Congratulations to the DRS Tax Attorneys!!!!! We officially welcome you into A&R!!!!!
At long last, the A&R Tax Attorneys "impact bargaining" agreement has finally made its way through the legislature. (HR-23 & SR-26). Having passed both chambers at the capitol, these formerly non-unionized state employees have achieved their goal of joining the A&R union. The vote in the house was 84 to 62. The vote in the senate was much closer, at 19 to 17. Debate on the floor of both chambers was vigorous, with many elected officials voicing opposition to the agreement and opposition to union contracts in general. The same old anti union rhetoric was the main theme - that state employees are overpaid according to the terms of SEBAC 2017. Fortunately, other elected officials acknowledged and recognized that state employees made tremendous sacrifices in 2017 to the tune of $24 billion. These elected officials voted in favor of the good-faith negotiated agreement.
It took over two years to get this group into A&R from non-union status. While the road to success has been a long one, with many obstacles to overcome, the mission of the Tax Attorneys to unionize is finally accomplished!!!! It took great determination on the part of A&R as well as the Tax Attorneys to see this through to the end. The Tax Attorneys were the first group that petitioned the state labor board to unionize and join A&R. There are nine other job titles that followed their lead and have petitioned the state labor board to unionize. We expect this first agreement to set the pattern for the next nine groups. If you are among one of those nine groups, rest assured that A&R's most immediate goal is to have a similar follow-up agreement with OLR and to have that agreement presented at the legislature before this legislative session ends.
As soon as the video is available, we will link to the House debate on this Resolution. (watch the House debate on CT-N, the debate begins at minute 38 of this video). If there is any doubt about how fiercely many in the legislature want to reduce your salaries and benefits then please watch this debate...it should be an eye-opener for anyone who believes that breaking the union won't lead to a complete erosion of our wages, healthcare, vacation, sick time, holidays, and other benefits that are secured by contract. An entire orchestrated campaign was levied on state-employee wages, our healthcare, our insurance cost-share, our holidays, our vacation time, our sick time...each of these were turned into "wedge" issues for the next election cycle and will be targeted for reductions. We need to remain united and strong.
posted 4/17