All 10 union contracts with city employees have expired, and negotiations are underway to draw up new ones.
Last week Mayor David Martin discussed the contracts with members of the Board of Representatives’ Personnel Committee behind closed doors, which is allowed since everything is in negotiation.
The discussions are complex, the mayor said.
Before the public portion of the meeting was cut off, Martin told representatives that the trend statewide is to reduce employee benefits to save governments money. Because of that, unions will delay negotiations to hang on to the more generous benefits of previous contracts for as long as they can, Martin said.
Unions don’t worry about such delays because, in Connecticut, wage increases that often come with a new contract are likely to be awarded retroactively, the mayor said.
It’s because of the state’s arbitration procedure, he said.