Cheryl Spano Lonis, a 19-year veteran nurse working with prisoners in Connecticut’s Department of Correction filed the lawsuit after SEIU 1199 ignored her request to have her dues donated to charity because of her religious beliefs. Lonis’ story was originally reported by Yankee Institute in July 2018.
State physicians and psychiatrists for Connecticut’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services received two additional step increases to their pay scale as part of the bevy of union contracts approved with the 2017 SEBAC deal.
The national AFL-CIO has tapped Working America, its political affiliate based in Washington D.C., to send canvassers to Connecticut for a “union member mobilization effort” and to talk with members about “the importance of the 2018 election cycle,” according to an email from AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Jody Barr.
A recent survey of public-sector union members in 22 states without right-to-work laws showed more than half of them approve of their new rights under the Janus v. AFSCME ruling.
State auditors found 201 union representatives at the Department of Correction racked up $894,199 of paid union leave time over two years, according to a newly released audit of Connecticut’s prison system.
New state and municipal employees might want to read the fine print on new AFSCME union membership cards before signing.