This past week strarted and ended with legislative breakfasts.
Teri and Jim do a great job (assisted by many others) in providing these opportunities for our members and our legislators to get together, usually on a Saturday, for food and conversation.
It’s an opportunity for legislators to hear directly from our members who live in their districts on the issues that are most important to them. It’s a great way for our members to be involved.
We call it speed dating for legislators.
Members gather around a table with breakfast (or lunch) and legislators spend 15 or so minutes talking to them befor Teri yells time and they move to the next table.
A week ago were in Southington for breakfast and East Hartford for lunch.
Yesterday it was breakfast in Branford.
It you haven’t attended, please come check it out.
Info is on our AFT Connecticut web page. http://aftct.org/
Monday I testified befor the Judiciary Committee on Captive Audience meetings, something I experienced in the Backus campaign.
Something that should be illegal.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we traveled to Massachusetts with our field reps to have a tri-state conference (with AFT RI and AFT Massachusetts.)
It was an opportunity for our professional field staff to gather and learn with and from field staff from the other state federations.
Our field reps work hard for our members and though they spend a lot of time preparing for, negotiating, and defending contracts, it would be a mistake to think they view their role as limited to this.
They correctly view their role as organizers, whose primary role is to engage local leaders and members and build worker power.
This message was articulated at the conference by an organizer from the LA Teachers who spoke about the 2 year preparation that let to a successful recent strike.
It was good to have Ed back in state this week.
The week before, he, Ally, and Jessica were in Montana on a week long public employee blitz, helping our affiliate out there.
And in case you missed it, Jan was away for an overnight that week too.
She spoke at the United Nations on women’s issues in healthcare, both as providers of that care and receivers of that care.
There is no legislative breakfast next Saturday but we will be gathering healthcare workers in Rocky Hill (Saturday, March 30) for a healthcare Professional Development Day covering topics like legal issues for healthcare workers, Fatigue, and Hospital Financial Reporting.
RN CEUs offered. More info on the website.
All are welcome.
Our next legislative breakfast will be on April 6 in Niantic and Coventry.
Thanks for all you do.
p
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