-5/1/25
Monday April 28, A&R met with the State for another round of discussions regarding our next contract (our current contract expires on 6/30/25). Again, while the discussions have been cordial and somewhat constructive, we are nowhere close to an agreement. Thusfar, discussions have predominately focused on "language" items. Although the union is eager to discuss financial aspects of the successor contract, the State is not. The State purports that federal funding for CT is uncertain and therefore they are not ready to discuss financial issues. By "financials" we mean all aspects that require monetary appropriations, such as: general wage increases, step increments, top step payments, tuition monies, and even shoe allowances. Anything with a financial impact seems to be problematic for the State to discuss and they simply want us to wait.
There is quite a bit of frustration in this approach from the State. For example, at a separate bargaining table, the State did commit to a one-year 2.5% wage increase for the CT State Police Union - so why not offer other unions (including A&R) the same wage increase for the first year? One option available to us is to seek the same wages the State Troopers are to receive via binding arbitration. While taking the arbitration path has many risks as well as delays associated with it, it is an option we are considering. Lastly, we observe and are frustrated that, despite the federal funding uncertainty, the Governor's Budget did include raises for all State employees. Given the governor's budget, we are at a loss to understand why that money was stripped from the Legislative Appropriations Committee Budget proposal last week.
At this time, we do not see a likely path to attaining a contract agreement on time (the legislative session ends June 4 and for our contract to become effective we need a legislative vote). We are constrained by several factors, including that there is no requirement for the State to make an agreement prior to the end of our contract's expiration and, for those who may be unaware, we are prohibited by law from holding a strike or walking-out to force an agreement. So where do we go from here? First, we will seek an Extension Agreement to our current contract. An extension agreement will continue our contract "as is" but any extension agreement will not have funding for general wage increases, step Increases nor top step payments, nor will there be any additional Tuition or Professional Development monies available until after we have completed our successor agreement. All other terms of the contract will continue. >
While we seek our Extension Agreement, we will continue to have negotiations with the State on the "language" items we are looking to improve. But we will also be engaging Gov Lamont and our legislative leaders to replenish the salary increases in their final budget. We will be pushing to get a full contract as soon as we can. If the State continues its stance of not being able to commit to wage increases at the table we may be forced to file for binding arbitration. As the State continues to dawdle we are moving towards that option. This is not our favored option because arbitration is an option where you may win AND you may lose but it is an option that we need to seriously consider if there continues to be sluggish progression.
Lastly, we want to point out to our members that these contract negotiations should have no impact on telework, pension, or healthcare...those items are controlled by separate agreements which are under the authority of SEBAC.