Political Action
Call Your Legislators: Community College Funding and Anti-Union Amendments
Early this morning we became aware that Republicans in the House and Senate are holding any potential budget deal hostage for legislation that would end portions of Connecticut’s collective bargaining laws and weaken others. (Click here to read this morning’s CT Mirror story.) There is a fair deal available that would protect healthcare for seniors, and protect aid to and cities, but Republicans won’t support it unless it take rights away from working families.
Their proposals include a ban on collective bargaining on pensions and health care after 2027, removal of overtime from pension calculations after 2027 (especially bad for those workers doing hazardous duty), no COLA for retirees after 2027, and a new rule for cities and towns establishing an “irrebuttable presumption” that 15% of a municipality’s operating budget “is not available for payment of the cost of any item subject to negotiation or arbitration.” Could your town provide raises or improvements in benefits if their budgets were effectively shrunk by 15%? Could the state implement a similar restriction?
The final hours of the 2018 legislative session are likely to be the most perilous for us. Some members of the General Assembly think the only way to balance our state’s budget is on the backs of public employees. We cannot let them strip away, alter, or diminish our collective bargaining rights, nor the health care benefits and pensions we earned through our years of hard work and service to our state, our cities and our towns.
Click here to contact your legislators
What’s at stake? Anti-union legislators want to:
- Eliminate matters of retirement, overtime in pension calculations, and health care from collective bargaining;
- Change the benefit formula for state pensioners, including eliminating a COLA until the fund reaches 80% funded and the General Assembly approves a COLA (this would end COLAs for years);
- Eliminate overtime from pension benefit calculations, heavily impacting hazardous duty positions like correction police and health care where overtime is often mandated.
- Make it impossible to provide municipal employees a raise.
Call or email your legislators today.
If politicians do not hear from you, that means they are only hearing from right-wing extremist groups like the Yankee Institute. And, the folks at the Yankee Institute are telling them that your health care plan is too generous or your pension is unsustainable. Too many politicians will listen to this false propaganda. And if you have already spoken with your legislator this session, contact them again. Believe me, the anti-public employee lobbyists are speaking to your legislator every day.
Clearly, there is a fair agreement to be made that protects the services people need, but corporate conservatives at the legislature won’t vote for any agreement unless it hurts working people. So please pick up your phone or turn on your computer and contact the General Assembly members who are supposed to represent you in the State Capitol.
If you do not know who your state legislators are you can click here to find them. These are the caucus phone numbers:
- Senate Democrats Office: 860.240.8600
- Senate Republicans Office: 860.240.8800
- House Democrats Office: 860.240.8500
- House Republicans Office: 860.240.8700
Tell them to not take away our freedom to unite for a better life, and to improve our communities, through collective bargaining. Community Colleges are also facing MILLIONS in funding losses.
Together we will stop these attacks and protect our rights and freedoms.
Thank you.
ebenson May 9th, 2018
Posted In: Political Action
Tags: front recent
Call Your Legislators Today!
- Job Security: There shall be no loss of employment for permanent employees hired prior to July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2021.
- Protection from job loss does not apply to:
- Expiration of a temporary or special appointment (in 1st year),
- Nonrenewal of a non-tenured employee for performance-related reasons,
- Termination of grant or other outside funding specified for a particular position; and,
- Less than 20-hour per week part-time employees.
- Employees in the 2nd or subsequent special appointment year on the effective date of this Agreement shall be covered by this provision.
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It does not prevent the BOR from restructuring and eliminating positions provided that the affected employees shall be reassigned or transferred to an existing comparable job in thesystem for which the employee possesses the requisite qualifications and experience. Salary and tenure status shall be preserved. An employee who refuses an offered position shall not be considered a layoff.
- Protection from job loss does not apply to:
ebenson May 4th, 2018
Posted In: Political Action
Tags: front recent
Act Now! State Budget Hurts Colleges
The budget would also dismantle our fundamental collective bargaining rights by:
- Removing funding for cost-of-living increases for retired state employees;
- Unilaterally changing how pensions are calculated– even for years already worked, and for all years through 2027;
- And increasing pension contributions for ALL state employees to 7%.
- Please contact your legislators to demand restoration of funding to the Community Colleges and the Willis Scholarship. You can locate your legislators and view our template email by visiting this link.
- Please email Governor Malloy to ask him to stand by his pledge to veto this budget and to restore funding for CSCU and the Willis Scholarship in the budget compromise. You can email him here.
ebenson September 20th, 2017
Posted In: Political Action, Unions
Tags: front recent
March 31 Lobby Day
We Need YOUR Participation
Our members are facing many challenges and need YOU to help. The time is now to resist and protect our system of higher education.
The 4Cs will be holding a joint Lobby Day with CSU-AAUP and UConn-AAUP to Reclaim Public Higher Education on Friday, March 31 from 9am-1pm. Sign up here!
It is crucial that we have a strong showing at the Legislative Office Building on March 31 – including faculty, staff, and students. It’s time to Reclaim Public Higher Education!
ebenson March 8th, 2017
Posted In: Political Action
Tags: front recent
Day of Action for Public Higher Education
Sign up here!
See the full agenda here!
Sign up here.
ebenson January 9th, 2017
Posted In: Events, Political Action
What You Should Know about “GOTV U”
The semester is back in gear, pumpkin spice is all around you, and it’s officially election season! Higher education has traditionally received minimal attention during campaign season but this election cycle has witnessed sweeping proposals; higher ed has become a leading issue on campaign trails this year.
