The number of state retirees receiving six-figure pensions has grown rapidly over the past 8 years, increasing from retirees in to 1, in The current SEBAC concessions agreement will leave lawmakers in a bind during the next budget-writing session. Dannel Malloy has already made headway in shrinking the state workforce. According to the governor , Connecticut has reduced the number of full-time employees by nine percent and the number of management positions by 28 percent since Although Connecticut statute says that management cannot be part of a union, recent increases in healthcare costs, raise cancellations and layoffs of non-union employees have led to unions making inroads into what could be considered managerial positions.
In state police captains and lieutenants won a five year fight to form a union, when the state Board of Labor Relations determined they did not qualify as management and Gov.
Dannel Malloy chose not to argue the point as the case had already been through the court system once before. However, Connecticut state government unions may have reached peak membership among existing full-time employees, unable to expand their reach much farther. With 94 percent of state employees protected by the SEBAC agreement and a limited number of non-union employees left, there may be fewer and fewer places to point the finger to in reducing the cost of state government.
Alain Hadges December 30, am. This is a very interesting article. If all state citizens regularly read through this document, the State defecit may not have been permitted to get so bad. Can you tell me please, the source of the part-time, student and seasonal employees number you cited?
Marc E. Fitch January 6, am. Your email address will not be published. Yankee Institute commissioned studies of Connecticut in and again in Finally, the American Enterprise Institute carried out two studies comparing all 50 states, first in and, then, in covering both state and municipal employees. The studies compared state employee compensation to private sector compensation. The benefits side of this compensation is grossly underfunded. It is amongst the five worst funded in the nation.
Retiree health care is barely funded at all. Overgenerous compensation places an unsustainable burden on the state budget to maintain even current funding levels. Now, consider present circumstances. Connecticut has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, 7. Before the pandemic, about 1,, Connecticut workers were employed. In contrast, pre-pandemic private sector employment was about 1,, 1,, less , Now it is about 1, So, when state employee union leaders talk about the sacrifices made by state employees, turn a deaf ear.
When those leaders and their chief negotiator, Dan Livingston, describe state workers as members of the working class, turn a deaf ear.
When they classify most state employees as frontline workers, turn a deaf ear. State workers lead a charmed life, surrounded by a world that is collapsing — a world that has been supporting their privileged existence, but, soon, will no longer be able to do so.
It is simple economics. Rank and file union members should ignore the alternating happy talk and defiant class warfare rants of their leaders and negotiators. They should demand discussion of real givebacks while there is still time for such reforms to alter the suicide course on which they and the state are headed. The pain of pay and benefit reductions can be moderated, if shared across the more than , active and retired state employees.
The pain can be spread over several years, as it was in neighboring Rhode Island, where state employees accepted a suspension of cost-of-living increases until the state pension fund reached a reasonable level of funding. State employees should watch the jobs numbers. Unless, unexpectedly, the numbers improve significantly, members should worry… a lot. Last Thursday, they mandated that large businesses and. Governor Lamont is negotiating in secret a new wage contract with the State Employees Bargaining Alliance.
0コメント