As you most likely know, three of our fellow state employee unions have declared impasse, having grown frustrated by the administration’s lackluster offer which was a wage freeze with steps (for some) and a meager lump sum for 2025/26, followed by three years of 0% wages and no steps in all other years. The A&R negotiating team is just as frustrated as everyone else who is dealing with this administration. We believe that employees need a wage increase which mirrors our growing personal expenses and acknowledges the rising consumer price indexes. A state that has completed the last several years with a surplus should not be asking for a base salary freeze. Rising CPI combined with fiscal surpluses and a balanced budget which includes wage increases suggest that the ability to offer real raises does exist. The State's finances are in no worse peril than they would be in any other year, asking the state workforce to forego wage increases when economic conditions warrant them seems inappropriate at best.
Wage freezes during times of inflation and state surpluses doesn’t seem reasonable to us at all; tossing nothing more than a meager one-time payment on the table does not resonate for the proceeding years. We are not at all clear as to who in the Lamont administration possibly thought this proposal was worth wasting their breath over; to those in OLR who had the misfortune of needing to pass this offer along to the unions, we can only imagine they were humiliated to do so. This proposal screams: "this is an offer so we can claim in the press that we made an offer" without explaining that they recognize it is under-valued, disparaging, and knowingly unacceptable.
None-the-less, we are still willing to work with our state partners at the negotiations table. We are hopeful that the administration will realize that the best solution is mutual cooperation to achieve a respectable contract agreement. However, we also realize that, unless we see actual, meaningful progress at the bargaining table (at a much faster pace) in the form of what we consider a reasonable offer from the state, the solution for A&R will be to declare impasse and file for interest arbitration.
Although, we prefer to remain on the path of negotiating a mutual settlement with the state, unless the state puts forth a reasonable wage offer, we will likely make the decision to declare impasse. While our patience is not yet at an end, we want the membership to know that A&R leadership is growing weary and playing games with meek offers after 10 months at the table does not satisfy us at all.
-7/9/25