Having run in 5 elections between 1972 and 1980 I made an unsuccessful attempt to run for Congress. In 1981, back in the Connecticut General Assembly, I made a proposal after reviewing the ten financial crises in Connecticut. One year, the state felt that it could not afford a pay increase for the state employees so it was decided that all state employees would NOT receive a raise but would only work 7 hours per day instead of 8 hours, or reduce their work week from 40 hours to 35 hours.

While this seemed to get the budget passed I noted that many of the state employees in both my district and the state were taking on part-time jobs to make up for not receiving a pay increase. At the same time I discovered that we now had 40,000 employees working 35 hours per week. The proposal was to, without any layoffs, gradually return to 40 hours per week, paying for 40 hours and reduces the total number of state employees from 40,000 to 35,000.

This proposal would save 5,000 pension payments, 5,000 health payments, saving the general budget money and at the same time raise the weekly income of the remaining employees. The state employees union contacted me to let me know that they were against my proposal. They said that their main concern was for membership and membership dues, from which they were paid. They obviously did not care about their members only themselves.

1982 I was running for re-election and the state highway employees took down some of my 4’ by 8’ signs – stating that they were too close to the road. This was after 10 years and 5 elections were those signs were used. It became clear to me that unions, which were very much needed in the early 1900’s, were out living their usefulness