Posts tagged Connecticut AFL-CIO
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.
CT Union Threatens Lamont Over Striking Worker Bill
June 4, 2025 // S.B. 8, which passed the Senate 24–11 on May 28 with Sen. Norm Needleman (D-Essex) abstaining, rewrites Section 31-236 of state law to allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits after 14 days on the picket line — even if they volunteered to strike. Gov. Lamont vetoed a similar bill last year, and for good reason. This year, he’s again signaling opposition — but unions aren’t taking “no” for an answer.
The AFL-CIO Doesn’t Need To Lobby — It Has Its Own Caucus Now
May 6, 2025 // It was billed as a press conference announcing a new legislative caucus — but the real headliners weren’t the lawmakers. When more than 30 Democratic legislators gathered on April 30 to unveil their “Blue Collar Caucus,” they quickly stepped aside and handed the microphone — and the spotlight — to Connecticut AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne and Building Trades President Joe Toner. The union bosses weren’t just there to show support — they were the main event, delivering lengthy remarks packed with labor talking points, many of which now appear in the caucus’s legislative agenda and are posted proudly on its website.
Big Labor’s Quid Pro Quo Political Convention
July 8, 2024 // During the convention’s opening remarks, CT AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Tiano Ocasio revealed as much, saying, “Our endorsement means more than other endorsement,” adding, “It means more because we put boots on the ground and work hard to ensure our endorsed candidates are elected.” She vowed to hold candidates “accountable for their shortcomings and applaud them for the times they stood with us in our fight for justice.” Strangely, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Shellye Davis has yet to receive an endorsement, even though she is running for State Senate in the 2nd District.
Commentary: Connecticut General Assembly Goes Full Authoritarian
May 14, 2024 // It wasn’t until CT Mirror reported on Saturday (May 4) that the bill was actually being used to pay workers choosing to strike and that the language was changed as “an attempt to resolve a standoff by the Connecticut AFL-CIO and Gov. Ned Lamont.” During the late night Senate debate, Sen. Eric Berthel (R-Watertown) asked the bill’s proponent and chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) about the account’s purpose. However, Sen. Kushner responded by simply reciting the language in the bill, providing no substantive answers.
Commentary: How The Teachers Unions Embed Socialism Into Their Contracts
January 28, 2024 // This new, covert strategy, hidden in plain sight, allows state and municipal officials to create sweeping policy changes that evade the scrutiny typically associated with customary legislative procedures, which include publicly available draft legislation, committee hearings, amendments and comprehensive floor debates. In Boston, teachers’ union president Jessica Tang announced they secured “an unprecedented $50 million to commence bolstering the affordable housing that Boston students and families require.” Similarly, Los Angeles teachers incorporated “housing justice provisions” into their contracts.
First cannabis dispensary workers unionize in CT
September 7, 2023 // Connecticut’s adult-use cannabis law requires companies to sign labor peace agreements ensuring they won’t prevent employees from organizing. The agreements, sometimes referred to as neutrality agreements, lay out how companies and labor organizations can behave during union organizing. They require employers to remain neutral during a unionization process, while preventing unions from picketing or holding work stoppages.
Attorney General to seek transfer of Sandy Hook fund away from union
December 15, 2022 // The Attorney General will file what is known as an equitable deviation complaint, which will not change the intent of the fund, known as the Sandy Hook Workers Assistance Program (SHWAP), but only which entity would oversee it, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton.
CT’s ‘captive audience’ law challenged in federal lawsuit
November 2, 2022 // Connecticut’s ban on “captive audience” meetings, which unions say are used to thwart organizing, is unconstitutional and a preemption of federal labor law, a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. The lawsuit, joined by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and trade groups representing retailers and others, says the ban violates free-speech and equal-protection rights under the Constitution by “chilling and prohibiting employer speech” with their workers. The defendants in the lawsuit are Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo of the state Department of Labor, the department itself, and Attorney General William Tong. Chris DiPentima,