HOW DO YOU SPELL UNION BUSTING? ..... "A-D-A-M-O-W-S-K-I"

[Click on picture for full screen] The sign being held up states: "Adamowski is a union buster and needs to go back to where he came from."

Hundreds of Hartford Federation of Teachers [HFT] members and their supporters rally to stop the union busting tactics of Dr. Adamowski, Hartford's Superintendent of Schools. Andrea Johnson, President of the HFT, noted that Adamowski hired the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin in an attempt to place the Hartford Federation of Teachers in a spin that he hopes will cause its demise.

For decades the Hartford Federation of Teachers negotiated a contract that allows for three Hartford Federation of Teachers officers to remain as paid staff, with benefits, while serving as elected representatives of the HFT. The union has reimbursed the Board of Education for 70 per cent of that cost.

The president of the HFT, Andrea Johnson, and two other officers of the union received a letter from the school administration dated July 29th that stated in part: "...recent discoveries regarding the potential illegality of the detached duty provision of the contract, effective August 24, 2009, your leave will be viewed as an unpaid leave..."

Simply put, the three full time leadership positions of the HFT will be eliminated. The president of the union and the two other union officials will lose all salary and benefits unless they return to a regular teaching position. That is a clear violation of the union contract and an attempt to BUST THE UNION.

It was reported that the law firm, Shipman & Goodman, hired by the administration to help bust the union, is receiving $ 750.00 an hour. Larry Deutsch, a Working Families Party city council member, asked the Superintendent and the Board of Education where the money is coming from to pay the law firm. He was met with dead silence. Other speakers at the Board meeting blasted the superintendent for his union busting activities.

Below are some photos of the demonstration.

Photo above: Andrea Johnson, President of the HFT, [holding the bull horn] address the crowd.

Photo above: John Olson, President of the Connecticut AFT-CIO offers vocal support for the HFT. Photo above: The picket line outside of the Board of Education before the meeting.

By Tom Connolly