Candidates are out to earn YOUR vote, so it’s an important time to have legislators hear your priorities. When you meet legislators at events or they have knocked on your door, it’s an opportunity to ask them about the issues you care about like community college funding or debt-free higher education.
4Cs Bryan Bonina signs the pledge to be a Higher Education Voter!
Our parent union, SEIU, is launching GOTV U, led by higher education employees organizing under the banner Faculty Forward to bring faculty, staff, and students to the polls. Historically, campus turnout has been critical to candidates’ ability to win, with many crediting President Obama’s 2012 win to college turnout.
Join the 4Cs and other faculty, staff, students, and parents across the nation in pledging to be a higher education voter. What does it mean to #VoteHigher? We’re standing together and voting for candidates who will join the fight for quality, accessible higher education; help students graduate free of debt; and pay campus staff a minimum of $15/hour.
4Cs organizers will have pledge cards at chapter meetings and at other chapter events through elections. But you don’t have to wait to see one of the organizers in person; you can sign the pledge online here.
If you are active in politics, you know that GOTV stands for Get Out the Vote and the U signifies universities or colleges. (But also everything becomes an acronym now because of Twitter so you can Tweet #GOTVU and still have 134 characters left).
Join us in making higher education a powerful voice in this year’s elections, from local and state elections to the race for President!
ebenson September 15th, 2016
Posted In: Blog, Political Action, SEIU
Tags: front recent
Why I’m Attending “Take Back CT”
This Thursday, September 8, the 4Cs and our D.U.E. Justice –D.U.E. stands for Democracy, Unity, and Equality– partners are joining together to hear Rev. Dr. Barber of the North Carolina NAACP and founder of the Moral Monday Movement. The D.U.E. Justice is calling for collective action on 5 key issue areas needed to turn our state around, and to hold our political leaders accountable for their efforts and commitments in those areas. Those 5 issue areas are:
- Good Jobs and Fair Wages
- Universal Access to Quality Public Education, Preschool to Grad School,
- A Vibrant and Fairly Funded Public Sector,
- Racial, Gender, and Ethnic Justice,
- Democracy in our State and in Our Work Places.
Rev. Dr. Barber is an inspiring speaker who has given speeches at some high profile labor and democratic events in the past few months. I witnessed him firsthand speaking at the SEIU Convention, heard him on television at the DNC, and saw video of his speech at the Fight for $15 Convention.
Rev., Dr. Barber speaks at the Democratic National Convention
While I’m excited to be inspired again by Rev. Dr. Barber, I’m not just going to hear him speak.
I’m attending on Thursday because of an incident that really bothered me over the summer. I was a passenger with my sister and a close friend in a taxi coming home at the beginning of the summer. An irate driver not only tried to drive our cab off the road, but when he stopped next to us at a red light, he called our taxi driver the N word and physically started punching the cab with his fist. This happened in my town, less than two miles from my house.
It’s been several months since this incident took place but it still bothers me. It bothers me that someone who likely lives in my town used this hateful language against another human being. It bothers me that my taxi driver was able to remain calm, most likely because this was not the first time this hateful language was thrown at him and sadly because he didn’t want to risk losing his tip. But more than anything, it bothered me that I stayed silent during the exchange.
I am a white woman raised in liberal Massachusetts. I understand that racism still exists, but despite being 40 years old, this is the first time someone used the N-word in my presence.
Yes, the man who used the hateful word was bigger than me, angry, and clearly prone to violence. I did not want to escalate the situation. After the incident, we apologized to our taxi driver – embarrassed and angry that someone would use such hateful language towards him. He appreciated our kindness but simply shrugged off the incident.
I cannot shrug off the incident. Rather that trying to find peace or solace in the excuse of not wanting to escalate things, I’m going to use this incident as motivation to break my silence and use my voice. Therefore, I’m not just going to listen to Rev. Dr. Barber speak – I’m going to join with the thousand others to speak out on the issues important to us.
Whether your issue is fair wages for adjuncts and EAs, fairly funded public higher education, Black Lives Matters, women’s equality, all of the above, or other issues, I hope you consider joining me on Thursday, September 8 at Take Back CT! The event is taking place in the Welte Theatre at Central Connecticut State University (directions here; campus map here) at 6:30pm. Join us and use your voice for change!
ebenson September 6th, 2016
Posted In: Blog, D.U.E. Justice, Events, Political Action, Uncategorized
Tags: front recent
Community College Lobby Day, March 31
It is imperative that we make our voices heard to protect students and working people throughout the state of Connecticut. Though the fiscal crisis impacts all Connecticut residents, state workers have been singled out by Governor Malloy and the Legislature to absorb the cuts.
On March 31, the 4Cs and AFT memberships, students, and other community college supporters will go to the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to let our elected representatives know that Connecticut’s community colleges are essential to the future of the state.
Date: Thursday, March 31
Location: Legislative Office Building
Time: 10am-3pm
Register to attend here! Encourage colleagues, students, and community members to attend. If you cannot attend, please be sure to sign the postcard.
jrojas March 12th, 2016
Posted In: Political Action
Tags: front recent
Political Organizer Hired
jrojas October 15th, 2015
Posted In: Political Action
Tags: front recent