changes directed towards the blue collar workers. This is not a proper way to move forward in 2011 with pay freeze, furlough and layoffs. We here in why did you join the union have seen that similar pattern from our boss with his severe service cuts which inflicted hardship for the average New Yorkers who rely on mass public transportation.

Blue collar workers have a paycheck to rely on and that is a limited income that is being assailed by the skyrocket prices, uncontrollable and unadjusted cost of living thus making the livelihood of the blue collar workers difficult. However we do not see the executives slashing their own salaries, taking pay freezes or giving themselves a worse retirement deal however they shove those down on the blue collar workers while they rely on luxurious retirement packages.

Since the republicans have revealed their intentions before even getting sworn in and even taking their seats in the house, we believe the founding fathers did not envision what the republicans have in mind. The founding fathers vision was the house has to legislate in the benefit and well being of society for the common good of the citizenry.  However the republicans are clearly on the side of the executives and against the blue collar workers. We here in why did you join the union reject in whole this rhetoric of financial difficulties to be only directed towards the blue collar while sparing the white collar and providing them with the luxurious pay and retirement deals. It is either we are in the same ship where the pain must spread across from the top to the bottom not the pain solely directed towards the blue collar who are already at the bottom of the earning pyramid.

If the republicans want to return to the adversarial days of labor conflict the blue collar workers of the 21st century will not be pushed around. We remember a company with  a considerable amount of labor conflict such as Eastern Airlines. Other examples also include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) where strikes were broken by president Ronald Reagan, signaling his favoritism towards business and union busting rather than the blue collar workers. However we have learned our lesson this time around and the blue collar workers will have the last laugh and the republicans victory will not last long.