UPDATE 4/12/24 - Our Wage Re-Opener [which is identified as Senate Resolution 12 (SR-12) and House Resolution 15 (HR-15)] will be taken up by the General Assembly's Appropriations Committee today, Friday April 12, 2024. A public hearing will be held starting at 10:00AM-ish and can be viewed on CT-N.com . The public hearing will be followed by a meeting of the Appropriations Cmte where we expect that both chambers will take a committee vote later today. A&R Chief Negotiator Rhonda Tillman submitted written testimony on behalf of A&R in favor of the Wage Re-Opener. If the House & Senate resolutions both pass the Appropriations Cmte then each resolution will go to their respective legislative chamber for a full vote of the House or Senate. There is no time table for the full House/Senate votes yet, the Resolutions must pass Appropriations before we can have an idea of when the next steps will occur.
All of the Wage Re-Opener agreements have been affirmed by each union and were submitted to the CT General Assembly on Tuesday April 2. The A&R Wage Re-Opener Agreement will be part of an umbrella agreement incorporating all of the union agreements so that the General Assembly only needs to vote once in the House and once in the Senate rather than have separate votes on each individual union agreement (which would be over two dozen agreements).
The umbrella agreement will first need a passing vote in the Appropriations Committee; we are hopeful that this vote will occur somewhere around April 10th. The Appropriations Committee is a joint committee (meaning both Senators and House Reps sit together on the same committee) and there will be public comments allowed during the meeting prior to a vote; if any A&R member wants to speak in favor of the agreement, please let us know and we can help coordinate that for you.
It is time to start urging your local State Senator and local State Rep to vote in favor of the agreement...here's how you contact them:
Use this webpage, click "Find" then click on the State Rep/Senator's name to get their contact info.
All you need to tell your legislators is that you live in their district and there is a State Employee Wage Re-Opener coming up for a vote this session and you want them to support you and your family and vote in favor of the Wage Agreement, you can be that short with it and you will most likely be talking to a staffer, not your Rep/Senator...this is a simple but an important step so we urge each member to do this.
UPDATE: The A&R Scholarship deadline has passed so applications are no longer being accepted. We received an amazing number of applicants this year. Winners will be announced during the A&R Convention which will be held on Thursday April 18th at 6:00PM at the Union Office, 805 Brook St Building 4, Rocky Hill, all A&R members are welcome and encouraged to come to the Annual Convention.