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Workers at Stop & Shop, a grocery store chain based in Hartford, successfully avoided a strike, saving thousands of food service jobs in Connecticut.

After weeks of negotiations, the union representing employees and the company have finally struck a deal that will keep the workers on the job.

The former Stop & Shop employee contract ended more than two weeks ago. The company announced Sunday that it has reached new bargaining agreements with all five United Food and Commercial Workers unions throughout New England, including 15,000 workers in Connecticut.

The employees voted Sunday to ratify the new agreement, which includes signing bonuses, raises hourly wages and maintains pension and health benefits.

“There will be a lump sum in the contract, general wage increases on top of that,” said Local 371 President Brian Petronella. “Two weeks ago the company wanted our members to do a 20 percent contribution on health and welfare based on Cobra rates, which would’ve been $200 more a month for health care. That’s off the table.”

Petronella called Sunday’s vote a “great victory.” The union represents 5,000 Connecticut Stop & Shop employees.

The chain has stores in Colchester, Groton, Killingly, Montville, Norwich and Putnam.
About 500 members of the Local 371 unanimously approved the three-year contract by a voice vote on Sunday.

Local 919, based in Farmington, also green-lighted the deal Sunday.

“I’m very happy that the thing got ratified,” Petronella said by phone hours after the vote. “I’m very happy that for the next three years, our workers will have secure pensions, secure health care and secure wages.”

Two of the union’s chapters — Local 1459 out of Springfield, Mass., and the Providence-based Local 328 — had yet to formally ratify the agreement by 3:30 p.m. Sunday, though both chapters said on their Web sites tentative deals were in place.

The new contract will have its first dollar effect next week when all Stop & Shop workers will receive signing bonuses based on their job classification and length of service — $750 for full-time employees and $100 to $400 for part-timers.

Full-time workers, which make up about 20 percent of Stop & Shop’s work force, will receive a $750 signing bonus and a wage increase totaling $1.15 an hour over the course of the three-year contract. That includes a 25-cent an hour pay raise this year, beginning in August.

Part-time workers will have to wait until March 2011 for their first wage hike. Part-time workers with more than two years of service will receive a $400 signing bonus, and a total 60-cent per hour increase over three years.

According to Charles Zien, the president of United Tool and Die in West Hartford, thousands of manufacturing jobs in Connecticut are at risk if the Pentagon considers outsourcing Boeing to French manufacturer Airbus.

In a blog on the Hartford Courant.com, Zien states, Connecticut’s defense industry might not be the jobs engine it once was, but Pratt & Whitney, Electric Boat and Sikorsky and hundreds of smaller suppliers remain a critical part of our economic mix.

In fact, Zien says, our continued reliance on the defense industry demands that we keep an eye on the Pentagon’s procurement decisions and how they affect our state. Case in point: the controversial competition between America’s Boeing Corp. and Europe’s Airbus to build a new airborne refueling tanker for the Air Force.

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There has been a steady stream (or some may call it a slow trickle) of green jobs in Connecticut. For more information on green jobs in Connecticut, click here.

According to an article on TheDay.com, Zerodraft in Connecticut is hiring.

The company, which weatherizes homes to increase energy efficiency, is adding more employees to deal with an increase in business driven by federal grants.

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Connecticut State Legislature is considering a bill that would install tolls at seven places on or around the Connecticut border, which would bring in millions of dollars that could be spent on repairing infrastructure, thereby creating construction jobs in CT (click here).

This could have a positive impact on Connecticut’s unemployment rate, which has been declining.

State Rep. Tony Guerrera is sponsoring the bill, which states that motorists on highways crossing into Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York would pay at tolls on the CT border.

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According to a new study released by the University of Connecticut, Connecticut jobs will continue to be eliminated, as outsourcing and government budget problems dim employment recovery prospects.

The report begins by grimly stating, there is no jobs recovery in sight. Assuming national growth trails off from the unsustainable 5.7% of the fourth quarter, Connecticut continues to lose jobs through 2011; the rate of loss simply slows from the predicted rate in the previous CCEA Outlook.

The state’s economy has undergone a critical structural change as the degree of outsourcing—whether to other states or abroad—has grown quickly for more than a decade; the result is that even strong growth in total output may not translate into rapid improvement in employment. The effect shows in a pattern of progressively slowed jobs recovery.

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Even though the state continued to lose jobs last month, the Connecticut unemployment rate declined.

During July, the state saw its unemployment rate decrease from 7.9 percent to 7.8 percent, which is lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. Prior to July, Connecticut hadn’t seen its unemployment rate decrease since September 2008, when it went from 6.1 percent to 6 percent.

Connecticut had a total non-farm employment of 1,633,400 workers during July, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,636,200 workers during June and a 3.9 percent decrease from last year.

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One company is helping to maintain and create jobs in CT.

Northeast Utilities recently moved its corporate headquarters to Hartford, in the process relocating 167 employees from the company’s executive offices and corporate functions. In addition, a walk-in customer care center will soon be established in the town, with hopes to improve access for Connecticut Light & Power and Yankee Gas customers.

NU’s campus in Berlin will continue to be used by company employees. It still serves as the headquarters for Connecticut Light & Power, Yankee Gas and NU Transmission. The company still has 1,800 employees in Berlin and is planning to create more in the near future.

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The idea of creating “green collar” jobs has been catching on throughout the country. Now the federal government could use the push on going green to help create positions for those looking for a Connecticut job.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell recently announced that the state Department of Labor will work with seven other Northeast states to try to secure $3.9 million in federal stimulus money to help expand the number of green collar jobs in Connecticut, New England, New York and New Jersey.

The funding from the federal Department of Labor is meant to help job seekers and recent high school and college graduates better understand what skills and competencies are required for careers in the green collar industry. The group of states will work together during an 18-month period in order to develop automated tools to highlight green job opportunities in the region and in each participating state.

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Thousands of Connecticut teaching jobs have been lost during the last year.

The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents recently completed a study that found up to 1,200 positions have been eliminated. Most jobs have been lost because of the state’s budget deficit and concerns about the economy. On top of that, costs have continued to increase while state aid has remained the same.

“There are a good number of districts that have been able to avoid eliminating jobs this year but if we have another year like this, they may not be able to avoid it again,” Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of the CAPSS, told the Hartford Courant. “It’s been a tough time. It’s never easy to make decisions to cut back because everything and everyone is viewed as worthwhile.”

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Anyone on a Connecticut job search didn’t get much help from the economy during June.

Overall, employers in Connecticut eliminated 4,800 jobs during the month, negating the 3,600 jobs that were added during May. On top of that, the state’s unemployment rate remained at 8 percent, the same as during May, and lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.5 percent. Since the state’s peak in March 2008, it has lost 70,200 positions, or 4.1 percent of its total workforce.

During June, the state had a total non-farm employment of 1,639,200 workers, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,644,000 workers during May and a 3.8 percent decrease from last year.

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