Friedrichs v California Teachers Association -  Oral arguements were made last week in the US Supreme Court on this very impactful case.  The case centers around whether unions can collect a fee from public sector workers who opt out of joining the union.  All employees (even non-members) are covered by the union contract and the union is required by law to represent all employees covered by the contract, not just those who join as union members. This has been an accepted practice for 40 years.   There are some wealthy interest groups who wish to dismantle unionization and have propped up this case aimed at silencing workers' collective voice and the political power of these workers.  While the arguement isn't especially strong, court-watchers feel that the tendencies of the Supreme Court justices are such that the Court's decision is quite possibly going to overturn the fee collection process currently in existence.  Click to read the transcript of the oral arguments.

Rowland Settlement Update:  Emotional Distress and Punitive Damage awards are being applied this month.  Please review the your upcoming paystubs to verify that your award has been processed.  More info...

Step Increases & Top Step Payments:  Employees who recieved a Step Increase or a Top Step Payment on 12/25/15 should see this reflected in their paycheck on 1/21/16.  Top Step Payment chart and current pay scales

2016 A&R Convention and Elections:  The A&R Annual Convention will be held on Thursday April 28th at the A&R Office in Rocky Hill.  Any member interested in running for a seat on the Representative Assembly or running as a delegate to the AFT and/or AFTCT and/or CT AFL-CIO conventions needs to complete a candidacy form.  Candidacy forms and instructions can be found and downloaded under the Resources tab on our website.

The Comptroller's Office has released 2 recent items of interest:
      1) Comptroller Lembo has released his proposal to resolve the State Employee Pension funding policies.  Comptroller Lembo's proposal is in response to the Boston College study of our pension fund and the Governor's subsequent suggestion of splitting Tier 1 from the other Tiers and making Tier 1 "pay as you go". ..just an FYI: the Unions have not been asked to engage in any discussions related to any of the proposals.
     2) The Comptroller's Office released the most recent State budget projection which now appears to be a $200K surplus. 

On 12/23 A&R exchanged collective bargaining proposals with the State.  The Union was shocked to learn that the State Team was 40 Managers plus 1 Assistant Director of  OLR (who has already negotiated two A&R contracts) and the high-priced lawyer that the State contracted as its representative for talks with P-5 (apparently OLR does not believe that it can provide these services adequately...anymore).  

To be fair, it was just before Christmas, so only 28 managers showed up.  

Apparently, when you put 40 managers in a room they are able to become egregiously cynical as their proposals would set

FOOD DRIVE

In conjunction with the the United Labor Agency (ULA), A&R is coordinating a food drive and to make a donation to Foodshare.  Foodshare's mission is to end hunger as a part of the overall community effort to alleviate poverty in the greater Hartford area.

Please bring non-perishable food items to the convention

A&R's Annual Convention will be held on Thursday April 28, 2016 at the A&R Office (805 Brook St Building 4, Rocky Hill, CT).  Registration for the Convention will open at 4:30pm, and business will begin at 6:00pm.  Registration is open to all active members.  There is no cost to attend but identification is required for admittance.  Dinner will be provided.

Attendees of the Convention will vote on proposed Resolutions and the proposed 2016/17 Budget.  Newly elected Member Representatives and delegates will be sworn in to office.  The Annual Scholarship recipients will be announced

The Agenda items for the Convention will be as follows:

• Officer Reports
• Credentials Committee Report
• Adoption of Budget
• Old Business
• New Business
• Election Results
• Installation of Newly Elected Officials
• Good and Welfare 

Quite a bit has been happening....so if you missed it:

• Holiday Party Photos are being uploaded to the website.  You can find them under the 'News tab on the website's home page.  Click on 'Photos' then on  'Holiday Party 2016'.

• Our Annual Holiday Party was well attended and a blast.  If you didn't come this year, you should think about coming next year.  Great company, great food, great prizes.

• The legislature convened on 12/8 for a short Special Session to create a deficit mitigation bill for FY16 and FY17.

• A&R held its initial Collective Bargaining meeting with the State.

• A report was released which assesses the State Employee Retirement System (it will remain on our website under Resources | Retirement).

• Some of the 2016 Social Events have been booked but the registration forms and details have not yet been finalized for all of the events.  Other events will be added as the dates are confirmed.

5/7    Trip to Boston - Quincy Market
6/18  New York City - Do Your Own Thing
7/8    Lake Compounce (no further details yet)
8/26  Maneeley's Member Picnic (no further details yet)
10/1 Red Sox vs. Blue Jays (2nd to last game for David Ortiz)
10/22  Halloween Whodunnit on the CT River
12/2  Annual Holiday Party at the Aquaturf (no further details yet)

A&R opened contract negotiations with the State last week.  The objective for our first meeting was simply to establish the ground rules.  This was successfully accomplished.  The rules are fairly straight forward: 

• No recording devices allowed,
• No press or public allowed
• Meetings will be scheduled for half-days (they can certainly run longer if discussions warrant)
• The Union team will have 12 members plus the President, Vice President, and Attorney (John DiSette, Mike Myles, and Barry Scheinberg respectively).
• There will be only 1 spokesperson per side (Atty Barry Scheinberg for A&R). 
• All

The CT General Assembly was called into Special Session Tuesday (12/8/15) to address the projected budgetary shortfalls for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.  The Special Session was closed Tuesday night when a budget mitigation bill was passed in both chambers.  The bill, which includes $350 million in spending cuts and other adjustments, would balance the 2016 budget.  In addition to the line item reductions listed, the Governor has discretion to make additional cuts up to $90 million.  The mitigation bill also has $190 million in reductions for FY2017.

Prior to the Special Session, there were