HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Battle lines between state employee unions and Gov. John G. Rowland hardened in Connecticut on Monday.
The unions prepared to file a lawsuit claiming the governor's demands for wage and benefit concessions violated their federal civil rights.
According to the Hartford Courant, the unions representing 45,000 state employees claim Rowland's orders to lay off nearly 3,000 workers were intended to punish defiant unions rather than to address budget deficits in the current and next fiscal years.
The unions said Rowland's tactics crossed the line between allowable hardball negotiations and illegal coercion. The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition and its 13 constituent unions said the strategy violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act.
The unions, seeking to have the laid-off workers reinstated, planned to file the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. They were also seeking damages for lost wages.
"This is a meaningless lawsuit without merit designed to cover the unions' embarrassment that 25,000 union employees are getting raises while more than 3,000 are getting laid off," Rowland said in a statement Sunday night.
The governor previously said he had to lay off workers because the unions wouldn't go along with concessions as the state tried to deal with a $650 million deficit in the current fiscal year, and an even larger gap in the next fiscal year.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only nine states facing budget problems have resorted to layoffs, including Connecticut, Arizona and Virginia.
