UHP, SEBAC Deals Win Final Legislative Approval

(UPDATED JULY 31, 2017)--The Connecticut State Senate has given final legislative approval to a labor savings deal that protects jobs for the next four years and preserves collective bargaining rights for the next 10 years.

A week after the State House voted to uphold the ratification a week earlier by members of the unions making up the State Employee Bargaining Agency Coalition (SEBAC), Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman cast the deciding vote to break a party-line deadock in the evenly devided Senate.

The SEBAC deal, negotiated with the Malloy administration, is projected to save the state more than $1.5 billion over the next two years by making changes to retirement and health care benefits.

Tied to SEBAC were contracts on wages and working conditions for UHP and 32 other bargaining units representing state employees throughout Connecticut.

The House vote was 78 to 72, one week after SEBAC announced that all 33 unions voted in favor.

"There's a lot to take away from the ratification of our labor cost savings agreement," said UHP 1st VP Ivonne Hamm at a news conference to announce the ratification. "I think the biggest is that we have demonstrated that collective bargaining works. We have again shown that the way out of our economic challenges isn't to sideline working people.” 

The day before, UHP announced that its members also voted to ratify a new five-year contract with UConn Health on wages and working conditions.

UHP voters supported both deals by a 9 to 1 margin, with more than 1,400 members casting ballots, representing more than half the membership.

“This is an overwhelming and resounding victory, and it sends a clear message to our elected officials and to those we serve: State employees are once again willing to be part of the solution,” says UHP President Bill Garrity.