By SUSAN HAIGHHARTFORD, Conn. -- If unionized state employees don't ratify a labor concession deal in the coming weeks, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned Thursday that there will be massive layoffs, substantially more than the 4,700 he threatened last month. The agreement reached between Malloy and the union leaders is expected to save the state $1.6 billion, money needed to balance the two-year, $40.1 billion budget. If the deal isn't ratified, Malloy says job cuts will have to be made.
"The initial number of 4,700. They would increase dramatically above that," he told reporters during a state Capitol briefing.
"I think they would reach very deeply, well past people employed 10 years or more."Malloy, the state's first Democratic governor in two decades, said he "will not feel responsible" if those job cuts are made.
He said his administration has "done everything in our power to reach agreements with the negotiating team" that would prevent layoffs for four years. Messages seeking comment were left Thursday with representatives of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, the group of union leaders that negotiated the tentative agreement with Malloy's administration.
The approximate 45,000 unionized state employees are reviewing the tentative agreement. Some have posted comments on union websites, criticizing the deal and urging colleagues to vote no.
Some state employees are particularly concerned about the Health Enhancement Program, an optional, so-called value-based health and dental plan that's included in the tentative concessions agreement.
It attempts to encourage workers to take better care of themselves and ultimately avoid costly medical problems down the road. There has been speculation that the program is really Sustinet, a legislative effort to enact universal health care.
Both Malloy and the state employee unions tried to discount that rumor.
In a statement posted Thursday on the bargaining coalition's website, spokesman Larry Dorman said, "The politicians and antiworker forces who want to tear down public employees and take away their benefits" are seizing on the fears of state employees by using the Susinet legislation "as their chief tool of misinformation and fear-mongering."
"To suggest that the Sustinet legislation, which is the latest version of the fight for universal health care, is somehow connected to the SEBAC 2011 tentative agreement is simply a lie," Dorman wrote. "Let us say it clearly once again: Sustinet is not part of SEBAC 2011 in any way, shape or form."
Union members are not expected to finish voting on the tentative agreement until after the General Assembly adjourns June 8.
Thirteen of 15 unions and 80 percent of voting union members need to approve the health and pension benefit changes, while each of the 34 bargaining units needs to approve wage changes to their contracts.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Politics & Elections »connecticut politics, politics & elections
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