Posts tagged Connecticut
Commentary: Unions Are Shrinking Nationwide—But Not in California
September 3, 2025 // California, though, is noteworthy for its steady union presence. It hasn’t fluctuated much since 2005, despite the national decline. Further, the federal data set used to produce the union figures does not include home health care and child care workers who are classified as self-employed. In California, that takes in some 700,000 workers, even though their hourly wages are negotiated with individual counties through unions.
Connecticut Union Raises. Incompetence or Worse?
August 25, 2025 // By telegraphing guaranteed raises, Lamont places unions on offense, emboldened to demand wage and benefit enhancements, rather than defending existing gains. As negotiation expert Chester Karrass once said, “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.” Revealing your playbook isn’t negotiation — it’s surrender. State unions, representing 45,000 employees, already secured a staggering 33% in raises and step increases under the 2017 SEBAC agreement, far outpacing the wage growth of the private-sector workers whose taxes pay their salaries. These contracts, negotiated in the name of taxpayers, are meant to balance fairness to employees with fiscal responsibility. Yet, taxpayers are left out, footing the bill for what resembles a feast.
Rhode Island Employer-Sponsored Meetings Ban Law Now in Effect
August 25, 2025 // The new law prohibits employers from holding mandatory worker meetings to explain what unionizing will mean for the business from an employer’s perspective. This also means labor organizers will have an unchallenged narrative on unionization. Identical laws in Connecticut, Minnesota, and other states face legal challenges citing the law is superseded by the National Labor Relations Act as well as federal labor law precedent. Rhode Island’s new law is likely to face a similar challenge, something NFIB and other organizations warned when lawmakers considered these bills
Commentary: Blatant Lawlessness
August 7, 2025 // A new Yankee Institute report, Blatant Lawlessness: How the CT Department of Labor & Union Leaders Disrespect Union Workers and Ignore the Law, highlights the Connecticut Department of Labor’s (CT DOL’s) failure to enforce vital state laws. These laws require unions to provide financial transparency to their members, and the state’s non-enforcement leaves dues-paying workers vulnerable to potential mismanagement and corruption. Enacted in 1959, Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 31-77 mandates that unions representing public and private sector employees submit verified annual financial reports to the CT DOL and make them available to members.
Unveiling Financial Transparency Failures in Labor Organizations
July 24, 2025 // In 2024 alone, the DOL recorded 177 union enforcement actions involving fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. These are only the crimes that rise to the level of federal prosecution. Far more ethical violations, financial misuses, and questionable behaviors fall below the radar leaving union members in the dark and are quietly buried through internal repayments, hush resignations, or legal threats — all without any formal DOL investigation or public accountability. Despite 16 years as a union official, I did not become aware of the existence of LM-2 financial disclosure filings until our local filed a lawsuit against our state affiliate. Imagine that: even as a union president and past treasurer, I was unaware that both our state and national unions were required to submit LM-2 forms to the Department of Labor. If someone like me — deeply engaged in union governance — was kept in the dark, how can we expect average members to know their rights, much less exercise them?
Union contracts for UConn employees expire without new agreements in place
July 23, 2025 // UConn’s AAUP has about 2,065 members and UCPEA has about 2,250. UConn Health’s AAUP has about 685 members and University Health Professionals has about 3,400
Connecticut state worker contracts expired on July 1 and unions want more pay
July 8, 2025 // With the start of the new state budget year on July 1, contracts for 45,000 unionized state workers have expired and union leaders said Thursday that there is evidence of employee retention and recruitment "failures" by the Lamont administration
Bridgeport loses labor dispute over replacement of alleged ballot stuffer
June 26, 2025 // Geter-Pataky was allegedly caught on camera stuffing hundreds of absentee ballots for Bridgeport’s 2023 Democratic primary race between Mayor Joe Ganim and John Gomes into a ballot drop box, sparking multiple investigations, a court-ordered redo of the Democrat primary, and making Bridgeport the national face of voter fraud. Geter-Pataky, who served as vice chair for Bridgeport’s Democratic party and worked for Ganim’s campaign, also worked in Bridgeport City Hall as an “operations specialist,” which involved answering the phones and fielding questions from city departments and the public, according to the labor board’s decision.
Op-Ed: Public employees deserve truth from union officials
June 24, 2025 // Pueblo’s contract isn’t even the worst offender in Colorado. The Denver Housing Authority’s contract, enacted this year, says that its 300-plus employees must be full, dues-paying members of the union, AFSCME Local 535. If enforced, the requirement could be one of the most egregious violations of public employees’ rights of free speech and association anywhere in the country. With some union officials unaware of — or unwilling to comply with — dettled law, it’s more important than ever for public employees in the state to understand their rights under union representation.
Screaming For Subsidies: Unions Throw Public Tantrum Outside Governor’s Mansion
June 18, 2025 // Yet the day’s events turned hostile when union protesters vandalized a mobile billboard truck commissioned by Yankee Institute. The vehicle displayed messages urging Gov. Lamont to veto S.B. 8.