During a Senate debate on Tuesday (April 23), Sen. Jan Hochadel (D-Meriden) voted in favor of a 4.5% raise for the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) wage re-opener. The measure will cost taxpayers more than $150 million.
Citing the need to pay people “a fair wage and a fair pension,” Sen Hochadel argued that the state must provide higher wages — which already exceed the private sector — to address state job vacancies. This stance suggests a dual agenda: to attract job candidates to the state and swell the ranks of her union with more dues paying members.
During her remarks, the Senator acknowledged her members, expressing appreciation for their contributions to the state of Connecticut and urged her colleagues “to vote yes.”
While this advocacy may not be surprising, she also serves as the president of the Connecticut American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — one of the unions involved in the negotiations. AFT represents a broader group than just teachers. The union also includes dues paying members who are state employees in the executive and judicial branches, as well as staff at state colleges, universities and UConn Health.
Her support of the wage increases, therefore, has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, as she uses her legislative position to advance legislation that benefits the union she heads. Additionally, there are concerns regarding her influence on the allocation of public funds to enhance member benefits, which could serve to secure union loyalty and bolster her union’s financial reserves.
According to the 2022 five-year SEBAC agreement wage hikes were left open for negotiation in its final year. However, the contract obligated the state to revisit salary negotiations after January 2024 through a mechanism known as a “re–opener,” which prompted talks but not necessarily the provision of pay raises.
The re-opener was approved by both the House and Senate and is expected to be signed by Gov. Ned Lamont soon.
Immediately following her vote, Sen. Hochadel issued a press release announcing she voted to approve the contract for 45,000 state employees and said she was “proud to vote” for it.
She once again expressed her gratitude, thanking them for, “everything they do every day for the state of Connecticut.”
This is not the first time that she (a union boss) has used her legislative power to benefit her membership.
In April 2023, she issued a statement on her vote supporting pandemic payment for state employees, writing, “These essential workers risked their lives and the lives of their families in order to save others,” adding that “If we can do something to say thank you for their service, we should.” She further noted, “They continued to persevere through a period of uncertainty, and they deserve this recognition.”
Sen. Hochadel notably downplayed this generous award granted stating that, “35,500 state employees an average of $25 a week for the year they spent working closely with others at a time when there was no COVID-19 vaccine, and the COVID-19 infection process was largely a mystery.”
Omitted from her statement was that payments to public sector heroes were significantly more lucrative than those in the private sector. More than half of the eligible state workers received payment awards of $1,000 or more, with some receiving as much as $5,688. In contrast, only 42% of private sector workers received $1,000 — the maximum payout allowed by their program.
Furthermore, she did not address the disparity in how public and private sector workers qualified for hero pay. In the private sector, eligibility and payment amounts were determined by salary, capped at $149,999, and adjusted on a sliding scale — those earning under $50,000 received $1,000, while those earning over $100,000 received just $100.
On the other hand, state employees qualified by working on-site for either 180 regular hours or 200 overtime hours, with payments calculated based on hours worked and level of risk. For instance, a licensed practical nurse at Connecticut Valley Hospital received $5,688, whereas their private sector counterpart earning under $50,000 received only $1,000, and would receive nothing if their salary exceeded $150,000.
Moreover, in June 2023, allegations emerged that Sen. Hochadel blocked funding for a charter school in Middletown. Anita Ford, the president of the Middlesex County NAACP, told the CT Mirror that “the school was blocked by Sen. Matt Lesser and Sen. Jan Hochadel, two lawmakers who represent Middletown.”
It is important to point out that AFT has publicly criticized charter schools, accusing them of exacerbating “racial and ethnic isolation in Connecticut’s student communities” and draining money from public school districts. Furthermore, they assert that the Latino population faces challenges in filling out applications, resulting in their exclusion.
Also, in 2023, Hochadel co-sponsored a bill that would have established a statewide minimum salary for teachers and paraeducators. It also required boards of education to offer paras the Municipal Employee Health Insurance Plan and pay their contribution required under their retirement systems. The bill ultimately died in the Appropriations Committee.
It should come as no surprise where Sen. Hochadel’s loyalty lies. The first-term senator, during her 2022 campaign, touted her experience as AFT-CT President on her website, highlighting her close work with the state legislature which included working on the SEBAC negotiating team.
Sen. Hochadel has served as the president of AFT since 2015, a role elected every two years. She earns three times more in this role than she does in her State Senate position so it is in her best interest to continue to grow the union while doing what she can to influence benefits for members.
While it is perfectly normal for Connecticut lawmakers to hold a full-time job due to the state’s part-time legislature, there is an expectation that these lawmakers should abstain from voting on and publicly supporting policies that can enrich themselves or their place of employment at the expense of taxpayer dollars.
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