Union vote scuttles Conn. budget; layoffs eyed

A union vote on Friday scuttled a labor-concessions package that the governor was counting on to balance a two-year state budget, setting the stage for a new round of cuts that could include thousands of layoffs.

The last remaining union local representing prison workers blocked ratification of the package, according to Larry Dorman, a spokesman for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition.

Their vote means that AFSCME Council 4, one of 15 state employee unions, has rejected the labor deal. Only two of the 15 unions were needed to defeat the agreement. A union representing maintenance and service workers also voted against it.

The vote did not come as a surprise. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has called state lawmakers back for a special session next week to vote on a revised budget. He has said that as many as 7,500 layoffs could be necessary, as well as cuts in state aid to cities and towns.

"I've got a big job to do and we're going to do it," said Malloy, who was meeting Friday morning with the mayors of the state's largest cities.

"I will do everything in my power to avoid serious and devastating cuts to local governments" in the first year, said Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford.

Rejection of the labor deal is the latest political blow to Malloy, whose popularity has suffered because of his approach to solving a budget deficit that will be $1.6 billion as of July 1.

The two-year, $40.1 billion budget raises taxes by $1.4 billion in the first year and $1.2 billion in the second. A Quinnipiac University Poll released last week shows that 38 percent of voters said they approve of the job Malloy is doing as governor while 44 percent disapprove.