Connecticut’s legislative Republicans said Monday that taxpayers should no longer be forced to pay tens of millions of dollars a year for union representatives to do union business on the job, The Associated Press reports.
A spokesman for one of the unions fired back, saying local union officials solve problems before they escalate, saving time and money. He compared the GOP lawmakers with Wisconsin and Ohio officials who are restricting collective bargaining for state workers.
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero and other GOP lawmakers said Monday that 911 shop stewards — union officials who answer workers’ questions about their contracts and handle potential grievances and other union business.– are allowed to do union work on state time. They said their salaries and benefits total $93 million a year.
“There appears to be no regard for how much actual state work is being done by these stewards,” Cafero said.
Of the approximately 50,000 state employees, about 43,000 are unionized.
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