It was billed as a press conference announcing a new legislative caucus — but the real headliners weren’t the lawmakers. When more than 30 Democratic legislators gathered on April 30 to unveil their “Blue Collar Caucus,” they quickly stepped aside and handed the microphone — and the spotlight — to Connecticut AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne and Building Trades President Joe Toner.
The union bosses weren’t just there to show support — they were the main event, delivering lengthy remarks packed with labor talking points, many of which now appear in the caucus’s legislative agenda and are posted proudly on its website.
“This is about good quality jobs,” Rep. Kara Rochelle (D-Ansonia) said when announcing this new caucus, but that message quickly turned into an endorsement of organized labor’s wish list.
Rep. Rochelle, who co-chairs the caucus with Rep. Rebecca Martinez (D-Plainville), emphasized that the group is “pro-worker, pro-union,” and rattled off a list of bills aimed at expanding union benefits, protections, and public spending.
It’s worth noting that both representatives Rochelle and Martinez were endorsed by the AFL-CIO in the 2024 election. According to the union’s own endorsement page, each is either an active, former, or retired union member.
Among the bills championed by the caucus are unemployment benefits for striking workers who choose not to go to work (S.B. 8), expanded PTSD coverage for first responders, state-funded health care for paraprofessionals, and hundreds of millions in new spending on early childhood programs and initiatives. One proposal would even require municipalities to offer pensions to police and firefighters — an unfunded mandate that doesn’t come from the state budget but from local taxpayers, who will feel the impact through rising property taxes.
In a Facebook post after the event, Hawthorne praised lawmakers for focusing on “issues that matter to working people like expanding PTSD coverage for first responders, ensuring health care for paraprofessionals, providing unemployment insurance for striking workers, tackling wage theft, and much more.”
He concluded by thanking Reps. Rochelle and Martinez for “their hard work and the invitation to speak,” followed by a raised fist emoji — a symbol widely recognized in labor union circles as a show of solidarity.
During his speech, Hawthorne claimed, “The union movement is under attack from the federal government” adding that giving unemployment insurance to striking workers “would have been nice to have last year, but right now, it is a fight for survival. It is a fight against Donald Trump, and it is a fight for the future of the state of Connecticut.”
The lawmakers standing behind him responded with applause.
Toner echoed the sentiment: “Everybody here standing behind me has stood with the members of the building trades for years… it’s great to see everyone come together and actually unionize this group to make sure that the voices of working people are heard.”
To call this a “Blue Collar Caucus” is misleading. It’s a Union Caucus with lawmakers serving as the legislative arm of organized labor.
A striker from i-Health, Lawrence Sanchez, also spoke saying he hoped that bills like S.B. 8 “would help our company, as well as all other warehouse workers across Connecticut, be able to have safer working conditions and fight for a fair contract.” Another reminder that this caucus isn’t just supporting workers — it’s inserting itself directly into active labor disputes.
And the policy agenda? It’s lifted straight from labor’s playbook. The caucus’s website reads like a union platform championing wage enforcement, expanded collective bargaining, public pensions, and taxpayer-funded benefits.
The most ironic moment came when Rep. Rochelle praised Franklin D. Roosevelt as “one of the best presidents we’ve ever had.”
She must have forgotten that President Roosevelt explicitly opposed collective bargaining for government employees, warning in 1937 that “a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government.” He supported basic retirement security for public workers but drew a firm line against backroom union negotiations dictating taxpayer-funded benefits.
His caution resonates today as public-sector unions, like those dominating the AFL-CIO’s ranks, drive up costs through expansive pension mandates and benefits packages.
In Connecticut, where local taxpayers already face rising property taxes to cover such obligations, Roosevelt’s warning about unchecked union power undermining public interest feels timely. The Blue Collar Caucus’s push for policies like mandatory municipal pensions ignores this lesson, prioritizing union demands over fiscal responsibility and the broader public good.
At the end of the event, Rep. Rochelle proudly declared, “We’re just getting started. This is our first press conference. This is our first parade.”
The political alliance between the Blue Collar Caucus and organized labor isn’t just about policy — it’s about power. With key members receiving union endorsements and campaign support, this caucus doubles as a taxpayer-funded extension of the union hall. And while the union bosses leave the press conference with applause, the tab gets left with the taxpayer — through higher property taxes, unfunded mandates, and politicians more accountable to labor leaders than the people they represent.
The Blue Collar Caucus, with its ties to union leadership and labor-first legislation, raises serious questions about who’s really in charge at the Capitol. Advocating for workers is one thing. Turning the legislature into a branch office of the AFL-CIO is something else entirely.
If you’re not part of the machine — tough luck. You’re not the priority.
