Lamont, labor headed for a showdown over 'hero pay'

Hoping to secure better pay for thousands of home health care aides who’ve risked their lives during the pandemic, Cynthia Johnson of Greenwich posed a direct question as she protested outside of Gov. Ned Lamont’s Greenwich home on a chilly December morning.

“Where’s our Thanksgiving and Christmas?” asked Johnson, who wore a Grinch hat while dozens of fellow protestors chanted “Fix the broken system” and “Shame on you.”

But while these members of New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU were rallying for a new contract with better pay and benefits, their question is part of larger one, labor leaders say, and the lack of an answer is producing a crisis across Connecticut.

The state received billions of dollars last year in federal pandemic relief, holds billions more in its budget reserve and expects another whopping surplus next June. Unless state officials use some of this to compensate the wide range of workers who risked their lives daily to provide essential services over the past two years, labor leaders say, staffing shortages will become a pandemic unto themselves.

Read more: https://ctmirror.org/2022/01/13/lamont-labor-headed-for-a-showdown-over-hero-pay/