Posts tagged Ned Lamont
And Now the Union Would Like a Word in Private-Under Janus, government workers don’t have to join or pay. But behind closed doors it’s hard to say no
September 13, 2022 // Four years after Janus, plenty of government employers haven’t explained to workers that union membership is not a condition of employment. Some employee handbooks still say workers must pay the union to keep their jobs. And many—if not most—public employees don’t know that a contract negotiated by the union applies to them whether they pay dues or not. Government-worker unions enjoy outsize influence over government. Governors, mayors, county executives and school superintendents facing demands for private access to their employees must remember how the unions wound up with the privileges that make them so powerful.
A Persistent Cook Serves Up a Winning Recipe for the First Amendment
July 19, 2022 // An unexpected champion of the First Amendment against public-sector unions may inspire other Janus-curious government workers. Tina Curtis, the lead cook for the New Haven, Conn., Board of Education, may not have figured herself to be a First Amendment warrior. But by prevailing over her government-union bosses in what may prove to be an important Janus-rights case, she has shown herself to be exactly that. Curtis v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees & Bartenders Union, Local 217, AFL-CIO,

Energy secretary: US offshore wind jobs should be union jobs
May 31, 2022 // Granholm said the administration is committed to creating “union jobs in America in this clean energy economy.” She said she wants predominantly American union workers to build U.S. offshore wind farms and would like to see project labor agreements in all aspects of the energy transition, drawing cheers from workers at the pier. “That’s what we’d like, all union,” she told The Associated Press.

Connecticut: Lamont Inks New Employment Law Backed By Unions
May 19, 2022 // But the bill was marked as both hostile to employers and potentially illegal by the state’s largest business organization, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. Following its passage through the legislature last month, CBIA president and CEO Chris DiPentima wrote to Lamont and encouraged him to veto it.
Connecticut: OP-ED | Unemployment Benefits For Striking Workers? No, It’s Not The Onion
April 26, 2022 // Senate Bill 317 is highly unusual, but not unheard of. Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed similar legislation on the eve of the pandemic in 2020 and another such law passed four years ago in New Jersey, but in most cases benefits for striking Garden State workers only kick in after 30 days. Like Connecticut, both of those states have struggled with budget deficits over the last several years, though the most recent shortfalls have been mitigated by federal coronavirus relief funds.
Opinion: Connecticut Hits Its Taxpayers With a Huge Payoff to Unions
April 6, 2022 // If Hartford lawmakers consent, state employees will pocket $2,500 bonuses, back pay averaging nearly $2,000, and raises of 2.5% to 4.5%. Another $1,000 bonus and more raises await in July, around the time their unions will decide whether to offer Mr. Lamont’s re-election bid the same intense backing they delivered in 2018.
Deals with CT unions focus on keeping workers, not streamlining workforce
March 10, 2022 // Those bonuses aren’t the hazard or premium pay unions have sought for front-line workers who couldn’t telecommute during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Labor leaders and the administration still are negotiating that issue, and special pandemic pay still might be awarded in the future.
Dozens arrested during health care protest in Hartford
February 19, 2022 // A big protest took place in Hartford Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of protestors from a health care union shut down the streets near the state Capitol and 24 people were arrested.