Labor unions may never see their power return to what it was in the heyday of American manufacturing, but unions still have plenty of leverage today in Connecticut, especially in the public sector.
Steering a federation of 220,000 teachers, cops, state agency employees, casino workers, telecom crews and a vast range of other professional interests is Sal Luciano, who’s worked in Connecticut state government and labor organizing for the past 40 years.
In 2018, he became president of the Connecticut chapter of the AFL-CIO, replacing Lori Pelletier. The role makes him point man for the policy and political interests of dozens of individual public and private unions, including those that are at the table when the state is hashing out high-stakes agreements with the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, or SEBAC.