Malloy Joins Union Rally
by Christine Stuart | Feb 23, 2011 2:32pm
(7) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Labor, State Budget
(Updated 9:47 p.m.) He wasn’t on the original list of guest speakers, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was the first to speak Wednesday at a union rally outside the State Capitol.
It may seem like an odd place for him to be these days, since he asked more than 45,000 state employees for $2 billion in concessions and savings over the next two years, as part of his budget proposal. But Malloy seemed to strike all the right notes.
“There is no reason for a full assault on the right to organize, the right to negotiate, the right to bargain,” Malloy said as the crowd drowned him out with cheers. “We may not always agree, you and I…but we can sit down around a table, negotiate agreements.”
AFL-CIO President John Olsen said he spoke with Malloy this morning and they both reached the conclusion that he should come speak to crowd, which Capitol Police estimated at 275. Organizers countered the crowd was closer to 500.
“I think we both came to the conclusion at the same time,” Olsen said. “Maybe he was inspired by Gov. Chris Christie’s comments that he hasn’t read the governor’s owners manual.”
The rally was a show of solidarity for the union workers in Wisconsin where Gov. Scott Walker wants to change portions of their collective bargaining agreements to save money on health care costs. Malloy seemed to want to show the unions that he’s different than Walker and Christie.
Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy’s senior communications adviser, said Malloy wanted to speak at the rally because of his deeply held belief in collective bargaining. He said Malloy also wants to be out in front talking to people, which is why he’s holding 17 Town Halls on his budget proposal.
“That he and labor don’t agree on everything, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t talk to them,” Occhiogrosso said.
In fact, Sal Luciano, executive director of AFSCME Council 4, said the two sides have a meeting scheduled next week. He wouldn’t reveal the time and location because he said he didn’t want negotiations to take place in the media.
Luciano said the governor called the meeting so they plan to go and listen. State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, a group of 13 unions that negotiate on behalf of all unionized state employees, will share some of the concerns about the math in Malloy’s budget, he said.
The unions believe Malloy should be asking more of the state’s wealthiest residents and businesses.
Betsy Eakins, a state employee with SEIU 1199, said she missed Malloy’s remarks at the beginning of the rally, but would like to know why businesses in the state are not paying their fair share and why the state employees are being asked to sacrifice so much.
“We don’t mind paying our fair share, but why isn’t business paying theirs?” Eakins said.
Patricia Hinds, another state employee with SEIU 1199, said “we are also taxpayers, so the pain should be shared across the board.”
Eakins and Hinds as state employees, were in the minority Wednesday. Many of the union workers in the crowd came from private or municipal unions to the noon-time rally.
Neither wanted to comment specifically on what Malloy’s presence at the rally meant, but they were glad to see he wasn’t taking a tone similar to that of Walker in Wisconsin or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who tussled with Malloy earlier in the day on “The Morning Joe.”
“I wanna get people moving from New Jersey to Connecticut so I think I recommended a rate that is an appropriate rate,“ Malloy said. The highest proposed income tax rate in Malloy’s budget is 6.7 percent on the state’s wealthiest residents. New Jersey’s highest income tax rate is currently 8.97 percent on its wealthiest residents.
Malloy said for these other governor’s to be blaming the unions for their current fiscal woes is ridiculous. He said if you’re going to blame the unions then you would also have to blame the legislatures and previous governors.
“We do not live in a state that is desirous of having that kind of conflict needlessly,“ Malloy said.
“I don’t believe we have to vilify people to make progress,” Malloy said.
But Malloy hasn’t been shy either about saying that if he doesn’t get the necessary concessions he will have to lay people off or severely cut social services.
Tags: union, SEIU 1199, afscme council 4, UAW, AFL-CIO, Wisconsin, Walker
(7) Comments
posted by: unionleo | February 23, 2011 10:58pm
Hey, I counnted the crowd - there were closer to 1000 people than 300 - where did you get that number?
We were there to support the Wisconsin unions that are fighting the crazy Walker.
Good to see our Gov - announcing his BFFship with CT labor unions today- we haven’t seen that warm and fuzzy since before the election - Thanks to Roy too for spinning it…
What s difference a couple days make’
Afew days ago the tide was moving in support of Walker’s big grab and his anti-union rhetoric - today polls and public opinion say -“hey, maybe it’s not so bad that unions take on Koch and the big buck boys. Maybe it’s better to have an advocate to stop the middle class destruction by the shrinking few who are owning all that we used to own.”
All of a sudden - we got gov’s and legislatures all over the country renewing their old campaign ties to unions—WOO HOO
Gotta love it!
posted by: Christine Stuart | February 23, 2011 11:09pm
My crowd counts come from the Capitol Police. Thanks for asking.
posted by: unionleo | February 24, 2011 1:28am
Yet another reason - from lessons learned in my youth - to question authority.
Can’t immagine why they’d low ball it like that - can’t immagine why media didn’t see that there were 300 people in the front 5 rows.. and 70 or more on the steps and a bunck in the wings and none of that includes the crowd in the 15 rows 40 or so wide in the mid section out to the parking lot. How about an atribution next time that goes someting like “according to counting challenged officials the grossly undesetimated crowd was…300”
Counting conspiracy or math problem? Who knows…
Doesn’t matter It was a great - and crowded - rally voicing support for middle class economic justice.. that counts for something..right?
posted by: City Hall Watch | February 24, 2011 7:50am
Pandering and preening. A better headline: Peacocking and the selling out of taxpayers.
posted by: Christine Stuart | February 24, 2011 8:54am
Capitol Police estimated the crowd at 275, even though some thought it could have been closer to 500.
posted by: truth Avenger | February 24, 2011 1:50pm
The Governor demonstrated that he is not going to join the Christies or Walkers of this world in opportunistic power grabs at the expense of union workers. The Governor acquitted himself magnificently on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program- articulating Connecticut’s special issues while schooling the punditocracy… Scarborough was a little shell-shocked at the governor’s command of the issues and his refusal to play along with the political debauchery that is informing much of the budgetary debate across the nation.
posted by: hawkeye | February 24, 2011 8:42pm
Malloy does not have a budget, but he is spending like a union serving politician, with pork-barrel-give-aways. Connecticut voted for a career politician as Governor, and we are already paying for it, having a big spender, without money, but using an over-drawn bank account, to continue us on the road to Connecticut State Bankruptcy.
We are getting what we voted for! We did it to ourselves!