Kids Need Full Backpacks and Full Bellies
Once again we’re partnering with the United Labor Agency, which has been running a weekly food backpack program for six years. Learn how you can help!
News
New (Chief) Steward in Town!
Jean Morningstar, who served as UHP president from 1998 to 2013, returns to the UHP Executive Committee, this time in the role of chief steward.
Good Luck, Lucille!
At the end of this month we bid farewell to Lucille Miller, UHP member for 14 of her19 years of service at UConn Health, including the last four as our chief steward.
We couldn’t let Lucille leave without an exit interview!
PAWS Awards for 80+ Members
Congratulations to our members who recently were recognized with a PAWS Award!
Part of a team
Awesome attitude
Wonderful work ethic
Superior service
Members Assist in Schools Still Recovering From Hurricanes
Three UHP employees recently volunteered in the Virgin Islands, helping provide hearing and vision screenings for more than 10,000 public school children in areas still recovering from the 2017 hurricanes.
2019 Session: Wins for Workers
The General Assembly adjourned the 2019 legislative session sine die at midnight on Wednesday, June 5th. The so-called "long session" was a very successful one for working families and the Labor movement. After years of austerity budgets and dwindling pro-worker majorities, Labor advocates were able to take advantage of the 2018 election results and pass major legislation including HB 5004 which raises the minimum wage to $15 per hour and SB 1 which enacts a paid family and medical leave insurance program.
Read more in this recap from the Connecticut AFL-CIO.
Post-Janus Legislation Succumbs to Partisan Animus in the Senate
HB 6935, legislation giving public sector unions and public sector workers new protections in the wake of last summer's U.S. Supreme Court's Janus v. AFSCME decision, died in the Senate.
Read more in this recap from the Connecticut AFL-CIO.
Beyond Our Contract
Key to Protecting Our Future? Look Beyond Our Bargaining Unit
VP for Communication Chris DeFrancesco (pictured here advocating for UConn Health's patients and employees with Sen. Matt Lesser at the state Capitol) shares what he brings back from the 2019 AFT Collective Bargaining Conference.
Perspective From the Picket Line
Recognizing the Stop and Shop strike as an important moment in the labor movement, many of us became stakeholders and showed our solidarity. For one UHP member it was about even more than that.
Going on strike is a part of the labor movement that most of us as public employees can’t relate to because it’s not a legal option for us. But for Megan McCreesh, it was the only option.
Mobilization in Montana
Recently our Jean Castagno (far right), a clinical office assistant in dermatology, was part of a group of union activists who went to Helena, Montana, to work with the newly merged Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE). It was part of AFT’s Member Organizing Institute (MOI) program. Here's what she had to say about it: