UE NEWS Updates

After nearly two years of negotiations - the final eight months in arbitration hearings - UE members working for the City of Stamford Department of Public Works (DPW) have ratified a new five-year agreement. For the members of Sub-local 82 of UE Local 222, the most important things about this agreement are the concessions that they stopped. Members beat back the city's attempts to eliminate the pension for new hires and replace it with a 457 savings plan - the public sector equivalent of a 401(k).

UE members and organizers are accustomed to bosses stubbornly resisting the efforts of their employees to form a union and negotiate a contract - even when it's clear that the overwhelming majority of workers want a union. That's why it's so surprising when, on rare occasions, an employer accepts the will of the workers and recognizes the union. But that's what happened in Stafford, Connecticut.