FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday April 5, 2023

SEN. KUSHNER WELCOMES FIRST ROUND OF INDOOR AIR QUALITY SCHOOL GRANTS

The day after speaking at a day-long forum in the Legislative Office Building to promote clean air in every school, state Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury), who is Co-Chair of Connecticut’s School Indoor Air Quality working group, today welcomed news that 50 Connecticut schools in19 different towns and regional school districts will receive $56 million in state grants under a new program designed to improve air quality in local schools.

The grants, ranging from $632 to $6.6 million, were announced today by Governor Ned Lamont at an event in Waterbury. Cities and towns are required to provide matching grants to fund the project costs. Examples of eligible projects include replacing, upgrading, or repairing boilers and other heating and ventilation components; replacing controls and technology systems related to HVAC operations; or installing or upgrading air conditioning or ventilation systems.

“There is a clear and provable need for better air conditioning and ventilation in our public schools, many of which were built decades ago before the effects of poor air and climate change had been studied and understood,” Sen. Kushner said. “Now we know how to keep students and teachers healthier in schools, not absent and at home fighting asthma or some other respiratory disease. The benefits of these investments will pass on to future generations, and I’m happy to have been part of the solution to this longstanding problem.”

The clean air grants vary widely, depending on the size of the school and the exact project.

Locally, Ridgefield received $21,000 in state grants to help cover the cost of $50,700 worth of clean air projects at Barlow Mountain, Veterans Park, Ridgefield High School, East Ridgefield Middle School, Brachville, and Farmingville schools.

The grants are being awarded through the HVAC Indoor Air Quality Grants Program for Public Schools, a newly established state program that is administered by the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services. Sen. Kushner helped create the program last year, as part of the Democrat’s budget adjustment bill that Governor Lamont signed into law in 2022 (Public Act 22-118). The program has been allocated $150 million through two revenue streams, including $75 million from state bond funding and $75 million from the state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which were also approved by Democrats.

In addition to the funding, the 2022 law requires school districts to conduct a uniform inspection and evaluation of their school HVAC systems every five years, requires HVAC inspection reports to be made public at board of education meetings, and to report any corrective action taken.

Meanwhile, the working group Sen. Kushner co-chairs is studying the issue and will make recommendations related to indoor air quality in schools.

On Tuesday, Sen. Kushner took part in the “Breathing Better: Healthy Schools Forum” in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford as part of National Healthy Schools Day, which promoted clean air in every school and the need to urgently address the problem of unsafe air caused by poor heating and ventilations systems. The forum also commemorated the 20th anniversary of Connecticut’s landmark 2003 School Indoor Air Quality legislation, highlighting the importance of clean indoor school environments to children’s health and ability to learn.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, March 24, 2023

AS LABOR COMMITTEE WRAPS-UP 2023 BILL DEADLINE, SEN. KUSHNER CELEBRATES POLICY WINS FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

HARTFORD – State Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) today proclaimed the 2023 legislative session for the Labor and Public Employees Committee a success, noting that 51 bills passed by the committee by the bill deadline, including several bills that will make work life fairer and more rewarding for working people in Connecticut.

Sen. Kushner, who is Senate Chair of the Labor Committee, said about a dozen of these 51 bills will be especially impactful, addressing more reliable and predicable schedules for workers, more transparent salary postings to help close the wage disparity gap between men and women, job-related cancer and workplace injuries, updating old paid sick day policies, helping warehouse workers, rideshare drivers, and waitstaff, and adjusting the pay for prison inmates to not less than five dollars per week, or as much as 35 dollars per week for highly skilled work.

“There are many diverse needs among Connecticut’s 1.6 million workers, and the Labor Committee took on legislation this session that will, for example, impact hundreds of thousands of people with an expansion of paid sick days, to smaller and more specialized impacts on groups like firefighters, construction workers and rideshare drivers. We really did a good job this year on behalf of Connecticut’s citizens,” Sen. Kushner said.

The 2023 Labor Committee bills singled-out for special mention by Sen. Kushner include:

· House Bill 6859, AN ACT CONCERNING PREDICTABLE SCHEDULING

· Senate Bill 489, AN ACT LIMITING THE DAYS AN EMPLOYER CAN MANDATE AN EMPLOYEE TO WORK.

