CSEA Connections (Blog)

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We launched this current events section to provide frequent and timely news on issues impacting Connecticut's working families, as well as to share details on upcoming events and activities of interest to our Union members.

Ridgefield Cafeteria Workers Resist School Board Scheme to Lower Standards
When we learned that the Ridgefield Board of Education was meeting behind closed doors to discuss terminating the revenue contract with the food services provider that employs our members working in the district, we mobilized. Members turned out in force for the public session that followed last week's Board meeting and spoke out against the scheme, and the Ridgefield Press was there to report on our efforts in an article for this week's edition.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 7/2/2009 5:07:00 PM

comments (0) Chapter 743 Communications ,  Clean Contracting ,  Collective Bargaining Issues ,  Leading for Quality Services

From Stamford to Washington: All Aboard for Quality Healthcare
Our Union is organizing active and retired public service workers to support healthcare reform at the state and federal level that expands access and protects quality, affordable medical coverage. There are several opportunities for our members to get involved this summer, including the "Healthcare Independence Day" rally our SEIU State Council is holding with Congressman Jim Himes tomorrow in Stamford.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 7/1/2009 3:47:00 PM

comments (0) Healthcare Reform ,  Leading for Quality Services ,  Political Action

Delivering Another Rebuke to Foes of Public Education
The Yankee Institute is at it again, exploiting Connecticut's troubled economy to hawk their free-market radicalism. Their latest anti-public service propaganda has targeted our state's schools, and when the New London Day printed a commentary by their "Chief Policy Analyst" earlier this month, we responded. Read Paraprofessional Council leader Jamie Berger's letter to the editor, published in Saturday's edition.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/30/2009 5:59:00 PM

comments (0) Leading for Quality Services ,  Paraeducators Standards

The Case for Respecting Municipal Workers in Middlebury
Friday's Waterbury Republican-American features an article on Middlebury's elected officials' continued efforts to unilaterally force Town workers into a risky Health Savings Account (HSA). The article is significant because of the admission the reporter manages to get out of the Town's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) about their scheme, which we have forcefully opposed from the beginning.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/29/2009 10:05:00 AM

comments (0) Chapter I32 Communications ,  Chapter I33 Communications ,  Chapter I34 Communications ,  Collective Bargaining Issues ,  Council 760 Communications ,  Healthcare Reform ,  Leading for Quality Services

Hartford City Workers to Vote on Cost Savings and Job Security
After months of efforts to preserve vital public services and protect working families from greater economic hardship, Hartford's professional and technical employees have a tentative agreement (TA) for a new contract. A ratification vote is scheduled for our members in Chapter 848 on Tuesday, June 30, and as the Hartford Courant's CityLine reported last week, the agreement is the first to be reached for the unions in the coalition formed back in April to weather the current storm.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/27/2009 9:54:00 AM

comments (0) Chapter 848 Communications ,  Collective Bargaining Issues ,  Council 760 Communications ,  Leading for Quality Services

Turn-Up Our Fair Budget Message
SEBAC's latest ad has been generating media buzz since we launched it on broadcast TV and cable networks across Connecticut last week. The fourth ad our coalition of State workers unions has sponsored this year is the hardest-hitting yet, and though it's on the air through June 30, take a moment to share the online version with friends, family, and fellow members to make sure our message punches through.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/24/2009 5:46:00 PM

comments (0) Leading for Quality Services ,  Political Action

Fighting for a Voice for More State Public Service Workers
Read the June edition of AMECSS NEWS -- the first in a regular series to provide updates and information important to members of the Association of Managerial Employees in the Connecticut State Service (AMECSS). The organization represents State public service workers who are managers and confidential employees, and has been affiliated with our union for more than thirty years. Winning a voice on the job for these workers has been a top legislative priority, and led to forming our CSC, SJM, and CSPCOA Councils that today represent more than seven hundred members of our union. The edition's complete text follows.

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Posted By: Lisa McKinnon on 6/16/2009 3:08:00 PM

comments (0) AMECSS Communications ,  Freedom to Form Unions

Middlebury Town Workers Stand United for Quality Healthcare
Members of our Council 760 Chapters representing Middlebury's municipal employees turned-out for last week's Board of Selectmen meeting to urge local officials to engage them in achieving cost savings instead of unilaterally forcing them into a risky health insurance scheme. We had planned to deliver our message during the public comment portion of the meeting, but as we posted in an entry the day before, the Board unexpectedly called it off. If Town leaders thought that would cover up the dispute, the extensive local news coverage over the past week surely proved them wrong.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/11/2009 7:27:00 PM

comments (0) Chapter I32 Communications ,  Chapter I33 Communications ,  Chapter I34 Communications ,  Collective Bargaining Issues ,  Council 760 Communications ,  Healthcare Reform ,  Leading for Quality Services

Solidarity for Public Education Workers
No one was surprised when perennial public service critic Susan Kniep, the President of the Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, condemned veteran schoolteachers in a recent Journal Inquirer article. When she was quoted as saying "shame on them" for not agreeing quickly enough to cost savings agreements with their employers, P-4 Council steward Dawn McKay felt she had gone to far -- and responded with a letter to the editor published in Friday's edition.

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Posted By: Matt OConnor on 6/9/2009 6:07:00 PM

comments (0) Leading for Quality Services ,  Paraeducators Standards

2009 Legislative Session Wrap-Up
I wanted to take this opportunity to provide information about certain highlights from the Connecticut General Assembly's 2009 session, which adjourned last Wednesday. Though the legislature overwhelmingly approved the agreement with State employees that will achieve $700 million in savings over the next two years, without a 2009 – 2010 state budget, negotiations with the Rell Administration to close a nearly $10 billion gap will continue into the foreseeable future.

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Posted By: Patricia A. Groves, JD, MSPS, CSEA/SEIU Political Director on 6/8/2009 5:26:00 PM

comments (0) Criminal Justice Reform ,  Healthcare Reform ,  Leading for Quality Services ,  Livable Wages ,  Our Rights at Work ,  Political Action ,  Early Education/Child Care