The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Union workers to get 2.5% raise
General Assembly approves $70M in raises for 46,000 state employees
HARTFORD — The General Assembly on Tuesday approved a 2.5% increase for 46,000 unionized employees in the last year of a four-year contract, and also a million-dollar bump over three years for 150 post-doctoral students at the University of Connecticut Health Center, including 3% more in the first year.
“We need workers to get paid correctly,” said state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee when the $70-million contract for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, or SEBAC, reached the Senate before noon. “There is no reason not to pass this contract,” said Osten, a former state correction officer. “We should be honoring the workers that do the things we expect them to do. I think that they deserve to get paid. This is an honest contract that services the needs of the employees of the state of Connecticut.”
Workers in the 35 participating SEBAC bargaining units, including education, health care, social services, law enforcement, university professors, prosecutors, judicial staff and corrections officers, will be contracted until June 30, 2025. Much of the funding had already been budgeted. The next contract negotiations with SEBAC would start by the end of this year. The so-called reopener for a fourth year of the deal, was previously negotiated.
“It’s already fully paid in this year’s budget,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. “This is a vote for the middle class.” He noted that since 2008, the state workforce has decreased by 14,000 positions. “We’ve asked our employees to
do more with less.”
Minority Republicans, outnumbered 24-12 in the Senate and 97-54 in the House, complained that many of their constituents are hurting financially, and that the state could invest the funding in other services. “I don’t think we are short-changing our state employees in any way,” said Sen. Eric Berthel of Watertown, a ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, warning that the deal would also expand the state’s pension liability.
Berthel, noting the total $2 billion cost of the contract over the four years, said his constituents, including residents and business owners, are financially hurting and find the high cost of living discouraging. “These contracts are ultimately exempt from these factors in real time,” he said. “That does not best serve the taxpayers of the state of Connecticut.”
“What it comes down to is what we as a state can afford,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield.
“Those working and middle-class families are
really struggling to make ends meet,” said Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford.
The House and Senate voted on separate but identical resolutions for SEBAC and the UConn post-doctoral students. The House voted 106-44, with nine Republicans joining with Democrats at about 1:50 p.m. for the SEBAC deal, while the Senate voted along strict party lines, 24-12, shortly before 3p. m.
“It’s middle class and
working class people paying this compensation,” said Sen. Ryan Fazio, RGreenwich. “The taxpayers are going above and beyond in this state. If this is fair, I don’t know what isn’t.”
Sen. Gary Winfield, DNew Haven, said he stood up in the debate because he was tired of listening to criticism of the contract. He charged that the budgetary restrictions on spending extra revenue is hindering the role of government. “Who’s losing out?” he said, stressing that the working poor, who benefit from nonprofit social services and education, are paying a price with less opportunity.
“You’re omitting part of the people we are talking about. It doesn’t make it so my children someday might have a different life, because I can’t get the kind of education I need right now.”
In the House, state Rep. Tammy Nuccio of Tolland, a ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said that over the course of the four years, SEBAC workers realized raises of about 18 percent. State Rep. Mike D’Agostino,
D-Hamden, who introduced the House version of the contract, said that 2.5 percent increases are in line with the previous years.
He warned that the workers would likely make more if the contract expired next year and negotiations went to arbitration.
“We planned for this,” he said. “We budgeted for this. The average salary for a state worker in this state is $75,000.
“With the benefits, these are good, middle class job. They live here, they work here, they pay taxes here, they send their kids to school here.”
The UConn Health Center resolution passed the Senate 29-6, with one absent. By 1:10 p.m., the House approved the contract in a bipartisan 126-24 vote.
That three-year deal is between the UConn Board of Trustees and the Graduate Employee Union Local 6950 — International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Local 6950.
Over the next three years, the contract increase will cost $199,207, $380,372 and $525,936 in each subsequent year. About 98 percent of the cost is linked to research grants through UConn.
“I think that it goes without saying that supporting research work that’s going on at our flagship university has a benefit that’s kind of a domino effect,” said Berthel.
“If we are able to attract good post-doctoral students into the research component of the University of Connecticut, I think that it’s safe to assume that those students when they complete their research, may stay in Connecticut and go to work for any one of the many sciences-type corporations and businesses or perhaps go to work for the university system itself.”
Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, noting the total $2 billion cost of the contract over the four years, said his constituents, including residents and business owners, are financially hurting and find the high cost of living discouraging. “These contracts are ultimately exempt from these factors in real time. That does not best serve the taxpayers of the state of Connecticut.”