A coalition of state government employee unions in Connecticut reportedly is about to reject a proposed no-layoff contract deal hammered out last month with Governor Dannel Molloy.
It’s difficult to compare the Connecticut pact with the agreement reached yesterday by Governor Cuomo and New York’s largest state employee union, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). The complex Connecticut deal includes changes to pensions, which are not bargained under New York law.
In at least one crucial respect, however, Cuomo seems to have done much better than Molloy. He won CSEA’s agreement to a five-year contract beginning with a three-year freeze of base salaries, followed by a 2 percent increase in each of the last two years, plus a non-recurring cash bonus in each of those years to make up for the prior-year zeroes. Connecticut unions apparently are about to turn their noses up at a contract offering a two-year wage freeze followed by three years of 3 percent annual pay hikes.
The CSEA contract is still subject to a ratification vote, which won’t come for weeks, and Cuomo is still in negotiations with other unions including the state’s second largest, the Public Employees Federation.
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