Connecticut Local Politics

Bridgeport and New Haven, both facing budget shortfalls, are laying off workers. I wrote about Bridgeport the other day, and today New Haven has announced that 35 city workers will go. The interesting thing is that New Haven seems to be laying off veteran employees who have been with the city for years.

Officials made public the list of identifying the 35 workers after supervisors met with them individually at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Friday morning.

The surprise was that many of the workers have been fixtures in city government for decades, such as public works administrative manager Jane Munoz, public information specialist Bonnie Winchester, and zoning administrator Frank Gargiuolo. (Bailey)

The article has the list of which city departments are being impacted. The library, as usual, got hit pretty hard, but so did early reading programs, parks, evictions and outreach to elderly shut-ins.

Not surprisingly, the unions aren’t happy.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Sal Luciano of AFSCME Council 4, which represents 1,400 city and Board of Ed employees, released the following statement:

“This is a sad day for the residents of New Haven. New Haven public service workers did not create the problems facing this city. Yet today they bear the blame. They are the scapegoats.

“New Haven city workers want, and have offered, to be part of the solution. However, our requests to have informed discussions have been repeatedly ignored. Managing day-by-day, and crisis to crisis, is not acceptable. (Bailey)

At this point there’s very little the union can do. And it’s doubtful that more state aid will go to cities with cutbacks happening at the Capitol, as well.

Source
Bailey, Melissa. “35 City Layoffs Revealed.” New Haven Independent 19 September, 2008.