Local 222 held its annual convention on September 13, three years after the Connecticut Independent Labor Union-Connecticut Independent Police Union afflilated with UE and became a statewide UE local. Delegates for 17 sub-locals attended.
In her report to the convention President Marie Lausch reviewed the local’s accomplishments in membership education, political action and international solidaity. She also recounted some of the union’s remarkable accomplishments at the bargaining table, just in the past year, through rank-and-file involvement: Suffield food service workers gained family health coverage for the first time; Tolland County dispatchers won health insurance for retirees. Stoningham Public Administrators gained wage increases of from 18.5 to 36 percent over five years; newly-organized kindergarten aides in Windsor Locks will get wage increase of 37.5 percent over four years; and Old Saybrook paraeducators negotiated 36.8 percent in raises over five years. She also took note of the local’s recent organizing work. “We are honoring the Trumbull BOE secretaries, our newest Sub-local 85, with a charter of affiliation. We are proud to have them with us.”
The convention adopted a budget for 2009 was adopted and elected a new Local Executive Board. Guest speakers included UE General President John Hovis; Juan Figueroa, president of the Universal Health Care Foundation; and State Rep. Tim O’Brien, a strong friend of labor.
Delegates discussed and voted on seven resolutions. One of these, “Connecticut Public Sector Collective Bargaining,” renewed the local’s opposition to secretive bargaining tactics, such as blackouts and gag orders. A resolution titled, “Support for Work Specific Conferences and ‘Good Government’ Activities and Proposals,” calls for meetings of Local 222 members from different towns and units who perform the same work, and for the local to see its role as fighting for taxpayers and residents as well as for its members. Other resolutions were: “Independent Political Action”; “State and National Health Care for All”; Support the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, “Pay Equity for School Paraeducators” and “Collective Bargaining Rights for Municipal and State Workers.” This last resolution calls for support of UE members in North Carolina, Virgina and West Virginia as they fight for the right to bargain.
John Hovis congratulated the local on its rapid progress in three years and gave a thumbnail history of UE and the principles on which the union was founded. UE has avoided the “top-down” power structure of most unions by sticking to its original democratic principles and it remains a union build “from the bottom up.” At the inception of UE in 1936, the national union was established by existing local unions, not the other way around. Hovis warned the delegates that “…rank-and-file unionism is not easy. It requires commitment. The national and regional union provided education to prepare officers and stewards to effectively perform their duties. But the members must participate for optimal success, both in negotiations and in the day-to-day life of the union.”
Elected as the local’s officers for the coming year were: President Marie Lausch (New Britain dispatchers), Vice Pres. Paul Kay (Berlin DPW), Secretary-Treasurer Claire Senuta (Groton town employees), and four executive board members at large: John Perkins (Stamford DPW), Ed Scanlon (Glastonbury DPW custodians), Annie McDonald (Wallingford paraeducators) and Sue Goldman (Norwich city hall.) Elected as the local’s trustees were Margaret Pienkowski (New Britain) and Jerome Houser (New Haven DPW).