Livingston, Osten To Receive Labor History Association Award

NEW HAVEN -- Longtime union lawyer and activist Dan Livingston, and State Sen. and union activist Cathy Osten will receive kudos next month from the state’s only labor history association.
The Greater New Haven Labor History Association (LHA) will present the pair with the Augusta Lewis Troup award for their meritorious contributions to the labor movement. The awards will be presented at LHA’s Sept. 15 annual meeting.
Livingston has been the Chief Negotiator for SEBAC, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, since 1994. He helped craft the ground-breaking 20-year pension and health care agreement in 1997.
He takes pride in serving SEBAC in 2002 and 2003 as it fought to fend of then-Governor John Rowland’s layoff of nearly 3000 state workers, and again in 2009 and 2011 as it reached successful agreements preventing layoffs and service cuts contemplated by then-Governors Jodi Rell (2009) and Dannel Malloy (2011).
Osten, a former President of the Corrections Supervisors’ Council of CSEA/SEIU 2001, is the second consecutive state senator from Eastern Connecticut’s 19th district to receive the award. Earlier, former State Sen Edith Prague received the award, as did former State Sen. Edwin Gomes of Bridgeport.
Formerly an archival organization, the labor history association is transitioning into an activist group seeking to identify and apply the lessons of labor history to today’s labor movement. The group was responsible for securing legislation requiring the state Department of Education to develop labor history curricula for use in the public schools.
"Labor in the post-Janus World” will be the subject of a panel discussion moderated by Troy Rondinone, labor history professor at Southern Connecticut State University. Panelists will include Sal Luciano, CT AFL-CIO President; Rick Melita, Director of SEIU-CT; Teri Merisotis, AFT-CT Legislative Advocate as well as Livingston and Osten.
The discussion will focus on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v AFSCME decision that eliminates the requirement that nonunion public employees share union costs of negotiating contracts that benefit them. It was feared that this would choke off revenue unions need to survive.
The LHA annual meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council headquarters at 267 Chapel St. in New Haven. The event is free and open to the public. A parking area is located behind the building, accessible from Saltonstall Street.