Cutler: Connecticut Union Members Resist Austerity

In an opinion piece for The Hartford Courant, Jonathan Cutler, chair and associate professor of sociology, explains how a austerity budget deal brokered by Connecticut’s governor with a coalition of public employee union leaders was then torpedoed by rank-and-file union members. The Connecticut deal was initially applauded nationally because Democratic Governor Malloy, unlike Wisconsin’s Republican governor Scott Walker, seemed better positioned to win painful union concessions without sparking street protests by labor and liberals.  Those applause came too early, however, as state employee union members rejected the cuts agreed by an anti-democratic union structure created by the the state and foisted on the unions years ago.