Posted 3/30/17

A&R's position has been and remains that the Top Step Payment should have been paid to members regardless of the contract extension signed in July, 2016.  An institutional grievance for payment was filed.  Not surprisingly, OLR denied the grievance at Step 2 just this past week.  The union is pursuing the grievance to Step 3 (arbitration).  Via the grievance process, we are seeking back-pay.

At the negotiations table the union proposed reasonable wage increases, payment of increments, and the top step payment in each year of our successor contract.  Negotiations are ongoing, with

The Tier2/2A/3 pension breakpoint has been updated for 2017, the breakpoint is now $77,889.

To the advantage of members, the breakpoint has increased by roughly 3.6% for the past 3 years.  This is a huge improvement compared with the first 30 years in which the breakpoint rose by 6% per year.

Tier2/2A/3 has a multiplier of 1.4% times years of service times salary and an increase of .4333% times years of service for salary above the breakpoint.

This means that your pension will be roughly calculated as such:

.014 x YrsOfService x AvgSalary
                        +
.004333 x YrsOfService x

The Governor closed all 3 shifts on Tuesday March 14.  Therefore, employees do not have to charge time against their accruals for any sick time, PL, or vacation requested for Tuesday 3/14/17.

From the Governor's website:

"...In addition, the Governor is fully activating the state’s Emergency Operations Center starting at 5:00 a.m. He is also directing all nonessential first and second-shift state employees to not report to work on Tuesday."

"Gov. Malloy: Third-Shift, Nonessenital State Employees Should Not Report to Work Tuesday Evening"

Posted 3/9/17

1^st MEDIATION SESSION HELD
Contract negotiations advanced with the union and the state presenting opening postions before a mediator on Wednesday, March 8^th.  A&R continues to maintain that there can be little meaningful progress if the state continues its hard-line stance seeking to gut our contract.  The state has put forward 96 separate proposals which, if all were adopted, would eliminate most of your basic contractual rights.

For example, you may recall that the state proposes the complete elimination of out-of-state travel reimbursements - in their entirety!  Yup.  The state's expectation is that when they assign you out-of-state work that you will pay for the airfare, the hotel, the meals - everything - without any reimbursement.  Obviously we take issue with such nonsensical proposals.  We will continue to bargain in good faith, while insisting that our members be treated with dignity and respect at the bargaining table.  Our next mediation session is scheduled for March 27^th, where we expect to delve into specific language issues.

OUR APPROACH TO NEGOTIATIONS
Wage freezes and pay cuts are not the same thing!  It is our contention that no member should take a pay cut as a result of a contract extension agreement.  At issue is the state's insistence that Top Step Payments are to be forfeited while we are negotiating the successor agreement.  This means that those who received the Top Step Payment the prior year are taking a 2.5% pay cut.  Plain and simple it is a pay cut.  This is unjust and not acceptable.  Whatever path contract negotiations take, recovering retroactive payment of the top step payment is and shall remain among our highest priories.

The amazing part is that the State has not come to an agreement with ANY of the unions.  As of July 1^st, 2016, near all of the unions, including A&R, were operating under an Extension Agreement.  Extension Agreements are guided by state statute which maintains the status quo until a successor agreement is reached.  Thus our position regarding pay cuts.  Whether through mediation, arbitration, or via agreement, we are and will continue to seek retroactive payments of the Top Step back to July 1^st, 2016 and we will continue to seek step increases as well.   This process has been long, but we cannot accept the positions the state has taken.  Further, we will not rush into a settlement which forgoes our short-term and long-term objectives.

There is going to be a State employee rally at the Legislative Office Building on March 24th.  There are over 60 bills aimed at State employees, many of which are expected to be put to a vote on March 24th.  Attached is the list of bills (many of them are duplicative); the bad bills are highlighted in yellow and the very bad bills are highlighted in red.

State employees must make a show of force to thwart these anti-labor bills.

We will have more details about A&R's plan for the rally as we get closer to March 24th.  It is essential that we stand together to preserve our benefits.  A large

The Tax Attorneys at the Department of Revenue Services were non-union State Employees until they signed their union cards just over a week ago.  Their attempt to unionize and join A&R was presented to the CT Labor Board on Monday were the State voluntarily recognized them as union members...meaning they are officially A&R members!  This is the first time that A&R has actively pursued non-unionized State Employees and brought them into our ranks.

On behalf of all of A&R, welcome aboard!

This would not have been possible without the tremendous organizing efforts and knowledge of Eric Borlaug and