May 1 thru May 31 is when we have an opportunity to re-evaluate and switch our Medical and/or Dental plans for the next year...this is the only time of the year that you can do this unless there is a "life change" such as childbirth, marriage, divorce, death).  Changes can be made directly thru your CORE-CT portal for those who have CORE-CT access and these changes will be effective July 1, 2025.  If you do not want to make any changes then do nothing and your current plans will simply continue.  

A few things to note about this year's plans:

First, there will be an audit of dependents this year

-5/1/25 

Monday April 28, A&R met with the State for another round of discussions regarding our next contract (our current contract expires on 6/30/25).  Again, while the discussions have been cordial and somewhat constructive, we are nowhere close to an agreement.  Thusfar, discussions have predominately focused on "language" items.  Although the union is eager to discuss financial aspects of the successor contract, the State is not.  The State purports that federal funding for CT is uncertain and therefore they are not ready to discuss financial issues.  By "financials" we mean all aspects

Contract negotiations between the Office of Labor Relations and A&R continue. The state and the union have made some progress at the table with respect to a variety of contract language issues. The leadership teams of both parties have had extensive talks and those discussions have lead to a shared understanding of the issues, and in some instances, we appear to have found some common ground.  Language is important as it is contract language that establishes working conditions (think telework, AWS, and how overtime is calculated as examples). While we cannot reveal with any specificity the

It has come to our attention that a water main break is occurring near the Department of Labor (Folly Brook facility).  As a result of this, management has instructed all personnel to they leave the building due to the water being shut off.  The instructions further state that for those who have the means to telework, please continue working remotely.  The interoffice memo also indicates that employees do not need to extend work hours and that the commute home will be covered as work hours.  We remind A&R members that under the terms of the telework agreement, accepting a directive to telework

Every year AFT-CT hosts several round-table meetings where they invite State lawmakers to come and sit with union members.  These are low-pressure, casual, free events for A&R members (A&R is the largest union within AFT-CT) and include a light meal at each of the venues.  These are structured such that the lawmakers will go from table-to-table and sit with a group of members who can have a discussion with their local House Reps/Senators on any topic they choose...for A&R members, you can have your say on any issue you wish, but please don't forget to tell them that you want them to either

UPDATE 2/21/25:

HB 5369 An Act Authorizing State Agencies To Require Employees To Work In Person was given a legislative public hearing yesterday in the Labor and Public Employee Cmte and there was no committee vote on the bill.  This means that the committee may not take a vote and therefore the proposed bill will just die.  If the committee does take a vote, we will push to have it crushed.

...but let's not ignore what really happened here:  A&R showed up!  There were over 1200 responses opposing this bill!!! That is an unbelievably incredible response! A&R employees submitted over 600 of