After a weekend of deliberations, the state employee unions asked Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday to "reconvene discussions as soon as possible'' to reach a new agreement on concessions and savings.
The move by the unions is the latest in their attempts to avoid about 6,500 layoffs and the closing of the Bergin Correctional Institute in Mansfield. Those cuts have been ordered by Malloy to close a projected budget gap of $1.6 billion over two years - a sum that was designed to be covered by the union deal.
Malloy and his senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, have repeatedly said they would not reopen the deal and renegotiate with unions. They have said, however, that they would clarify various aspects of the complicated agreement, if necessary.
"We recognize that the budget adjustments that passed Thursday in the General Assembly create an effective deadline to the parties to reach a ratified agreement before August 31,'' chief union negotiator Daniel Livingston wrote to Malloy. "It is, we hope and believe, our mutual desire to do so as long before the deadline as we can.''
Malloy's response Tuesday was the same that it had been for weeks. His spokeswoman, Colleen Flanagan, said, "The governor has said all along he's happy to clarify the language of the agreement if that will allow it to be ratified.''
In other developments Tuesday, the union leaders voted 11 to 4 to ratify the original deal with Malloy, but the motion failed because the complicated union rules require that 14 of the 15 unions must vote in favor of deals that change healthcare and pension rules.
In addition, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie disclosed a letter to Malloy that was written by Sal Luciano, the executive director of AFSCME Council 4, on the controversial topic of the state's SustiNet healthcare plan.
"The state employee health plan will become part of SustiNet, which some call a 'Cadillac plan,' clearly a derogatory term to imply overly rich benefits,'' Luciano wrote to Malloy on April 14. "It is a specious claim. The state plan was modest when it was launched, more like a Chevy, but unlike other plans, it has not suffered degradation. That doesn't turn it into a Cadillac; it simply means the other Chevy plans suffered from poor upkeep and now belong in the junkyard.''