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.

The value of union membership was clearly demonstrated on Wednesday (March 27^th) when lawyers working at the Attorney Generals Office had their first contract approved at the state legislature.  This was a significant milestone for this group of 185 state employees.   These employees had not been unionized previously and had not recieved raises in many years.  About two years ago these 'at will' state employees organized themselves.  They petitioned the state for the right to form a union.  They held a vote.  They formed their own union.  The result:  with their first contract they secured a 3

General Update (3/25/2019)

First, the A&R Tax Attorneys "impact bargaining" agreement has finally made its way to the legislature (HR-23 & SR-26).  This has been a tough road for over 2 years to get this group into A&R from a non-union status.  The Tax Attorneys were the first group that organized into A&R and there are 9 other titles that followed their lead and successfully unionized.  This has not exactly been a smooth transition for them so I want to thank them for having the courage to do what they did and the determination to see this through until the end.  We still need to get this

Just a reminder of some upcoming A&R events.  All events are open to active members and their guests:

4/5/19    Chocolate and Wine Cruise (view flyer)
Enjoy an evening of music, chocolate, and wine while cruising along the Connecticut river aboard the Lady Katharine

5/11/19  Boston - Do Your Own Thing (view flyer)
Spend the day having fun doing your own thing in Boston

6/15/19  New York - Do Your Own Thing (view flyer)
Spend the day doing your own thing, this time in New York

8/9/19    Red Sox vs LA Angels at Fenway Park  (view flyer)

8/17/19    Saratoga Races  (view flyer)

10/13/19   Foxwoods Casino Bus Trip  (view flyer)

CORRECTION: previously we stated that the "extra" hour should be coded as LWGOV, this is incorrect, the "extra" hour is properly coded as LWWTR. So for Monday 3/4/19, the time up to 10:30 is LWGOV, anything beyond 10:30 is LWWTR.

Today, Monday March 4, Governor Lamont declared a late opening of 10:30.  This is the first delayed opening in a few years and we have some new contract language regarding late openings, so let's try to get this all sorted out for everyone...we will start easy: 

Essential Employees (level 1 employees)...we have NEW contract language that grants comp time for all hours worked up thru the delayed start time (that would be 10:30 am today).  So if you worked from 7:30 to 10:30 as an Essential Employee, you would earn 3 hrs of comp time in addition to any regular pay or OT compensation for the week.

Non-Essential Employees (level 2 employees) who are not on "Pure Flex":  This really hasn't changed, but here is how it works: Those NOT on pure flex: code the time to "LWGOV" for the hours missed through 10:30 (as always).  Further, if you arrive within 1 hour of the governor's "modified" start time (meaning, you arrive by 11:30 am today) that time is coded as LWWTR...an arbitration award declared that the extra hour from Article 16 Section 6 is "stacked" onto the Governor's declared start time.  Further, we have NEW contract language that allows you to make up any time beyond the 1-hour extension or you can charge excess lateness to accruals...

Non-Essential Employees (level 2 employees) who are on "Pure Flex" will pretend that their day started at 8:00 am, so in this instance, from 8 am to 10:30 is coded as "LWGOV", if you needed the additional 1 hr extension, then the same applies as above...and of course, you can make up any time during the payperiod or use your accruals.

Last 2 notes: 

NEW language:  if you had scheduled vacation, sick, pl for today, you do NOT need to charge your accruals through 10:30 am unless you were scheduled to take the entire week off.

Also NEW language, even if you are late, you can claim LWGOV.  Prior to this contract, if you were late, you lost LWGOV, that is no longer the case.