A major fight is unfolding over whether Connecticut will become the second state with a law outlawing “captive audience” meetings, one of the weapons unions say is regularly deployed to thwart organizing campaigns at a time of worker unrest and union popularity.
Hospitals, the insurance industry and other business interests are lobbying against a bill that has bubbled to the top of labor’s priority list after being eclipsed in recent years by other union initiatives, including COVID-19 protections, a $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave.
“I’ve introduced this bill several times, and I believe this is the year we can get it across the finish line,” Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, recently told a labor audience.