Thumbs down to circumstances surrounded Stop & Shop workers throughout New England who walked off the job after negotiations over a new contract broke down. It’s the first time in more than 30 years Stop & Shop workers have gone on strike, and most stores closed temporarily as a result. The 31,000 workers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who are represented by five locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, have been working without a contract since late February. All they want is fair pay, and we can’t blame them. Mediated labor contract talks between Stop & Shop and the five New England locals of United Food and Commercial Workers International are expected to resume Tuesday in Providence. Sticking points for a new contract include proposed cuts in health care and retirement benefits, according to the union. The union maintains that the company is "demanding unreasonable wage and benefit cuts" and asking customers to do more of the work themselves. Let’s hope negotiations go well this week.
Thumbs up to speakers at Norwich’s first public hearing on the budget who urged City Council members to add money to the 2019-20 education budget, saying the city’s children deserve it. City Manager John Salomone has presented an overall $128.9 million 2019-20 budget to the council that trims the property tax rate slightly. But the manager’s $80 million proposal for education, a 2 percent increase, is $3.3 million less than the $83.3 million approved by the Board of Education, a 6.16 percent increase. The amount requested by the Board of Education consists of $41.5 million for Norwich Public Schools educating students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, $34.1 million in tuition, $7.5 million in transportation costs and nearly $200,000 for adult education. Every dollar cut hampers the district’s priority of providing services to the city’s children.
Thumbs up to state Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague), who toured three bridges in Norwich to make the case for more state transportation revenue in order to pay for repairs and upgrades to roads and bridges in Eastern Connecticut and throughout the state. Although Norwich may soon be added to the list of cities fighting proposed tolls on state highways, Osten is trying to bring awareness that without tolls, needed transportation infrastructure upgrades would take decades to complete.
Thumbs up to a stellar career for David Burnett. The CEO of Reliance Health, a nonprofit mental health agency that employees 250 and services more than 1,000, will retire at the end of the year. Burnett started his career at Reliance Heath in 1978 as its only employee. Jack Malone, president of the Reliance Health board of directors, said: "David Burnett’s devotion to Reliance Health is unrivaled. He was the first employee and the depth of the programs provided today to those with mental wellness issues can be attributed to his vision."