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M+E United election results

The Elections Committee is excited to announce the results of the Executive Board election. The following members have been elected to serve a two year term:
 
  • Monika L. Nugent—President
  • Nicholas Jerard—Vice President
  • Ross Hart—Secretary-Treasurer
  • Kendres Lally—Executive Board Member
  • Amy Ravitz—Executive Board Member
 
The new Executive Board will be meeting next week. The Board will be in touch with information regarding a membership meeting and other activities as we move forward towards the 2021 legislative session.
 
If you want to get more involved with M+E, send an email to MEunited@aftct.org.
 
In Unity,
 
M+E Elections Committee

A Better Future for Managerial & Exempt State Employees

AFT Connecticut President Jan Hochadel on September 13 sent an important update and a personal invitation to managerial and exempt employees in Connecticut state service. She announced the new name for our organization, formerly known as AMECSS, and shared the schedule of worksite meetings in mid September to discuss the issues we face.
 
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What unions do

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

A torrent of censorship

Nearly 250 years since our country’s founding, some Americans are still attempting to restrict others’ basic freedoms. In Florida and elsewhere, censoring books is part of larger efforts to exert greater control over and undermine education.

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Voting for democracy and a better life

In the leadup to the midterm elections, pundits predicted a red wave, even a tsunami, based on polls, historical precedent, and steep gas and grocery prices. But I had my doubts. I spent the weeks before the elections talking to voters and traveling on the AFT Votes bus, rolling through a dozen states with more than 50 stops. In a year when kitchen table issues, democracy and our freedoms were on the ballot, many people told me that the elections came down to a choice between, on the one side, election deniers and extremists stoking fear, and on the other, problem-solvers working to help the country move forward. Many races were close, but Americans turned the tide from a red wave to a swell of support for progress and problem-solvers. Read the full column here.

Sharing more pathways to student debt relief

As the landscape of student debt shifts, and more and more opportunities allow borrowers to have their debt relieved, the AFT is using every avenue to ensure that the word is out. In affiliate meetings, telephone town halls, media coverage and social media, the union is spreading the news, and at a student debt clinic at AFT headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31, AFT President Randi Weingarten vowed to reach as many people as possible with information that could save them tens—and sometimes hundreds—of thousands of dollars.

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Celebrating student loan relief

“It was like waking up and learning you won the lottery.” That’s just one of the comments flooding the AFT offices from members who are elated to be free of student debt at last. After relentless advocacy, including an AFT lawsuit against former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that was so broken is finally doing what it is supposed to do: delivering relief from student debt for thousands of borrowers. So far, $6.2 billion in student debt has been forgiven for 100,000 public service workers like teachers, nurses and professors.

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Your vote is your voice

AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest column outlines the urgency of using our voices—our votes—in this life-changing election, when we will make a choice “between President Donald Trump, who has trafficked in chaos, fear, lies and division, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who seeks to reverse Trump’s failures on COVID-19 and the economy, and to unite and uplift the American people.” Besides the four crises we face—a pandemic, an economic crisis, racism and a climate emergency—democracy itself is on the ballot, as Trump continues to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.

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6/24 M+E Meeting and 7/1 Raise Update

With July 1st quickly approaching, we wanted to share some updates and ask you to join us for our next membership meeting via Zoom on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 5:30 pm. To RSVP for the meeting, please send an email to meunited@aftct.org.Last month, members approved our new Constitution and Bylaws, which you can find here. As a result, we are ready to begin the election process for officers and members at large.  We need a group of volunteers to serve on the Elections Committee.  If you would be willing to serve on the committee, please send a message to meuntied@aftct.org.
 
As of the writing of this message, it seems that state managers will again be overlooked for a COLA raise on July 1st. State managers have continued to show up to work day after day to supervise employees and provide the essential state services that the public demands and needs during this time of crisis. We are in the process of writing a formal letter the Governor’s office and OPM to request a formal discussion about the lack of equitable treatment of managers and we need your input.  We hope that this letter will be completed and sent to the administration just after the raises hit to express M+E members’ disappointment that we are not included in these much deserved state employee raises.  
 
We hope that you can join us on June 24, 2020 at 5:30pm with your ideas regarding this important topic. 
 
Please RSVP to the meeting by emailing meunited@aftct.org.

New Website

Welcome to the new M+E Employees United website. Please check back regularly for more information about our organization (formerly known as AMECSS) and how we are helping Connecticut's managerial and expemt state employees.