· House Bill 6273, AN ACT CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF SALARY RANGES ON PUBLIC AND INTERNAL JOB POSTINGS

· Senate Bill 1180, AN ACT CONCERNING RIDESHARE AND DELIVERY DRIVER MINIMUM STANDARDS

· House Bill 5033, AN ACT CONCERNING COMPENSATION OF INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS.

· House Bill 6668, AN ACT MODERNIZING THE PAID SICK DAYS STATUTES.

· Senate Bill 21, AN ACT PROHIBITING EMPLOYERS FROM CHARGING EMPLOYEES FOR TRAINING COSTS UPON SEPARATION FROM EMPLOYMENT.

· Senate Bill 152, AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF WAREHOUSE WORKERS.

· Senate Bill 913, AN ACT EXPANDING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVERAGE FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS INJURIES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES.

· Senate Bill 937, AN ACT PROVIDING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN CANCERS IN FIREFIGHTERS.

· Senate Bill 938, AN ACT CONCERNING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR STRIKING WORKERS.

· Senate Bill 1177, AN ACT CONCERNING ONE FAIR WAGE.

· Senate Bill 1178, AN ACT EXPANDING CONNECTICUT PAID SICK DAYS.

· Senate Bill 1125, AN ACT CONCERNING APPRENTICESHIP REPORTING DATA.

· House Bill 6862, AN ACT CONCERNING BROADBAND CONSTRUCTION AND THE PREVAILING WAGE

The various bills now head to the floor of the House and Senate for further consideration. The 2023 legislative session concludes on Wednesday, June 8.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

SEN. KUSHNER HAILS BIPARTISAN LABOR COMMITTEE PASSAGE OF PTSD WORKERS’ COMP COVERAGE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

HARTFORD – State Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) today welcomed the bipartisan passage in the Labor and Public Employees Committee of a bill designed to extend worker’s compensation PTSD coverage not just to police, firefighters, and other first responders who may witness traumatic events, but to any worker in any job who may witness similar, traumatizing events.

The Labor Committee today endorsed Senate Bill 913, “AN ACT EXPANDING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVERAGE FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS INJURIES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES,” which would provide worker’s compensation benefits for any worker who witnesses a variety of traumatic events while on the job, such as witnessing the death or dismemberment of a person. The bill specifically mentions the trauma experienced by Connecticut health care workers who have seen more than 12,000 state residents die of COVID-19 over the past three years.

The bill now heads to the full Senate for further consideration.

“I believe the bipartisan work we have done in previous years to extend workers’ comp benefits to police, firefighters and others has really informed our conversations on extending workers’ comp for any employee who witnesses some life-changing tragedy on the job. There’s a new realization of just how traumatic some non-emergency work can be,” Sen. Kushner said. “Some of the past concerns about increased municipal costs have not been borne out, and I believe we’ll see the same when and if we extend these rights to all employees. I’m cautiously optimistic of passage this year.”

The 2023 session of the Connecticut General Assembly concludes at midnight on Wednesday, June 8, 2023.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, February 16, 2023

SEN. KUSHNER LEADS SUCCESSFUL COMMITTEE PASSAGE OF BILL TO PROVIDE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS TO STRIKING WORKERS

HARTFORD – State Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) today led Democrats on the Labor and Public Employees Committee in the successful passage of a bill that would allow striking workers to begin collecting unemployment benefits after two weeks if the company owner has locked them out of a job.

Senate Bill 938, “AN ACT CONCERNING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR STRIKING WORKERS,” passed on a partisan committee vote of 7-4, with all Republicans opposed. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.

“In this post-pandemic world that we live in, with unemployment rates at record lows and business begging for new hires, there’s a new reality that employees and the services they provide and the jobs that they do are valued more than ever. The days of locking out employees on a picket line and trying to starve them into submission on a union contract are over,” Sen. Kushner said. “People don’t go on strike easily, or for petty reasons. It usually only comes about after years of working in untenable conditions and months of behind-the-scenes negotiations. Unemployment benefits after two weeks can help both the worker and the business owner come together by increasing good-faith bargaining and shortening strikes.”

At the public hearing on the bill, committee members heard stories from people who have walked picket lines – sometimes for weeks or months – without earning a paycheck and without any guarantee of even returning to work.

