2026 Legislative Agenda

Social share icons

The Connecticut AFL-CIO will prioritize the following legislation:

  • Working in coalition to establish standards and protections for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace, including mechanisms to include the voices of impacted workers in those processes.
  • Working in coalition to amending the state's restrictive "fiscal roadblocks" to (1) make state taxes more equitable by making the wealthy pay their fair share; and (2) use existing budget surpluses to make critical investments in public education, higher education, affordable housing, childcare, long-term care, expanded healthcare access, state agency staffing levels and other vital services upon which Connecticut residents depend.
  • Taking advantage of opportunities to enhance the State Labor Relations Act, MERA, and SERA.

The Connecticut AFL-CIO will work with affiliates to pass the following legislation:

  • Amending the adult recreational cannabis statute to clarify that all employees must be paid at least the full minimum wage (UFCW).
  • Regulating retail self-checkout lanes to ensure that technology is used in ways that help, not harm shoppers and workers (UFCW).
  • Protecting consumers from price gouging and preserving grocery worker jobs by regulating surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labeling (UFCW).
  • Protect public transit employees from workplace violence and assault by adopting barrier requirements on buses and establishing labor-management workplace violence training and prevention committees (ATU).

The Connecticut AFL-CIO will stand ready to support affiliates in their efforts to:

  • Pass collective bargaining agreements, arbitration awards and memoranda of understanding delivered to the General Assembly.
  • Block all attempts to undermine collective bargaining rights, binding arbitration, prevailing wage standards, project labor agreements, and apprenticeship ratios.
  • Enacting the recommendations of the working group studying rehabilitation services available to injured employees.
  • Establish comprehensive workplace safety standards to prevent heat-related illness.
  • Make employers that pay CEOs more than one hundred times the average employee wage ineligible for tax credits, exemptions, abatements, or financial assistance from the state.
  • Establish a low-wage employer fee to offset the cost to the state for employers that shift workers onto social safety net programs.
  • Ensure transparency, accountability, and affordability in the long-term care insurance market.
  • Prohibit private equity ownership of hospitals and all other healthcare facilities to protect patients and workers from corporate profiteering that endangers lives and livelihoods.
  • Enhance enforcement mechanisms in the statute requiring hospitals to establish staffing committees to create nurse staffing plans.
  • Will support efforts to prevent the de-professionalization of work, including the spread of "uber-like" apps for healthcare.
  • Require the Department of Labor and the Office of Manufacturing to post information about veterans’ benefits and services on their websites and create a workplace poster for employers to display conveying the same information.
  • Create workplace violence protections for gas utility workers who must enter private homes to perform their jobs.
  • Establish a state funding formula for the Connecticut State Colleges and University system.
  • Ensure that raises for employees at institutes of public higher education are funded by the state’s Reserve for Salary Adjustments (RSA).
  • Oppose the diversion of public funds away from public schools via charter schools and school voucher, tax credit, or so-called “scholarship” programs.
  • Improve paraeducator hiring and retention by:
    • Enacting a living wage;
    • Providing secure retirement options;
    • Renewing funding to maintain and expand the delivery of professional development;
    • Renewing funding to maintain and expand health insurance subsidies; and
    • Prohibiting the privatization of paraeducator recruitment and hiring.
  • Prohibit the disclosure of public employees’ home addresses under the Freedom of Information Act.
  • Require employers to make up the difference between workers' compensation and full pay if a healthcare worker is assaulted at work.
  • Prohibit retirement plans from decreasing a worker's pension benefit if they received workers' compensation permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits.
  • Expand the scope of qualifying circumstances for worker post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) to be covered by workers' compensation.
  • Require municipalities to provide a defined benefit pension that meets or exceeds the benefits provided by Connecticut Municipal Employee Retirement System (CMERS) to all police officers and firefighters.
  • Establish a method to provide consistent fire protection statewide (firefighter staffing).
  • Add investigators in the Division of Public Defender Services, investigators in the Division of Criminal Justice and support service investigators in Support Enforcement Services to the definition of "hazardous duty member" for purposes of the State Employees Retirement Act.
  • Allow State Marshalls to participate in the Paid Family Medical Leave program.
  • Expand the State Contracting Standards Board’s authority to include review of quasi-public agencies, UConn, and the UConn Health Center Finance Corporation.
  • Prohibit the long-term use of double utility poles and establish procedures with a timeline to remove existing double poles.
  • Enact worker retention protections when the state changes contractors for building operations to make sure the worksite remains a union shop.
  • Amend the fiscal intermediary for self-directed Personal Care Assistant (PCA) services so that PCAs are paid correctly and in a timely fashion for the hours they actually work.
  • Authorize the State Comptroller to withhold payment to contractors and subcontractors who violate wage and workplace standards on public construction projects.

The Connecticut AFL-CIO will support allies in their efforts to:

  • Support the protection of tenants' rights and the establishment of tenants' unions and the passage of legislation enacting just cause eviction protections.
  • Prohibit non-compete agreements.
  • Implement "no-excuse" absentee voting by mail.
  • Oppose the creation of Associated Health Plans that allow insurers to "cherry-pick" healthy employers or workers and base premiums on an employer’s claims experience, allowing for discrimination based on age, health status, disability, zip code.
  • Support the establishment of a Connecticut Public Option which would allow small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals to buy into the Partnership Plan 2.0 to take advantage of the state's purchasing power and lower administrative costs, providing significant healthcare savings.