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

Approximately 31,000 employees from five unions in CT, Massachusetts and Rhode Island went on strike today to due to failed contract negotiations with their employer, Stop & Shop.  The workers walked off their jobs to protest the company’s proposed drastic and unreasonable cuts to health care and take home pay, issues unresolved at the bargaining table.  Without a contract since late February, last month union members gave their negotiating team the authorization to call a strike.  That strike went into effect at 1:00pm today, when the five New England United Food & Commercial Workers locals representing unionized employees at Stop & Shop authorized the strike and asked union members to walk off the job.  The unions have been without a contract since February.  The company’s latest contract proposal includes the following drastic cuts:

• Requires the average full-time employee to pay an additional $893 in weekly health care premiums over three years.
• Reduces the monthly pension benefit for many newly hired full-time employees by 32 percent.

A&R supports workers' rights - including the New England United Food & Commercial Workers right to strike!

We encourage all A&R members to respect the UFCW picket lines - and ask that union members not cross their picket line.  Support these striking workers by taking your business elsewhere.

We encourage everyone to buy and shop union whenever possible.  To make this easier, here is a list of union grocery stores in Connecticut represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW).  We thank the AFL-CIO CT for providing this list.

• Shop Rites in the following towns: Hamden, West Haven, Milford, East Haven, Stratford, Enfield, West Hartford, Canton, and Orange
• ACME Markets: Riverside, New Canaan, Greenwich, and Stamford
• Fairway Market: Stamford
• Food Bazaar: Bridgeport
• Kings Supermarket: Greenwich

A&R occassionally coordinates a large professional development event for the membership.  This year, we will be hosting a day at the Water's Edge in Westbrook, CT on Friday May 24th.  This event will accommodate a maximum of 250 attendees, so there is limited space available.   The conference check-in will begin at 7:30AM with sessions starting at 8:30AM.  This will be an all day event consisting of 4 workshops.  Each attendee will be assigned to all 4 workshops.  There will be a continental breakfast in the morning, lunch at mid-day, and snack in the afternoon. 

So this is how the process will

In recent weeks, various press reports have indicated that Governor Lamont has held talks with labor.  Such reports can be misleading.   While meetings with “labor” have been held – these were meetings with labor organizations with no authority or jurisdiction to negotiate for SEBAC.  No meetings or discussions have taken place between the Governor’s office and SEBAC.  SEBAC, the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, is the exclusive representative of state employees to negotiate healthcare and pension benefits.  The current SEBAC agreement does not expire until June 30, 2027, with job security provisions of that agreement effective through June 30, 2021.  Given these facts, A&R's position is that SEBAC leadership has no reason to currently be in discussions with the Governor’s office.  In fact no such meetings have taken place –  and none have been scheduled.

Everyone should have received their A&R ballot in the mail by now (it was mailed on April 4).  This year, our annual balloting is on Constitutional Amendments only.  This is an electronic ballot and your username/password credentials are printed on the documents received in the mail.  If you have any issues with voting or if you have misplaced or not received your ballot, send an email to office@andr.org which includes your name/employee id, and personal email address so we can contact our online voting vendor (BigPulse) who will follow-up with you.  

When you visit the voting website, you need to type in the entire address listed:
https://www.bigpulse.com/p54923/signin

There are only 6 Yes/No questions on A&R Constitutional Amendments, these suggested amendments where passed by the Amendment Advisory Committee and by the Representative Assembly and now require a 2/3 vote of the membership in order to be accepted.  This entire process shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, so please take the time to vote.  Balloting closes at 11:59pm on Wednesday April 24th and the results will be announced at the A&R Convention on April 25th.

Also, at the next RA meeting (Tuesday May 14, we will be selecting chairs for the following committees, if you are interested in joining any of these committees, please send an email to office@andr.org to let us know or simply attend a meeting as they are open to all A&R members.

Professional Development
Health and Safety
Communications
Social
COPE (Committee on Political Education)

A&R will be awarding 16 scholarships to children of A&R members who are pursuing post-secondary education.  This year, there will be 15 scholarships of $1,500 in addition to our Harry Zilber scholarship for $2,500.  Only children of current A&R members or children of A&R 4200R (our retiree chapter) can qualify for these scholarships.
The application deadline is Wednesday April 10th and winners will be announced at the A&R Convention on April 25th.