Coronavirus Vaccinations: Connecticut has started to roll out phase 1A of the Coronavirus vaccination process. Phase 1A includes employees who are healthcare workers, long-term care facility employees, and first responders. For State Employees, the following agencies have established a schedule for 1A employees: DMHAS, DDS, DOC, DCF, and OCME. The vaccinations for 1A employees within these agencies will begin Wednesday 1/6/21 and will be administered "on-site" according to a schedule released by the Comptroller's Office. This does NOT mean all employees at these agencies will be eligible for the vaccination at this time, ONLY employees who meet the qualifications for phase 1A (basically 1A is for "patient-care" employees).
Each agency will be communicating with employees as to the eligibility for vaccination as well as the site-location and time for vaccination. The vaccine being used is the Moderna vaccine (although this can change). Vaccinations are not mandatory.
The qualifications for the next phases of vaccination are not yet finalized. The vast majority of A&R employees will not qualify for vaccination in Phase 1A so we will let you know as the situation evolves. The hope is that we can begin to put this craziness behind us soon, but we are still in this mess for at least several more months.
Related Topic: If you do contract COVID19 and you believe it is likely that you contracted it from your work environment, please don't forget to complete and submit a Worker's Comp claim (WCC Form 30C). We do not know how this will play out, but by completing the Workers Comp Claim form you will preserve your right to make a claim if there are long-term impacts from the disease.
Unrelated Topic: A&R has secured two dates in January 2021 for contract negotiations (our current contract expires June 30, 2021). As with all negotiations, we are prohibited from discussing details as the process plays out, but we will do our best to communicate the progress as we move along. Financial proposals will not be exchanged for several months. Keep in mind, we are only negotiating the A&R/P-5 contract, we are not negotiating anything around Pension/Healthcare as those items are controlled via the union coalition (SEBAC) and that contract is in place through June 2027.
A&R Convention: The A&R Annual Convention will be held on Thursday April 22, 2021. It will be held at the union office in Rocky Hill (805 Brook St, Rocky Hill, CT). Most likely, this will be another event in the parking lot. The Convention will begin at 6:00pm.
posted 1/4/21