Brothers and sisters, welcome back to another year of the UHP Annual Business Convention. I want to thank all our members again for all you have done in the past and all you will do in the future.
We have a lot of work to get to tonight, I’d like to get right into it so we can enjoy a good part of the night and celebrate each other’s company.
Every year, we do a little year in review, with this year being my last convention as UHP president, and it has been a full decade, I would like to hit on a couple of high points.
UHP continues to grow every year. In July of 2016 UHP had a membership of 2,643 members. This year, as of March, our membership has grown to 3,433.
Our membership has grown by 790 members in nine years and nine months. I want to be as accurate as I can.
With our contract making it to the general assembly today, once voted on and signed, we will have secured nine consecutive years of raises and nine consecutive years of steps increases.
We did this working with our friends and SEBAC, We worked together and stuck together when it mattered.
During that last contract session, we held one of the most well attended picketing sessions in all AFT Connecticut. Almost 500 people lined the entranceway to UConn Health.
In the past 10 years we have led the fight against privatization of UConn Health, we worked with our brothers and sisters in the UConn Labor Coalition, stood firm and said no we will fight for a public hospital for the public good. We did this at UConn and at the state Capitol. We were heard. Look at the latest bills in Connecticut. We are working to push private equity out of healthcare, and the rest of the country is looking at us and how we are doing it.
We fought for pandemic pay for everyone who worked in that building at the high-risk category. To think that management made the argument, that people in this hallway were high risk, but people in this other one are not. That is the fight we took on. The sheer audacity of some of the people we talk with on a daily basis astounded me.
The pandemic: Let’s talk for a second about the obstacles we have faced. In 2016 there was a Supreme Court that was looking at a decision that would affect all of labor, then a justice died, and the court ended up 4-4 on Fredricks. So no changes. But waiting in the wings was Janus Vs. AFSCME. And with Donald Trump appointing new judges, we lost that fight. And now there is no longer a closed shop for state employees. Every day we fight to keep the members we have, Every day we fight to get new members signed up and work to educate them. And still we grow.
Federal cuts to funding in multiple areas. We are at the state Capitol asking for help to mitigate these cuts.
In 2017, the CT Senate was an 18-18 split, we as public employees are looked at as the enemy. Why do they get raises, why do they get pensions? So we work to educate. The legislators, the public. We are the public. And we worked, every election cycle. We worked to get labor candidates elected. We are now at a 24-12 Senate. That was and is what labor does. We make a difference.
For those that have been around a while, early on, I used to make a joke, “Don’t worry, as soon as we finish ‘this,’ things will slow down and we can catch our breaths. That does not happen, there is always another fight to take on. Always someone who needs help. We cannot do it alone. We need everyone in this room to help us.
On a personal note, I am very proud of my tenure as UHP president. It is the most rewarding and most challenging job I have ever had. I ask you all to protect each other. That is what families do.