Labor Support Goes To Esty
by Christine Stuart | Aug 22, 2012 11:12pm
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(22) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Congress, Election 2012, Labor
Christine Stuart file photo
Elizabeth Esty in July at the AFL-CIO convention in Hartford
Elizabeth Esty was in the car headed to a reception for U.S. Rep. John Larson in New Hartford when she received the call from the state’s largest labor organization letting her know they were throwing their support behind her candidacy in the 5th Congressional District.
It took about 90-minutes for the 80 members of AFL-CIO’s executive board to endorse her candidacy by more than the two-thirds margin needed to secure its support.
“Based on her record and her commitment to stand up for the issues that working families care about, we believe that Elizabeth Esty is the best candidate to be our next U.S. Representative from the 5th Congressional District,“ John W. Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO said.
The endorsement means that the state federation will engage in a political education program in the 5th Congressional District race providing information contrasting Esty’s record during her one term in the House to that of Republican Sen. Andrew Roraback‘s 18 year record as a state lawmaker.
“Union members will be volunteering to call union members or knock on union household doors. It is all part of an effort to make sure that union members know about the issues in the campaign that affect working families,” Olsen said.
Olsen cited Esty’s involvement in the fight to save jobs at the Cheshire Pratt and Whitney plant, her votes on issues such as health care reform and education, as well as her willingness to protect the right to organize and collectively bargain, as factors leading to the endorsement.
Esty, who won the Democratic nomination last week, said she was “honored to have the endorsement of the hard-working men and women of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.”
Olsen pushed for the endorsement believing it was necessary to make certain the seat remains in Democratic hands.
Esty beat Dan Roberti and House Speaker Chris Donovan, who has been a labor darling throughout his 20 year political career, last Tuesday.
Many in the labor movement, including the AFL-CIO backed Donovan’s candidacy prior to the Democratic primary and many attended his concession speech last week at the Meriden Cultural Center. There are even some who have been holding out hope Donovan will continue his candidacy on the Working Families Party ballot line.
But Donovan took vacation after losing the Democratic nomination and his campaign has not said whether he will seek a third-party run.
Donovan‘s campaign was derailed by a federal investigation which lead to the arrest of his former finance director and campaign manager. The FBI charged the campaign staffers with hiding the names of donors who were attempting to influence legislation before the General Assembly. The two men have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Donovan maintained he had no knowledge of the alleged scheme to trade his influence for campaign donations and the feds have not indicted him.
“Right now I don’t see any path to victory for Chris Donovan,“ Olsen said earlier this week during a radio interview on WDRC.
If Donovan stays in and makes it a three-way race, then he’s more likely to pull votes from Esty making it easier for Roraback, to win the open seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy.
While he was careful not to call on Donovan to drop out of the race, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Wednesday, “I think Democrats, Republicans, and Independents should support Elizabeth Esty.”
“Anything less is not representative of progressive politics in Connecticut,” he added.
The Working Families Party co-chairs, who also happen to be labor leaders with UAW, 32BJ, and AFSCME, asked for a little patience on Tuesday.
“When Chris Donovan returns from vacation, we’ll have a conversation with him about remaining on the Working Families ballot line,“ Working Families Party Co-Chairs Julie Kushner, Kurt Westby, and Sal Luciano said in a statement. “State law leaves the decision in Chris Donovan’s hands. If he chooses to give up the line, the Working Families Party will go through our regular, democratic process to determine how to fill the vacancy in the next few weeks.”
Tags: Elizabeth Esty, Chris Donovan, John Olsen, AFL-CIO
(22) Comments
posted by: Archie Bunker1 | August 23, 2012 8:15am
Two points that immediately come to mind after reading this article. (1) Unions are a thing of the past. The general public is sick and tired of the retirement benefits of state employees and union antics in the state capitol. (2) As a general rule, union members are extremely lazy. Less than 10% of these people will actually make it to a polling station. Dont hate on me for writing this either. I am a retired state employee and was a member of AFSCME.
posted by: UConnHoop | August 23, 2012 9:05am
What part of this is news? All you had to do is copy and paste “Labor union endorses (insert Democrat candidate name here).”
posted by: oliviahuxtable | August 23, 2012 12:16pm
Hey Archie,
Your source, please?
Of course you don’t have one…... It’s good to know YOU are lazy, but I am not, and I am a proud state employee. And, BTW, I am at lunch right now, so no need to go there.
posted by: Archie Bunker1 | August 23, 2012 2:19pm
Hey Olivia, As a state employee you are using a state computer to access the internet for your pleasure??? Thats against policy my dear !!!
posted by: oliviahuxtable | August 23, 2012 4:51pm
Archie, dear—-man, you ARE lazy! There are alternatives to using state computers…like my Android smartphone…maybe you don’t have one, or even know what it is, but ask one of your friends…yes, you can access the internet on one! It IS 2012, honey.
posted by: jenand | August 24, 2012 12:34pm
Use comon sense, Working Party, and put Esty on that ballot line. It is vital that we keep that seat Democrat. If you put Donovan on there you’ll be biting off your own nose to spite your face!
posted by: ctguy | August 24, 2012 5:19pm
Hah unfortunately winning the primary does not mean winning a general election.I do applaud the Republicans for selecting a great candidate and more importantly for getting two Republicans on the ballot! Talk to me in two years Dems bubbye
posted by: rankandfile | August 25, 2012 9:26am
Archie, you do know that 40% or more of state employees (and union members in general) that vote will vote republican, right? After the Malloy fiasco, that number may even go higher.
posted by: Upset.Citizen | August 25, 2012 10:53am
Yeah labor supports Esty… It was Donovan before he lost! LOL! Which way is the wind blowing at this minute in time?
There is a side story here… rumor has it that the President of P4 was tossed out of his agency (DEEP) and got lucky and landed at another agency… Payback for supporting Donovan? No? Who’s the commissioner at DEEP related too? Hint: His last name is Esty!
ANYWAY, let this be a lesson to us all… being in a union that is involved in politics is not a good thing!
UC
posted by: CT Jim | August 25, 2012 2:41pm
rankandfile, just where do you get the number of union members to vote republican at 40%??? Those are totally madeup numbers. You seem to make up a lot of stuff on here its amazing. If republicans thought thier ideas would be bought by 40% of members they would fight hard to get that vote. Facts are is most union members have access to facts on how both candidates either vote or what thier beliefs are.Which in the end shows that not only do union members vote at a higher percentage than non union members most vote democrat. Unless of course they are upset from getting the best concession deal in the country then they like you would vote for Scott Walker.
posted by: perturbed | August 26, 2012 9:05pm
@CT Jim—For someone complaining when others make assertions without documentation, it’s odd that you would do the very same thing—in the very same post.
@CT Jim wrote:
”...not only do union members vote at a higher percentage than non union members most vote democrat. Unless of course they are upset from getting the best concession deal in the country then they like you would vote for Scott Walker.”
Where on earth did you find evidence that SEBAC 2011 was “the best concession deal in the country?”
Did any other state in the country break the pension promises made to state employees that were already employed—promises that were up to 27 years old?
Did any other state in the country cut 27 year old pension promises made to existing state employees in such a way that long anticipated pension benefits were slashed by up to 20%?
If you can find even a single other state that slashed the pensions promised to existing state employees, could you please identify where that happened? If you do have any evidence that pensions for existing state employees were cut anywhere else in the country, could you identify by how much those pensions were slashed? Were any cut by 20%, as they were here?
If you can’t answer these questions, then sorry CT Jim, you simply have no credibility on this issue. None.
Thank you.
—perturbed
posted by: rankandfile | August 27, 2012 8:06am
@CT Jim, I don’t make things up. Union households voted 42% republican according to 2010 exit polls, the source of that was an article on washingtontimes.com. It’s not about the votes for Dems, it’s about the cash and the campaign volunteers. As for the best concession deal in the country, are you insane? It’s the worst concession deal in CT history for employees,far worse than anything a republican governor ever saddled us with (see Weicker/Rowland/Rell concession deals). At least the unions fought Scott Walker, they rolled over for ObaMalloy
posted by: CT Jim | August 27, 2012 10:12am
@Peturbed,
Have you been living in a bubble????
RI, NY, Maine, California,
Ohio,Wisconsin, Minnesota, NJ, Alabama and the list goes on and on.
Would you have preferred NY’s deal which is a 4 year deal of 0-0-2-2 with cuts in the pensions along with the doubling of payments in the pensions by the employees and a 1/3 increas in health care premiums with a whopping 2 years of job security. Please come out of your bubble
posted by: CT Jim | August 27, 2012 1:49pm
Also Peturbed I just read that piece in the Washington times you are talking about and it was an opinion not a factual piece about how union members voted republican in 2010. And guess what? The opinion was written by none other that Senator Orrin Hatch the anti-union crusader from Utah and it was based entirely on his opinion and was backed up by what Orrin usually backs up his data with ABSOLUTELY nothing!!!
posted by: perturbed | August 27, 2012 5:30pm
@CT Jim—You are not responding to my questions. You rattled off nine different states as examples of larger state employee concessions than here in Connecticut, but you only identify vague details for one of them. Unfortunately, the one state for which you opted to provide any detail at all does not support your case. (Did you not read my questions, are you intentionally trying to mislead, or do you lack the ability to assess the value of a defined benefit pension plan?)
New York? New York? Are you frigging kidding me?
THE PENSIONS FOR EXISTING NEW YORK STATE EMPLOYEES WERE NOT TOUCHED!
They created a new “Tier 6.” Only new employees are affected by the pension cuts. They did not break the pension promises already made to existing state employees.
Yes! Without the pensions of existing state employees being affected, NY’s deal was better—by a mile—than SEBAC 2011. Who do you think you’re kidding, CT Jim?
