Authorize unemployment benefits for striking workers.
The Connecticut AFL-CIO will stand ready to support affiliates in their efforts to:
Block all attempts to undermine collective bargaining rights, binding arbitration, prevailing wage standards and project labor agreements.
Pass collective bargaining agreements, arbitration awards and memoranda of understanding delivered to the General Assembly, including the home care workers contract.
Improve paraeducator hiring and retention by:
Enacting a living wage;
Providing secure retirement options;
Securing funding ($1.8M) to maintain and expand the delivery of professional development;
Securing funding ($5M+) to maintain and expand health insurance subsidies; and
Prohibiting the privatization of hiring and employment of paraeducators.
End years of disinvestment by fully funding public institutions of higher education, including community colleges which are an invaluable component of workforce development infrastructure.
Require that all broadband projects funded through the DEEP’s Office of Telecommunications and Broadband be subject to the state’s prevailing wage requirements.
Defeat efforts to weaken occupational licensing standards and increase apprentice to journeyperson ratios.
Clarify the paid family and medical leave statute to ensure employers who provide short term disability benefits use them as the primary benefit, not vice versa.
Expand unpaid family and medical leave benefits to all non-certified, 10-month board of education employees.
Fill vacancies throughout state agencies to maintain delivery of public services and prevent privatization attempts, including outsourcing to non-profits and expanding the use of public-private partnerships.
Establish protections against workplace violence in all healthcare settings.
Enhance charter school accountability measures.
Prohibit the disclosure of public employees’ home addresses under the Freedom of Information Act.
Require municipalities to provide a defined benefit pension that meets or exceeds the benefit level provided by Connecticut Municipal Employee Retirement System (CMERS) to all police officers and firefighters.
Ban the treatment of firefighters’ personal protective equipment (PPE) with PFAS chemicals.
Pass a state resolution urging repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.
Pass a state resolution to ratify the U.S. constitutional amendment banning child labor.
Secure workforce development funding and bonding for the Aviation High School Project.
Prohibit non-compete agreements.
Expand the State Contracting Standards Board’s authority to include review of quasi-public agencies, UConn, and the UConn Health Center Finance Corporation.
Expand the work zone speed camera pilot program statewide and make it permanent.
Monitor legislative recommendations from the Medical Record Requests and Records Fee Working Group and the Injured Employee Partial Permanent Disability Payment Working Group for potential changes to the workers’ compensation system in the Judiciary Committee.
Monitor legislative recommendations from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working Group in the General Law Committee.
Monitor efforts to establish protections for gig economy workers.
Require posters detailing veterans’ benefits to be posted at all work sites with over 50 employees.
The Connecticut AFL-CIO will support allies in their efforts to:
Advocate for a fair budget that robustly and equitably funds public services by asking the wealthy and corporations to pay what they owe.
Create one fair minimum wage in Connecticut by eliminating the subminimum wage.
Enact the Carbon-Free and Healthy Schools Act which requires net-zero construction and renovation of school buildings while mandating the use of apprenticeship and job training programs, prevailing wage standards and project labor agreements for projects over $10 million.
Expand the paid sick days law to:
Cover all private-sector employees;
Broaden the range of family members for whom an employee may use leave;
Increase the rate at which leave is accrued and remove the waiting period; and
Allow leave to be used for a public health emergency and/or quarantines.
Limit and regulate “on-call” scheduling practices in the retail and hospitality industries by passing “Fair Workweek” legislation.
Support the protection of tenants’ rights and the establishment of tenants’ unions.
Oppose efforts of the “earned wage advances” industry to exempt themselves from small loan acts and interest rate caps which would allow them to prey on low-wage workers and trap them into the need for numerous advances/payday loans.
