Gov. Lamont (center): “One union, one family, one fight.” UNITE HERE Local 34 Chief Steward and Staff Director Barbara Vereen held a microphone on a crowded College Street sidewalk Tuesday afternoon and asked, “Could we just say, ‘Four more years?'” She then led a group of sta tewide union leaders and allies in that exact chant — “Four more years! Four more years!” — as part of a labor-focused rally in support of Gov. Ned Lamont’s reelection. Vereen was one of a half-dozen speakers at a press conference and rally for Lamont that was held on the sidewalk in front of 425 College St., which is the headquarters of the politically influential Yale unions, UNITE HERE Locals 33, 34, and 35. The rally took place a week to the day before the Aug. 11 Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Lamont — a two-term incumbent and Greenwich businessman — is set to face off against Hamden State Rep. Josh Elliott, who has sought to challenge the governor from the left. Whoever wins the primary will face Republican candidate and Greenwich State Sen. Ryan Fazio in November’s general election. Tuesday afternoon’s rally — Lamont’s second New Haven stop of the day — saw Connecticut labor leaders like UNITE HERE Local 217 Secretary-Treasurer Josh Stanley, New Haven Rising Director Scott Marks, CT AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne, Connecticut Educational Association President Kate Dias, Connecticut State Building Trades Council Executive Director Joseph Toner, and Carpenters Local 326 President Miguel Fuentes heap praise on Lamont for being a friend to organized labor. It also marked a smoothing out of a sometimes rocky relationship between the governor and labor in the runup to the contested Democratic primary. “The difference is stark” between when Lamont first took office eight years ago and now, Hawthorne said. He lauded Lamont for helping raise the minimum wage and tying it to inflation, for delivering eight straight years of raises for state employees, for creating a paid family and medical leave program and strengthening pensions for teachers and banning private prisons and restoring PTSD coverage for first responders and supporting Project Labor Agreements with unionized construction workers. Lamont is a “true champion of labor,” Hawthorne said. During her time at the mic, Vereen spoke about organized labor at Yale. During his first term in office, Lamont stood “with us around having Yale commit to hiring local people,” she said. “That was when we coined the phrase: ‘Get up, stand up, and fight for your rights.'” She thanked Lamont and the statewide labor leaders for “coming to the heart of Yale, where we’re negotiating one of the toughest contracts that we have ever negotiated since the forming of Local 34.” That’s the union that represents roughly 4,000 clerical and technical workers at the university. Vereen said that Local 34’s current contract negotiations with the university hinge in part on how “our wages are not keeping up. Our wages are falling behind.” She said that Yale has spent the past nine months showing “PowerPoint after PowerPoint about how poor” they were going to be — a reference to Trump administration policies, like the endowment tax hike, that university leaders have warned will cost Yale a significant amount of money. All the while, Vereen says, Yale has a nearly $45 billion endowment. “We know Yale’s gonna be fine,” she said. Vereen also spoke about how “A.I. automation is threatening workers all around the state. We need a governor that is going to stand up with us and help us fight against — we’re not saying stop tech. What we’re saying is, protect the workers, protect our jobs, so we can keep us middle class.” She said that Local 34 “has proudly endorsed Gov. Lamont” for a third term. And she ended with the chant she began her speech with: “Four more years!” CT AFL-CIO’s Ed Hawthorne … … Connecticut Educational Association’s Kate Dias … … Carpenters Local 326’s Miguel Fuentes … … and Connecticut State Building Trades Council’s Joseph Toner, on College St. on Thursday. Gov. Lamont. The post Lamont Labor Cheer: “Four More Years!” appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less