State Officials Make Progress In Concession Talks

By Stephanie Reitz Associated Press

HARTFORD (AP) — Significant progress has been made in negotiations that could save Connecticut hundreds of millions of dollars in state worker costs, according to a joint statement Monday from the governor’s office and union leaders.

Governor M. Jodi Rell’s office and the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), which represents about 50,000 workers in 13 unions, said they now agree on a general framework of concession ideas.

Once they are refined, they will be presented to union members for a vote.

They include unspecified retirement incentives, changes in health insurance and wages, and what the statement calls “job security for permanent employees ... as well as the flexibility needed to make organizational changes.”

Administration officials and the unions have been meeting for months to discuss cost-cutting ideas as the state faces as much as $8.7 billion in projected deficits over the next two budget years.

The joint statement says the ideas under consideration would save the state about $637 million in labor costs in the upcoming two-year budget, plus additional savings in the current budget year that ends June 30.

The General Assembly would also have to approve the changes if state union members ratify them.

SEBAC officials stopped short of calling it a tentative agreement, saying details still need to be worked out.

“We’re optimistic we can achieve a positive result, but there’s still work that remains to be done, and ultimately we need to be able to inform our union members and bring this to a democratic vote,” SEBAC spokesman Larry Dorman said Monday.

Rell spokesman Christopher Cooper also declined to discuss specifics.

Dorman said details still being worked out include translating the job security provisions to the special circumstances of workers in the judicial branch and the state’s colleges and universities.

Rell’s proposed budget included a call to suspend the binding arbitration process for state employees from July 1, 2009, to July 1, 2011. During that period, an independent arbitrator would not be able to make an award to a union.

Labor officials balked at that proposal and another that involved eliminating several agencies and commissions. About 400 jobs would be cut through layoffs, attrition and shifting to other open positions.

Rell’s budget proposal also eliminates nearly 450 open positions.