“My name is Jose Anaya and I live in Bridgeport,” one such employee testified. “In April of 2019, as a newly full-time employee at Stop and Shop, I walked out along with over 10,000 of my coworkers in Connecticut and thousands more in New England. I had watched my union leadership bargain for nearly four months before telling us we had no choice but to stand up and walk out. I walked out on strike despite being the only wage earner in my home and without substantial savings to protect me… the loss of eleven days of income is frankly something that took me over a year to catch up from.”

“During the strike I was lucky to have a supportive family and a husband who worked, but losing my wages was hard on us,” Wanda Ferrera of New Haven testified about the time she went on strike against Yale University. “We could call our mortgage company and utilities and say that we were in a time of hardship, but that was only temporary. Unemployment benefits would have helped to carry us through that time.”

New York and New Jersey already have such laws in place: In 2020, New York reduced its waiting period from seven weeks to two weeks in order to collect unemployment, and New Jersey has a 30-day waiting period but is considering legislation to reduce it to two weeks.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

SEN KUSHNER SEEKS TO MODERNIZE CANCER LAW FOR FIREFIGHTERS

HARTFORD –

To create a rebuttable presumption that a firefighter’s diagnosis of cancer arose out of and in the course of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation

AN ACT PROVIDING WORKERS’ COMPENSATION BENEFITS FOR CERTAIN CANCERS IN FIREFIGHTERS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

1 Section 1. Section 31-294j of the general statutes is repealed and the

2 following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2023):

3 (a) For the purpose of adjudication of claims for payment of benefits

4 under the provisions of this chapter, a uniformed member of a paid

5 municipal or volunteer fire department, a regular member of a paid

6 municipal police department, a constable, as defined in section 31-294i,

7 or a member of a volunteer ambulance service shall be eligible for such

8 benefits for any disease arising out of and in the course of employment,

9 including, but not limited to, hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis,

10 tuberculosis, Kahler’s Disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and prostate

11 or testicular cancer that results in death or temporary or permanent total

12 or partial disability.

13 (b) For purposes of this section, there shall be a rebuttable

14 presumption that the diagnosis of cancer of a uniformed member of a

15 paid municipal or volunteer fire department arose out of and in the

16 course of employment as a result of exposure particular to the duties

17 performed as a firefighter. Such presumption applies to any condition

18 of cancer affecting the brain, skin, skeletal system, digestive system,

19 endocrine system, respiratory system, lymphatic system, reproductive

20 system, urinary system or hematological system that results in the death

21 or temporary or permanent total or partial disability of such firefighter.

22 Such presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence

23 that:

24 (1) Upon entry into service, a physical examination of such firefighter

25 revealed evidence of the claimed cancer;

26 (2) Such firefighter failed to submit to annual physical examinations

27 subsequent to entry into service;

28 (3) Subsequent physical examinations of such firefighter revealed

29 evidence of, or a propensity for, the claimed cancer;

30 (4) Such firefighter used cigarettes, as defined in section 12-285, or

31 any other tobacco products, as defined in section 12-330a, during the

32 fifteen-year period prior to the diagnosis of the claimed cancer;

33 (5) At the time the claimed cancer is diagnosed or should have been

34 diagnosed, such firefighter was employed for less than five years as:

35 (A) An interior structural firefighter at a municipal, state or volunteer

36 fire department; or

37 (B) A local fire marshal, deputy fire marshal, fire investigator, fire

38 inspector or such other class of inspectors or investigator meeting the

39 minimum standards of qualification adopted pursuant to section 29-298;

40 (6) Such firefighter failed to used respiratory protection, as described

41 in 29 CFR 1910.134 of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards, or

42 other personal protective equipment, as described in 29 CFR 1910.134 of

43 the Occupational Safety and Health Standards in the course of such

44 employment; or

45 (7) Such claimed cancer is not known to result from the exposure to

46 heat, radiation or a known carcinogen as determined by the

47 International Agency for Research on Cancer or the National Toxicology

48 Program of the United States Department of Health and Human

49 Services.

50 (c) Any individual who is no longer actively employed or serving as

51 a firefighter and who would otherwise qualify for benefits under this

52 section may apply for benefits under the provisions of this chapter not

53 later than five years after the date such individual was employed or last

54 served as a firefighter.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:

 

Section 1 October 1, 2023 31-294j

Statement of Purpose:

To create a rebuttable presumption that a firefighter’s diagnosis of cancer arose out of and in the course of employment for purposes ofworkers’ compensation