In NY, the unions were all upset at the creation of a new retirement system “tier.” Here in CT, our trusty unions not only willfully gave in to a new tier, but they actually liked the deal they cooked up with Malloy whereby THE PENSIONS OF CT STATE EMPLOYEES ALREADY HIRED WERE SLASHED—BY UP TO 20%
SEBAC 2011 broke the pension promises already made. It was unprecedented in this state.
So now, I’ll ask you again (please read this c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y this time):
Did any other state in the country break the pension promises made to state employees that were already employed?
Given your propensity to mislead, if you actually find one I certainly hope you provide a link to some form of documentation this time.
(It turns out, maybe you can get a clearer view from a bubble than a fog.)
—perturbed
posted by: Upset.Citizen | August 27, 2012 6:37pm
@CT Jim
Honestly you can’t compare CT to those other states. They at least were consistent! They cut spending and cut spending and cut spending - right across the board! In CT our leaders cut our medical and retirements, raised taxes on all of us, and pissed our money away like we had piles of it just laying around!
During the concession negotiations they were turning lights off all over state agencies, purchases of even the smallest things (like a box of paper!) had to go all the way up to the commissioners! Crazy stuff in order to drive home the idea of how desperate the state was for money… right after they got our money they turn the lights back on, bought supplies like crazy, got more state cars, bought computers, hired tons of staff, promoted managers all over the place (yes, there are still an average of five to six workers for each manager!), went ahead with the busway no one will use, multimillion dollar gifts to the first five (seven?), etc…! All this short term spending of the money that was supposed to represent long tern savings… (They still haven’t moved the money that was supposed to be set aside for the pension fund out of the General fund per the agreement!)
How exactly does this Malloy math work again? No, seriously, I’d like to study that book because this doesn’t add up to anyone who even knows basic math let alone routinely contributes content to the <a >Clay Mathematics Institute</a>!
Whatever… You’ve made up your mind with your head in the sand, but you really do not have all of the details let alone get the big picture!
Enjoy your tax hikes and don’t forget to take the busway to your new minimum wage job at one of the first five (seven?) - oh wait, none of those companies are on the CTFastTrack busway!
Our leaders weren’t even smart enough to target the companies on that path in order to claim it as a success! Vote ‘em out!
UC
posted by: CT Jim | August 27, 2012 10:36pm
Peturbed, did not contributions from existing employees increase dramatically for thier pensions? Did they not see dramatic increases for their health care payments along with higher deductibles and co pays. Have you looked at Rhode Islands deal??? How about California’s??ohio’s or Wisconsin. Tell me of one state that has a healthcare and pension agreement till 2022?? Don’t bother you can’t. There are some public sector employees in this country that lost their retiree health care another in Alabama where the municipality stopped pension payments altogether. Another tried in Rhode Island to do the same. In CT we did get the best deal. The facts are the facts.
posted by: perturbed | August 28, 2012 6:20am
CT Jim—I never referred to the Washington Times. Seems you are mixed up on quite a few things.
I’m still waiting to see if you can find even one single state in the entire country that slashed the pensions of state workers after they had been working for up to 27 years. I honestly don’t know of a single other state where that was ever attempted, do you?
Only in CT, and only in shady backroom political horsetrading, was that deal made.
Our unions should be ashamed (but they have none).
—perturbed
posted by: rankandfile | August 28, 2012 7:55am
@CT Jim, actually the article I was referring to was http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/14/union-thugs-crying-about-democratic-convention/
posted by: jenand | August 28, 2012 2:42pm
Ct Jim, Perturbed, Upset Citizen - Would you kindly get out of the sandbox?—time to bring your Tonka toys in so they don’t rust. Time to wash up for dinner and no arguing at the table!
posted by: perturbed | August 28, 2012 8:41pm
CT Jim wrote: ”...did not contributions from existing [New York state] employees increase dramatically for their pensions?”
The answer is “No.”
No, existing New York state employees that were already enrolled in the state pension system as of April 1, 2012 did not see any dramatic changes in their contributions for their pensions. They did not see dramatic changes in any aspect of their promised pensions. They did not see any minor changes in their pensions. There were no changes whatsoever to the pension promises made to existing state employees. The changes only affect new hires.
“Lawmakers on Thursday morning approved a hard-fought measure to cut the retirement benefits for future public employees in New York City and across the state, dealing a defeat to labor unions at the end of a dramatic all-night session.”
New York Lawmakers Vote to Limit Public Pensions
And the unions fought that change tooth and nail.
Contrast that with unions that “represented” state employees in CT. In CT, the unions talked Malloy out of furloughs. In CT, the unions freely gave up a new Tier III. And in CT—here’s the big one—the unions willfully gave in to applying the new Tier III provisions retroactively to existing state employees!
Did they put up a fight?
Yes! They fought their members with everything they had to force us to accept the lousy deal!
Sorry, CT Jim, no concessions deal that didn’t retroactively alter the pension agreements of existing state employees could possibly be considered as bad as the SEBAC 2011 abomination.
It’s also hard to imagine a more profound betrayal by any union leaders anywhere. (And Donovan was a key player in that betrayal.)
—perturbed