Connecticut Corrections Employees Win Wage Hike

March 13, 2009

Five-thousand Connecticut state corrections employees – members of AFSCME Council 4 – will get a wage hike totaling 8 percent over three years.

The wage increase was threatened because Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell had urged legislators to reject an arbitrated contract award. Rell asserted that a projected $6 billion budget deficit over the next two years justified cancelling wage increases due this January to members of Locals 387, 391 and 1565.

The corrections employees fought back, and last month, the General Assembly agreed to support the contract award.

“Instead of rolling over, we used the economic crisis as an opportunity to mobilize prison employees to stand up for their rights,” says Local 387 Pres. David Moffa.

Members attended legislative hearings, made phone calls, sent post cards and e-mails and even launched a three-week television ad campaign called “Proud to Serve.” In the end, Republican efforts to table the award in the House of Representatives failed.

“Legislators saw that acknowledging the critical importance of our work on one hand, and trying to kill the contract on the other, was duplicitous and wrong,” says Jon Pepe, president of Local 391.

Adds Luke Leone, president of Local 1565:

“It is a great victory for union solidarity and for the principle of fair play.”