As we do every year at the A&R Holiday Party, we ask that everyone bring an unwrapped gift to donate to the United Labor Agency.  If you are looking to attend the Holiday Party and have yet to register, please do so, the deadline to purchase a ticket is Tuesday November 26!!!  If you have purchased a ticket, please consider bringing an unwrapped gift with you as a donation to the ULA.

For those who have yet to purchase their ticket to the party, we will accept credit card payments at the A&R Office (in person only) and we are no longer assessing the $1 surcharge for credit card payments for this or any of our other social committee trips/events.  Complete and return the registration form.

For those in need of toys for the holidays, please complete and submit this form to one of the ULA offices liseted on the form (do NOT send it to A&R),

We would also like to thank all of those who chose to run for local office this election year to serve the public good, we know this is a tough process and it takes courage to put yourself out there for scrutiny.  We were happy to endorse several candidates and we would like to recognize the A&R endorsed candidates who won their local elections.

Congratulations to Jonathan Hand, Coventry Town Council; Shirley Surgeon, Hartford City Council; Robert Pero, New London BOE; and the entire endorsed slate in Colchester (Mary Bylone, Rosemary Coyle, Mary Tomasi, and Michele Wyatt)

A&R would like to recognize and thank all of our military veterans, we honor and appreciate your service to our country.

VOTE TODAY

A&R is proud to endorse the following candidates for local office.  The first four candidates are A&R members and are running for office in local elections.  If you live in any of these towns.

VOTE TODAY

Support the candidates that support collective bargaining.  All endorsed candidates were vetted by our COPE committee and determined to be supportive of working people and their right to unionize.

• JONATHAN HAND – COVENTRY TOWN COUNCIL
  • A&R Member

• ROBERT PERO – NEW LONDON BOARD OF EDUCATION
  • A&R Member

• MATT SAUNIG – GLASTONBURY TOWN COUNCIL
  • A&R Member

• SHIRLEY SURGEON – HARTFORD CITY COUNCIL
  • A&R Member

• BILL GARRITY – PLAINVILLE TOWN COUNCIL
  • University Health Professionals union president/AFT-CT vice president

• KAREN PAGLIARO – BERLIN MAYOR

• MARY BYLONE – COLCHESTER FIRST SELECTMAN

• ROSEMARY COYLE – COLCHESTER BOARD OF SELECTMAN

• MARY TOMASI – COLCHESTER BOARD OF EDUCATION

• MICHELE WYATT – COLCHESTER TAX COLLECTOR

A reminder to those members who qualify for longevity payments: the payment will be included in the 10/24/19 paycheck. To qualify, you must have 10 years of service as of 10/1/19 and a start date prior to 7/1/2011.  View the longevity charts at this link or in the back of the blue contract book (one page before the index).

We have been patiently waiting for an official announcement from DAS that the Kronos project has been dramatically scaled back.  That announcement has finally come.  On Friday, 10/4 DAS Commissioner Josh Geballe stated that "we have decided to reduce the project scope to include only the six agencies with 24/7 operations in greatest need of Kronos functionality".  At these agencies, the primary purpose of Kronos is to provide a new scheduling tool for the 24/7 operations, typically replacing the Atlas tool.  The six 24/7 agencies are:

  * ​Department of Children and Families
  * Department of Veterans Affairs
  * Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services
  * Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection
  * Department of Correction
  * Department of Developmental Services​

You may recall that Kronos was the biometric time-keeping system that the State was in the process of installing at every entrance/egress of each and every facility operated by the State.  A&R spoke against this project frequently as we saw no justification for the state to be spending tens of millions of dollars on a log-in system while at the same time we were taking wage freezes and furloughs.  As we looked into this project further things only got worse: the original RFP didn't include the scope of the project actually purchased; the State was making the unusual move of paying for Kronos related staff increases via bonding; incorrect equipment had been purchased; and the Kronos system didn't "fit" with CORE-CT.  As a result, the Kronos project was an out of scope mess, costing approximately $500,000 per month, and an absolute morale killer.  So naturally, we opposed every bit of it.  To be certain, we were amazed to find that this $30 million project was largely unknown and hidden from our legislators.  We want to thank our partners at AFT-CT who helped us carry the ball in exposing and opposing this project. 

For the vast majority of A&R employees, plans for Kronos deployment have come to an end.  Unfortunately for our brothers and sisters at the six agencies listed above, we still do not know the extent of the project, nor do we know if all employees at these agencies, regardless of their work hours, will be expected to sign-in/out using Kronos.  A&R will try to find the answer to these questions.  If need be, we will file a demand to bargain over any change in working conditions. 

Bottom line:  while we have good news to share with most of our members regarding Kronos, we also must continue the fight at these select remaining agencies.

-posted 10/8