The state employee unions provided huge support to help Democrat Dannel P. Malloy become governor, and Malloy is now coming back to them to help balance the state budget.
Malloy, who is trying to close a projected $3.7 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, said, "We're going to need to make headway with our employees on returning to a sustainable system of compensation and benefit allocation."
Malloy and his senior adviser gave no details this week with regard to concessions he will seek from unions representing more than 40,000 state employees. With his Feb. 16 budget address to the state legislature now less than two weeks away, Malloy said discussions with employees' union representatives "need to bear fruit right away."
This week's weather cancelled several "large blocks of time" that had been set aside Tuesday and Wednesday "to have those discussions." Those talks, overseen by deputy budget director and chief negotiator Mark Ojakian, resumed Thursday.
Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy's senior adviser, said that the unions should not be under the impression that they would receive a free pass from Malloy because they helped him win the election.
"I can't imagine they would think that,'' Occhiogrosso said when asked about the possible reaction during an interview Thursday in his state Capitol office.
Malloy has repeatedly delivered his message of "shared sacrifice,'' which Occhiogrosso said "means everyone needs to help.''
Asked if the administration has received good feedback from the unions, he said, "I think it's too early to characterize.''
The talks are still at the very early stages, and there is no immediate pressure to complete a deal by Malloy's budget address. Instead, the administration will provide an estimate or placeholder in the budget for the projected possible savings from the unions.
"There needs to be savings in the short term and savings in the long term - a lot of them,'' Occhiogrosso said. "He made a promise during the campaign to listen to their ideas, and he's committed to keeping that promise.''
If Malloy rejects the ideas of the unions, he will explain the reasons why "on every single one of them,'' Occhiogrosso said.
When asked why the unions had not offered their cost-savings ideas sooner to the new administration as it prepares to offer a new budget in less than two weeks, Occhiogrosso said, "I don't know the answer to that.''
But Larry Dorman, the chief spokesman for the unions, said that the early talks have not focused on the nuts and bolts of trying to change benefits.
"They're not negotiations,'' Dorman said Thursday night. "We're engaged in constructive discussion with the administration to save signficant dollars. Negotiations obviously would be about the collective bargaining agreement in the broadest sense. We're not talking about health and pensions. We're talking about win-win ideas'' that save money and create jobs.
When asked whether the two sides will eventually talk about wages and benefits, Dorman said, "I can't answer that.''