From the state union bargaining coalition:
Ratification Voting Process and Schedule for SEBAC Unions Not Yet Set
Leaders of the unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) yesterday reached an agreement with Malloy Administration to save members’ jobs while preserving and extending their benefits. There is an urgent need to have an agreement in place quickly to stop further layoffs and protect those members who have already received pink slips.
As with the ratification process on the previous agreement, individual unions and bargaining units will be determining their own ratification or affirmation process and timeline. Schedules have not been set yet.
Members will be notified of the voting process, as well as dates and polling locations, by their union or bargaining unit as soon as they have been determined.
Union leaders expect Governor Dannel P. Malloy to rescind all layoff notices, restore services and re-open facilities slated for shutdown. Students in the state’s vocational schools deserve athletics and arts programs, correctional facilities should not be dangerously overcrowded, and commuters need viable public transportation options. That requires keeping the workers who deliver these and other services cut in the governor’s alternative budget on the job.
Click here for the full tentative agreement.
inthistogetherct.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Revised_SEBAC_2011_TA.pdf
Holy Christ,
I got in before my friend yahooy? Negotiations are give and take. I hope this improved your opinion on unions making concessions for the greater good.
A.T.
Improved my opinion of unions? U cazz’!!! That’s my opinion of what unions accomplish for their membership. UNIONS STINK!!!
Lennie,
Could you post the date & TIME of your new articles?
This is a joke. You don’t like the vote, have a do-over. The main union concern was being put into the state’s health care system. Good enough for the public but not for the unions and career politicians. I only hope this may show the people, but I doubt it, that career politicians are only good at feathering their own nests. This quasi democracy we have in this State needs term limits, recall and statewide binding referendums. This will never happen though unless an outsider to the system gets into power.
For those of you not familiar with the imposed state health care system that is about to be forced down our throats, go to sustinet and you will see what we are about to enjoy.
Once again Unions get absolutely nothing for their membership. This latest Connecticut State Employee Union fiasco ranks right up there with the absolutely nothing gained when the Sikorsky sateen jacket for lunch bunch struck then caved and went back to work.
UNIONS STINK.
BADLY.
yahooy,
Do you read your postings before you submit them? You criticize unions for gaining benefits for their members and then you criticize their making concessions. Please get off the fence unless you enjoy the fencepost up your ass. PS I never wore a sateen jacket. Mine were leather or denim sometimes a suit jacket when required.
You READ my posts before you rebut. I’m not on the fence on the issue. I think UNIONS STINK. I always have and I always will.
While I appreciate their necessity many many years ago, times have changed. The union plays no useful purpose in today’s commerce.
They have outlived any semblance of usefulness and will soon be a part of global commercial history.
Today unions only survive in municipalities because some politicians still think unions control votes. That may have been but no longer is. The absence of municipal unions would have the highest beneficial effect on the communities. No more lopsided contracts municipalities have no way of paying without strapping the homeowners. No more shitheads like Finch tossing lollipops to the sateen crowd hoping for reelection.
You union members are dinosaurs. You are passe. Anachronisms of past glories no longer necessary. You contribute nothing to the stabilization of local economies. You, with your outrageous demands, price communities to the point of bankruptcy. In case you haven’t noticed lately, the only people benefiting from unions are the people who make the silly sateen jackets.
Malloy has a lot of balls. So do the governors in other states who give the unions a take it or leave it ultimatum.
No unions = quicker recovery = prosperity.
Unions have become a Frankenstein monster. Their original purpose was altruistic and meaningful by providing living wages, benefits, job safety and job protection. However, when unions become management and start to tell administrations how to run their business there becomes a conflict. And … when it comes to unions in government you lose efficiency. And you get high and unsustainable benefits packages including pension and healthcare the non-governmental worker never gets.
Bob,
You seem to be intelligent but not on this topic. Unions are just as necessary today as in the past. Open your eyes, we are all under attack. The unions were created to keep management from crushing the workers’ rights & conditions. Don’t you see a parallel here? Rights that were negotiated in good faith are being taken away from them. Would government or the private sector ever reopen negotiations to the union’s benefit? No, never. Study history & know the future.
Try organizing a union where it’s really needed. Most private corporations and hospitals abuse their workers by underpaying the non-exempt, forcing non-paid overtime, manipulating time off and benefits, and overpay administrators who are milking the system. For instance, my wife has worked at a local hospital where you must call in the day before for an absence regardless of the reason, such as a car accident on the way to work, illness the morning of work, or some other reason that cannot be done the day before. Failure to do so 3 times in 60 days is grounds for termination regardless of tenure. So … how do you know in advance you’re going to have an accident or illness the day before going to work?
I’ve contacted the Dept of Labor for the US and they say they have no control of this sort of organizational bylaws and employees must obey them.
I still don’t believe governmental workers should have a union. In the private sector it’s different.
Bob,
A very hypocritical statement. Your wife should have union protection but not the municipal/private sector? It often amazes me how many people have tunnel vision. Please, take off the blinders. My entire premise is simple, management will abuse employees if left unchallenged. It doesn’t matter if you work in a hospital, a factory or a coal mine. I urge you to encourage your wife to contact a suitable union to preserve her rights of employment. I wish you better luck in the future.
Unions have been very useful for working people through the years; where they have been relatively powerless is in gaining basic rights to safe employment, fair compensation, benefits for retirement, healthcare and times of sickness or injury.
