News

Council 4 mourns the loss of Lawrence “Larry” Amendola, former President and founding member of AFSCME Local 3144, New Haven Management and Professional Employees.

State Employees’ Reopener, Recruitment and Retention Agreement Overwhelmingly Passes General Assembly

Agreement supports protection and expan

State Employees' Reopener, Recruitment and Retention Agreement Approved by Appropriations Committee

Agreement will continue efforts to protect and expand our communitie

The power of collective bargaining to improve the lives of union members can be witnessed in New Haven, where the members of AFSCME Local 713, representing clerical and maintenance employees at Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH), recently ratified a new contract with significant gains.

Three years ago, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Police Lt. Paul Grech of AFSCME Local 1159, Council 4 suffered a broken neck on the job when a civilian motorist crashed her car into his city vehicle.

“Without surgery, I’d have been in a wheelchair,” the 19-year veteran said about the injury, which put him out of work for 10 weeks.

If not for their union, Grech and several other Bridgeport police officers injured on the job since 2015 would have been shortchanged permanently on a wage supplement owed them under their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

Council 4 and other labor organizations are making it clear it’s time for the Commission on Fiscal Stability Economic Growth to move on after its privately-funded attacks on working people and collective bargaining failed to gain legislative session in 2018.

A federal court has ruled in favor of working families and against wealthy special interests in Danielson v. AFSCME Council 28, a case out of Washington state.  

Council 4 will be collecting new, unused and unwrapped toys, and gift cards  through December 13, 2018.

We will donate toys and gift cards to the United Labor Agency, which helps Connecticut’s working families in need. (If you’d like to make a monetary contribution, please make your check payable to the United Labor Agency.)

All locals, individual members and employees of Council 4 who wish to participate in this effort may bring donations to Council 4 in New Britain. 

Pamela Knight, a child protective investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Service (DCFS), was sent to check on the welfare of a child last fall. When she arrived at the child’s residence, the father viciously attacked her. She died months later as a result of the injuries she sustained during the attack.

Council 4 honored our members on the front lines of law enforcement and public safety at our union’s Courage of Connecticut Awards Banquet, held Nov. 7 2018 in New Haven.

 The Courage Banquet is held every other year to honor AFSCME-represented police officers and correction officers for extraordinary acts of valor on the job. (This is the first year Department of Corrections union members participated in the event.)

Council 4 AFSCME and the U.S. Department of Labor have reached an agreement to conduct new nominations, a new election and installation for the offices of Executive Director, President, Secretary, and seventeen (17) Vice Presidents, on or before April 30, 2019.

The new nominations election will take place under the supervision of the Secretary of Labor and in accordance with Title IV of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.