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CT Senate Democrats prioritize worker safety and striking worker benefits

Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D)
Molly Ingram
/
WSHU
Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D)

Connecticut Senate Democrats say their priorities this year include warehouse worker safety regulations and protections for striking workers.

“This is something we believe is a matter of labor justice, of economic justice,” said state Senate President Martin Looney at a media briefing at the state Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said the agenda contrasts with the incoming Donald Trump administration in Washington, D.C.

“What I think we all know is that that administration is going to prioritize billionaires and millionaires, and here in Connecticut, we are going to prioritize working people,” Duff said.

Senator Julie Kushner of Danbury, co-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, said Amazon warehouse workers complained during hearings last year of being subjected to unrealistic quotas and electronic monitoring.

“That is something that we have got an obligation to look at. And we think we’ve come up with a good way to legislate so that the quotas don’t result in workplace injuries,” Kushner said.

Democrats also want to allow unionized workers to collect unemployment benefits if a strike goes beyond two weeks. It would be similar to a law in New York and New Jersey.

“It hasn’t put undue stress on the unemployment trust funds in those states,” said Kushner.

“But what it has done is brought employers to the table to be more reasonable in negotiations and to bargain in good faith,” she said.

A similar bill failed to win approval last year after Gov. Ned Lamont expressed concern that it would place an undue burden on the state’s unemployment fund.

As WSHU Public Radio’s award-winning senior political reporter, Ebong Udoma draws on his extensive tenure to delve deep into state politics during a major election year.