In contract talks, keep focus on people

There are more than two sides at the bargaining table when it comes to state employee contracts. Gov. Ned Lamont’s team is at one end and union lawyers are at the other. Then there are the State of Connecticut taxpayers. Sure, it’s the taxpayers’ coin that’s being negotiated by the governor, but the workers represented by the union are also taxpayers. Add in some politicians and it’s pretty crammed along the sides of the table.

And everyone seems to disagree.

This year’s contract talks feel even more polarizing than usual. Lamont is offering the 46,000 unionized state employees a 2.5 percent raise for each of the four years, along with $3,500 bonuses for each worker and some step hikes.

The 35 bargaining units ratified the offer. Whether the deal is sweet or sour depends on who you ask.

Fiscal conservatives fall in line behind Wilton First Selectwoman Kim Healy’s characterization of the deal as “shocking.” House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, accurately notes that it comes at a time when most people are struggling to cope with inflation that has exceeded 7 percent and gas prices that doubled what there were two years ago.

Lamont is leaning on the backdrop that the unions offered concessions over the last decade and an outbreak in retirements are putting the state’s workforce at risk.

His chief rival in November’s election, Republican Bob Stefanowski, called the deal “politics, pure and simple.”

There’s little doubt that Lamont is thinking politically. So is Stefanowski. Snipes aren’t the same as alternative options. Stefanowski has not suggested what kind of deal he might have put on the table, though during his last run he claimed he would, “rip costs out of the state budget like you have never seen in your life.”

Connecticut, like any other state, prefers to keep its population employed. The people who work for the state also happen to be state residents.

Getting lost in the numbers can also be dehumanizing. Consider what those job descriptions really mean. These are the people who care for and educate children. Health care workers who save lives. They pave roads, guard prisoners and handle a myriad of social service needs.

Many of these are the people we all celebrated as front-line heroes during the pandemic’s prime.

Does that translate to a free pass at the bargaining table? Of course not. Connecticut needs to live within its means like everyone else. And members of the General Assembly were elected to debate and make difficult decisions like this one.

But anyone who thinks negotiating contracts is easy has either never done it, or never should. An arbitrator reportedly approved a 3 percent raise for the current year. Holding it at 2.5 percent and offering bonuses translates to overall savings. It also puts cash in the hands of a swath of Connecticut consumers at time the economy could use the boost.

“It’s a fair deal for the state employees who showed up every day in the middle of COVID,” Lamomt reasoned. “I’ve got to recruit and keep them in order to keep our government going …”

That does sound political. It also keeps the focus where it should be — on the people of Connecticut.

But anyone who thinks negotiating contracts is easy has either never done it, or never should.