Connecticut’s state employee unions have approved a $1.6 billion concession deal, two months after the unions rejected a similar deal and forced the state government to lay off 3,000 workers.
“We have achieved something the skeptics said was unachievable: we’ve made the relationship between the state and its workforce sustainable,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said after the deal was announced Thursday. “And, unlike in most other states, we did it without going to war with public employees. We’ve shown what’s possible when management and labor work together in a respectful fashion. Sure, this agreement took a few extra months to achieve – but so what?”
The state will rescind most of the layoffs, although department heads may have to defend rescinded layoffs of non-unionized workers and union employees whose individual bargaining units did not approve the agreement.
After months of talking with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition – the organization negotiating on behalf of all state employee unions – Malloy reached a deal for $1.6 billion in concessions that involved no pay cuts or layoffs. In June, the unions rejected that agreement, as it involved changes in pension and health plans, among other concessions.
SEBAC officials rewrote the union voting rules in July and called a new vote on the concession deal. Voting finished on Wednesday and the results were announced Thursday.