In the US union membership has receded generally as worker productivity has increased and many “union jobs” have moved to other parts of the world (inasmuch as most of us in the US enjoy a lower cost of goods manufactured in many cases from those other parts of the world). However, US union membership has not decreased when it comes to government employee unions in the US. The leaders of those unions have in many cases been so successful in recent negotiations that a comparison of worker situations in the private company comparable to that in the public sector show the public employee at great advantage!! Pension plans and retiree healthcare benefits are two areas where most private companies eliminated these types of plans (substituting 401K or no retiree healthcare benefits) decades ago. And very rarely will a guarantee of no layoff show in private industry.
Most of this effect is structural. Politician-executives are not held accountable because most times the information about the cost of labor deals are not made thoroughly public. The real expenses trickle down over the years, are deferred, and not recognized for the disparity in compensation. So the average taxpayer does not get the same benefits as legislators, or the same healthcare as CT employees, and yet has the duty of paying for the better plans. Where is the equity in this? Only when we start looking at the budgets, digging out the details of negotiated contracts (and their implication for future costs) will we begin to see any changes. And when local voters pay no attention to City budgets when the majority of workers are members of unions, makes no sense at all. Is it any wonder deficits continue?
If you think unions stink, say so. Two words, that’s all … unions stink … period!
BEACON2,
Another articulate piece. Although you may not agree with me you show far more intelligence than yahooy. As you pointed out we all enjoy the cheaper prices from overseas products here, but at what cost? In BPT we have probably lost well over 100,000 manufacturing jobs. Nationally we have lost MILLIONS of jobs. All of these displaced workers need to feed their families. Many of these employed husbands & wives, sons & daughters. Think of that impact on our national economy! Unions want to secure a fair living wage for their members. Think about the cost of gasoline, the cost of living increases offset those expenses. Without unions workers would be paid minimum wage and no benefits. Would you work for that? No, it would create more jobs for immigrant employees.
Absurd analogy reflective of a myopic visionary attitude. If you don’t like the pay, go away. A well-run company realizes it is the workforce that is their most tangible asset. Wages are formulated “by management” to ensure the workforce retention is satisfactory. Once the sateen for lunch bunch sticks their greedy paws in the till, management either caves into their demands then prices their goods and services to an uncompetitive level and then loses business or they accept the fact it is too costly to do business in a union shop and they bail to a more friendly work site where employees are grateful for an opportunity to work and provide for their families. Not a lot of unions in the south. Not a lot of smokestack industry left in Bridgeport … heck, let’s face it. There is NO smokestack industry in Bridgeport. Capisce???
yahooy,
You have gone from entertainment to an annoyance. Do me a favor, tell me the story of the “Sateen” jackets & Sikorsky Aircraft. Did you work there? Were a wife, girlfriend, a boyfriend adversely impacted by a labor dispute? You complain when a union makes gains for their members & then you complain when they agree to make concessions. Note: Check out that fencepost for wood splinters. You are rapidly approaching the same status of Local Eyes, where your comments are beneath my reply. ZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ
You are seriously dumb. Every single union member who struck Sikorsky lived without pay for a very long time. The union leadership was there every day passing out Dunkin’ Donuts except when they went to the bank to cash their paychecks.
Sikorsky management held tough. The union strikers went back to work with no gains.
You tell me, you sateen putz, where does the money come from to make up for the loss the Sikorsky union members took?
Now, Sikorsky makes it abundantly clear to the sateen for lunch bunch … screw around again and the factory goes somewhere else.
B2,
What you say is correct. It is very unfortunate the only way this situation will ever change is for term limits. I do not believe this will ever occur in this state. That would be asking the public employees to become the private sector unemployable.
Here’s what happened:
Deficits and inflation destroyed domestic production and their unions.
In a desperate survival strategy, unions gravitated to federal, state and municipal employers because of their intrinsic value.
Attention was diverted.
Individual bargaining rights surpass collective bargaining rights in scope but not numbers. Blogs proliferate as few understand WTF is going on.
A new world dawns on fewer than expected.
Local Eyes–who wrote that for you? That sounded fairly intelligent.
Allentown Lyrics
Artist(Band): Billy Joel
Well we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line.
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we’re living here in Allentown.
But the restlessness was handed down
And it’s getting very hard to staaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaaaah aaahhh oooooooooh ooooooh ohhhhhhhhh.
Well we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved.
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron or coke,
Chromium steel.
And we’re waiting here in Allentown.
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled awaaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah aaaaaah.
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
If something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face, oh oh oh.
Well I’m living here in Allentown
And it’s hard to keep a good man down.
But I won’t be getting up todaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy
aaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah.
GUITAR SOLO
aaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah oh oh oh.
And it’s getting very hard to staaaaaaaaay.
And we’re living here in Allentown.
That’s the story of Bridgeport.
My record of imperfection remains flawless.
Ronin is not so fortunate.
*** Unions got no choice; hold or fold! *** Everybody must pay! ***
Another thing, Antitesto, I’m not complaining when unions get U Cazz’ for their members, I’m mocking them.
yahooy,
Grow a spine, tell me your bitter story. Just what poisoned your opinion on Unions? You are carrying a burden that is crushing the little intellect you have left. Let me share your burden. You act like a guy who got stood up at the Prom so in retaliation you went gay. The ends don’t always justify the means. Please evolve.
A.T.
Really? Is that what you think?
yahooy,
This may be our final dialog. Please, tell me your story.
A.T.
A.T.
Go make a sandwich.
yahooy,
Goodbye.
ZZZZZZZZZ