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SEN. ANWAR VOTES FOR NEW STATE POLICE UNION CONTRACT

HARTFORD – State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) joined his colleagues in the state Senate today in the bipartisan approval of a new, four-year Connecticut State Police labor union contract that will boost state police trainee pay, provide a $3,500 bonus this year, and deliver 2.5% pay raises each year, along with a multitude of other state police benefits.

This is the second state police union contract that Sen. Anwar has approved in the past four years; he also approved the 2019 Connecticut State Police union contract despite overwhelming Republican opposition.

“It is important for us to support our first responders, and this union contract provides them with that,” said Sen. Anwar. “These men and women work to keep Connecticut safe and this contract’s increased pay and benefits will help them in their daily work. I’m especially encouraged by increases in trooper trainee pay, which will help Connecticut attract and retain the best candidates for the job amid competition from neighboring states.”

The Connecticut State Police labor union contract – which was negotiated by Governor Ned Lamont and approved today by the state legislature – covers the four fiscal years from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2026. In late December, 94% of state troopers voted to approve their labor union contract.

“This four-year agreement will enhance the state’s ability to recruit and retain the most qualified troopers, and it ensures that those who risk their lives daily are fairly compensated for their responsibilities and the dangers required of their profession,” State Police Union Executive Director Andy Matthews said at the January 18 public hearing on the contract.

The new agreement offers a 2.5% general wage increase in 2023, 2024, and 2025, with a wage reopener clause for 2026. State Police trooper trainee pay will jump from $50,000 this year to $65,638 in 2024 and then to $67,279 in 2025 and beyond – a 35% pay increase. Full-time State Police employees will receive a $3,500 lump sum payment this year, and State Police employees with the most years of service will receive an additional 2% lump sum payment.

There are nearly a dozen other beneficial changes in the new State Police labor union contract, including:

• Adding Juneteenth Independence Day as a paid state police holiday, with overtime.
• Increasing the safety shoe & equipment stipend to $150
• Adding a new, annual $500 health and wellness stipend
• Increasing the uniform cleaning stipend to $650
• Adding a new $100 monthly hazardous duty stipend for employees assigned to the Fire Explosion Investigations Unit
• Increasing the education tuition reimbursement fund to $90,000
• Increasing the training fund set-aside to $50,000
• Increasing the Field Training Officer (FTO) compensation to 2 hours per shift
• Adding a new, annual $500 lump sum payment for Bachelor of Arts or Master’s degree, which covers about a third of the State Police employees

The Connecticut State Police force currently stands at 877; it once had a mandated State Police force of 1,248, but that number has not been met for over a decade.

Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella said Connecticut is currently graduating new State Police trooper classes of 30 to 40 officers – which is the national average – about twice a year. The next class is scheduled to graduate in April, with the next class after that beginning in May.

SENATOR ANWAR STANDS ALONGSIDE NURSES, HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ADVOCATING FOR SAFE STAFFING AND PATIENT LIMITS TO PROTECT HEALTH SERVICES

Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), joined by fellow legislators including State Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury), State Senator Jan Hochadel (D-Meriden), State Representative Cristin McCarthy-Vahey (D-Fairfield) and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, stood alongside health care professionals as they advocated for legislative proposals including but not limited to patient limits for nurses and safe staffing levels in health care.

Speakers, including Crystal Badeau, vice president of WCMH United Employees and AFT Local 5099 and Sherri Dayton, vice president for healthcare for AFT Connecticut, described dire conditions and abuse from patients they’ve experienced in the field in the process of attempting to provide care, and professionals warned that attrition due to these conditions is threatening the field’s ability to provide care.

“Safe staffing saves lives. There should be no confusion about this,” said Sen. Anwar, a pulmonologist with extensive health care experience himself. “One of the first bills I proposed before the pandemic was about safe staffing. Why? Because in the intensive care unit, I saw my colleagues crying in those moments when they were tired, treating critically ill patients without the resources to do so effectively, trying to take care of each and every one of them. The pain and suffering is real. And then we had the pandemic.”

“Before the pandemic, we were stretched,” he continued. “After the pandemic, we are in crisis. Health care workers and nurses are burned out. One of five health care workers have left the field and one in three of those remaining are thinking about leaving. This is a crisis rapidly moving toward disaster, and this disaster is preventable. If you don’t have adequate staff, people die. You increase the risk of medical errors. Your patients’ conditions worsen. At this time, what we have to do is recognize the status quo is unacceptable. We have a country with excellent health care and to see that erode is painful. Let’s intervene. Let’s do what we can. Rep. McCarthy-Vahey and I are committed to bringing health care leaders to the table and work together. We need the hospitals on board. We cannot implement a comprehensive plan without fixing current issues. We need a workforce pipeline for those who choose this field and we need to support our heroes who put themselves in harm’s way. We need to show them that love we showed them during the pandemic; if we do not back up that love through action, they are only words.”

