Legislative leaders invite DPS professionals to speak at a news briefing to call on Rell Administration to recognize collective bargaining rights, end costly litigation
HARTFORD—Captains and lieutenants in the Department of Public Safety's (DPS) State Police are welcoming legislative leaders' support to move Governor M. Jodi Rell's Administration to drop court appeals that have already cost taxpayers $225,000.00. The public safety professionals reached out to state lawmakers in June after the Administration refused to accept another ruling that upholds the Connecticut Board of Labor Relations' certification of their unanimous 2006 election to unite in CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 for a voice on the job.
Representative Stephen Dargan, the General Assembly's Public Safety Committee Co-Chair, has invited CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 members working at DPS to speak at a capitol news briefing on Thursday, September 4 beginning at 11:00 a.m. The briefing will be held in room 1-C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, and will also include Dargan's Senate Co-Chair Andrea Stillman, House Majority Leader Chris Donovan, and additional legislative leaders DPS captains and lieutenants have met with over the past year to enlist support for moving the dispute out of the courtroom and to the negotiating table.
"It is troubling enough that the Administration is unable or unwilling to follow the laws of the State" Vice-President of the union's Council representing DPS captains and lieutenants Ed Gould said in a letter mailed to the chairs of three legislative Committees in June. "But we write to you today to ask why, in a time of economic uncertainty, it is planning to waste still more money on an ill-advised and futile appeal to evade their legal responsibility" Gould, a twenty-one year veteran of the State Police, continued in the letter, co-written with CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 President Michael O'Brien.
In May, a Superior Court Judge tossed out another appeal by the Administration's Office of Policy and Management (OPM), which has fought State Police commissioned officers' rights to bargain collectively on workplace and employment issues for two years. OPM's latest appeal was filed June 11 in New Britain Superior Court by a private law firm the Administration contracted after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal refused to represent the State on the grounds it was bad public policy.
The firm, Kainen, Escalera, & McHale, indicated in its "Preliminary Statement of the Issues" it plans to argue the case over what it terms a "conflict of interest for State Police Captains and Lieutenants" if they are allowed to unionize. The firm also indicated it intends to take the case all the way to the State Supreme Court.
CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 represents 25,000 active and retired public sector workers across Connecticut, and is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's second largest public employees union. Visit www.seiu2001.org online for more information about its members' advocacy in gaining dignity and respect for public service workers in state, municipal, and education agencies across Connecticut.