Demand to state leaders: “Which side are you on?”

 

“Which side are you on?” is the message to the Governor and State Legislature as the session nears its end on June 4. Hundreds of workers, tenants, immigrants, students, healthcare workers and teachers have testified, called and raised their voices for crucial bills important to working class communities in hard times.

Lobby days and rallies to support SB 8 to allow striking workers to receive unemployment insurance, strengthening the Trust Act to protect immigrant rights, expansion of healthcare for immigrant youth, and HB 6889 for just cause eviction protections are filling the Capitol. Demands to lower fiscal guardrails to fund public education and other needs have been taken up by high school students around the state, initiated by the Connecticut for All coalition.

Supporters of Just Cause Eviction Protection rallied at the State Capitol, calling on the House leadership to bring the bill up for a vote. HB 6889 has 57 cosponsors in the General Assembly.

Josefina Cruz, a tenant in Waterbury who has lived in her home for seven years, recently received a notice of nonrenewal, along with many of her neighbors. Although she followed her lease and paid her rent on time, she is now facing imminent no-fault eviction. Currently, she has no legal protection.

HB 6889 would change that. At Wednesday’s rally, members of the coalition expressed the urgency felt by tenants like Josefina by handing out “eviction notices” throughout the Capitol, representing Connecticut tenants who are actively facing no-fault evictions and who would be protected by this bill if House Democrats acted on it this session.

More rallies and town hall meetings are underway, with coaltiions supporting each others' interconnected issues. If these bills are not called for a vote in the House and Senate and signed into law by the Governor, Connecticut working class communities will be left to fend for housing, healthcare, education in a deepening crisis as the Trump administration guts critical p;rograms and gives more breaks to billionaires. The question to the legislature and governor is simple: “Which side are you on?”