“It’s time for us to help the helpers,” said Rep. McCarthy-Vahey. “These are the people who don’t want to put their oxygen masks on first, even when that’s what they need to do to support us. We’re here to support them and help the helpers. We look forward to making sure health care workers are safe and all people in Connecticut will remain safe as well.”

Specific proposals mentioned by health leaders included addressing unsafe staffing levels, with stories relaying staffing ratios as high as 29 patients for two nurses in one shift, a level that threatens both the ability of professionals to administer care and for patients to properly receive care and recover; establishing safe patient limits; and protecting vital health services. As those gathered said, adding a single patient to a nurse’s workload increases the risk of patient death by 7%.

Today’s pleas come in the wake of the AFT’s 2022 health care staffing shortage task force report, which found health care was already dangerously understaffed before the COVID-19 pandemic and is now in crisis. With nursing education programs understaffed, underfunded and costly, with attrition among staff quickening its pace – as many as 100,000 RNs under the age of 44 left the workforce between 2020 and 2021 – health professionals advocate for improved recruitment, expanded aid for students and loan repayment, and enacting laws mandating better safety standards in the field.

SENATOR ANWAR STANDS WITH MEDICAL AID-IN-DYING ADVOCATES AS THEY UNVEIL PORTRAITS OF LOVED ONES WHO DIED WAITING FOR HELP, CALL FOR CHANGE

Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) joined advocates and supporters of medical aid-in-dying, policy that would allow diagnosed terminally ill patients to live to voluntarily request medical assistance to end their lives, as they stood at the Capitol, calling for change in honor of their loved ones who died painfully from illness when they did not receive access to aid-in-dying. Those gathered revealed portraits of their loved ones, which were then hung in the walkway connecting the Legislative Office Building and State Capitol building.

As Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee, Sen. Anwar spoke regarding the legislation and its hopeful passage in the 2023 legislative session. Medical aid-in-dying is legal in ten states and the District of Columbia. The policy has been introduced as a bill in Connecticut more than a dozen times dating back to 1995, but staunch opposition has prevented its passage.

“As a physician who’s committed to health for the long lives and well-being of all patients, I recognize various illnesses require people to make difficult and unnecessary end-of-life journeys,” said Sen. Anwar. “There has been real evolution in my thinking about this issue. If you asked me about five years ago, as a physician, I’d say I was hard-wired to try to protect life and do whatever is possible to save and prolong life. But I recognize that, as an individual, you are not in control, and when you realize suffering cannot be managed by the best possible teams available, you have a responsibility at that time to give those people an option. We need to make sure our citizens who find themselves in impossible circumstances have options and we have no right to restrict those options from people. Advocates have worked tirelessly to find the right balance between patient access and safeguards to craft a bill that will work as intended for those for whom it is intended.”

“We do not see the same individuals testify on this issue year after year,” Sen. Anwar continued. “Many of them are on their death beds when they come and speak. They know their testimony will be their last opportunity to speak. And we know, as they are suffering, their suffering will not end, but they hope the suffering of others will be better. That gesture of kindness is so moving and should be a point of reflection to recognize the respect, pain and suffering involved to make sure we help others.”

“We’re here this morning to unveil a series of portraits of advocates who have died waiting for this legislation, an option that provides terminally ill people who are mentally capable, working alongside their physician, loved ones and a faith leader if they have one, the ability to bypass the worst part of an active dying process,” said Tim Appleton, senior campaign director for the Compassion and Choices Action Network. “In Connecticut, similar aid in dying legislation has been introduced 15 separate times dating back to 1994. During that time, aid in dying is now authorized in 10 states and Washington D.C. and 20% of Americans have access to it. In Oregon, where the first aid-in-dying law was passed, there has not been a single instance of abuse, misuse or coercion attributed to that law. Finally, the very real legislative cost of inaction is paid for by the suffering of those seeking this option. For far too many, this session and next session will be too late. Another group of people will die waiting. These portraits spell out the cost of inaction.”

Advocates on Wednesday included Jill Hammerberg, whose husband Mark died of prostate cancer; Kira Philips, whose mother Clare took her own life after fighting multiple myeloma; Jennifer Barahona, whose mother Barbara died from ALS; and Jim Naughton, whose wife Pam died from pancreatic cancer. All stood with portraits of their loved ones and shared painful, traumatizing stories of watching their loved ones spend their final days in agony, wishing they could have controlled the ends of their lives on their own terms, rather than allow their terminal illnesses to define their deaths.

On Wednesday at noon, the Public Health Committee held a committee meeting considering medical aid-in-dying as a raised concept.