Unions Pitch Concession Deal To Senate Republicans

By Susan Haigh Associated Press

HARTFORD –– State employee union officials pitched an 11th-hour contract concession plan to Republican senators Tuesday, hoping to return all laid-off government workers to their jobs.

But it is questionable whether the Republicans will sign on.

Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury, said there are some “good points’’ in the proposal, but he dislikes any bill by the legislature that tells Gov John G. Rowland, a fellow Republican, to enact a particular wage and benefit concession agreement.

It is the job of the executive branch, not the legislature, to handle labor issues, Mr DeLuca said.

“We think it’s something we don’t want to jump into,” said Mr DeLuca, who appeared surprised by the labor concession proposal reached between the unions and Democratic legislative leaders in recent weeks. “We do not like the idea of dictating to the governor.”

Mr Rowland’s administration issued 2,800 layoff notices last December because of the state’s budget deficit.

The unions’ new plan would save the state an estimate $100 million and allow any laid-off employee to return to work as of September 1. Some workers have already taken other state jobs that became available, while another 1,800 remain laid off. The unions say about 1,200 would return to state service under the new proposal.

The deal would also provide four years of job protection, preventing further layoffs during that time.

Both Mr DeLuca and Sen William Aniskovich, R-Branford, the deputy minority leader, said they worry that discussion about a labor agreement will slow progress on finishing several important budget-related bills that still need to be drafted.

Mr Rowland’s spokeswoman, Michele Sullivan, warned that continued talk about a last-minute labor deal could jeopardize the entire, delicate budget deal reached last week.

Although the Democrat-controlled legislature passed the two-year, $27.5 billion package, lawmakers still need to finish writing the bills that spell out details of the budget and approve them.

“It appears the unions have reopened the entire budget process,” Ms Sullivan said. “It may bring us back to square one.”

It took legislative leaders and the governor’s office months of political wrangling to resolve the budget agreement, a tenuous deal that legislators from both parties dislike. They hope to finish the budget-related bills over this week and next.

Mr Rowland vetoed two Democratic budgets earlier this year, including one with a similar labor concession provision. That left the state without a tax-and-spending package by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

The union proposal would be a separate bill, apart from the budget-related bills. If it passes and is signed into law, or if lawmakers successfully override a gubernatorial veto, the estimated $100 million in savings would be used to replenish a local property tax credit on the income tax.

The budget approved last week cuts that credit from $500 to $350. Many Democrats support the tax credit, claiming it benefits middle-class taxpayers the most.

The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, which has been negotiating on behalf of the state unions, is running a television ad that touts the proposed concession deal as a way to help Connecticut’s middle-class taxpayers.

The package includes a permanent one-year wage freeze. It would affect workers with unsettled contracts as of July 1, and those with settled contracts on January 1, 2004. If the bill becomes law, rank-and-file union members would still have to approve the deal.