On June 26, Gov. Ned Lamont won the Connecticut AFL-CIO’s endorsement over Democratic primary challenger Josh Elliott following closed-door interviews with both candidates. The Connecticut AFL-CIO is the state’s largest labor federation, representing roughly 250,000 workers. Its affiliates include public-sector unions that bargain directly with Lamont’s administration over pay, pensions and healthcare.
For the first time, the federation closed its political convention to the press. AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne said the change was intended to let members speak candidly without concern that their names would appear in news coverage. That explanation may be sincere. It does not answer the more important question: what, if anything, did Lamont promise?
The question carries weight because Lamont is not merely a candidate seeking support from a private organization. He is the sitting governor whose administration negotiates the wages, pensions and healthcare of the workers whose representatives just endorsed him.
The AFL-CIO backing is worth considerably more than favorable coverage. After Lamont’s narrow 2018 victory, the federation reported that union members had knocked on tens of thousands of doors, made tens of thousands of phone calls, mailed nearly every union member in Connecticut and visited workplaces to turn out labor-backed voters. Immediately after the election, it publicly called on the incoming governor and legislature to advance a specific agenda: a $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, restrictions on on-call scheduling and continued protection of workers’ pay, pensions and healthcare.
Lamont delivered several of those priorities. His 2026 campaign portrays the relationship as a governing partnership, saying he had stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with union members at rallies, on picket lines and at the bargaining table. His campaign credited that partnership with producing the $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, expanded paid sick leave, broader public-sector collective-bargaining rights, warehouse-worker protections and a ban on captive-audience meetings.
In 2018, labor’s agenda was public. In 2022, Lamont’s answers were public. His completed AFL-CIO questionnaire showed that he supported public-sector collective bargaining, binding arbitration and the continued legal right of state employees to negotiate pension and healthcare benefits. His convention interview that year also took place before a large gathering of delegates. Reporters heard union members question him about contracts, staffing shortages and pandemic pay. Lamont closed by telling them, “I’m sticking with you. I’m fighting with you.”
This year, the doors closed. The endorsement was not automatic. Delegates remained frustrated with Lamont over prolonged state employee contract negotiations, his veto of unemployment benefits for striking workers and his opposition to raising taxes on high-income residents. Elliott, running to Lamont’s left, reportedly received a warm reception from some members and argued that the governor had done only enough to retain labor’s support.
Lamont nevertheless cleared the two-thirds threshold required for endorsement. When questioned about the length of the contract talks, he told delegates to judge the result rather than the timeline. Most state employees received a 2.5 percent general wage increase plus either a normal step increase or a bonus worth roughly another 2 percent.
“It didn’t take as long last time, when they got zero,” Lamont said. “This time, it took a little longer, and you got two-and-a-half, plus two. And it’s retroactive, so nobody lost.”
The AFL-CIO celebrated the contracts as one of labor’s major victories and called the 2026 legislative session one of the strongest pro-worker sessions in recent Connecticut history. What else Lamont said while seeking the endorsement remains unknown.
The Negotiation That Comes Next
The timing matters. Connecticut’s statewide agreement governing state employee pension and healthcare benefits — the SEBAC agreement — expires in June 2027. SEBAC has already signaled that the next agreement should “protect and strengthen” benefits, address what it calls “inadequacies” for newer employees and preserve “robust” pension and healthcare offerings.
Those are not modest demands. The 1997 SEBAC benefits agreement lasted twenty years. It was extended in 2011 and again in 2017, carrying the arrangement through 2027 and binding future governors, legislators and taxpayers to decisions made years earlier. The next agreement could do the same.
Did delegates ask Lamont to preserve the current healthcare structure or expand benefits for newer employees? Did they seek another long-term extension? Was telework on the table? Did they press him to revive unemployment benefits for striking workers?
Perhaps he made no specific commitments. Perhaps he rejected every demand. But taxpayers should not have to guess.
The AFL-CIO has the right to conduct its internal deliberations privately. Lamont has a separate obligation to disclose any commitments involving public policy or taxpayer money. In 2018 and 2022, both the asks and the answers were on the record. This time, the discussion happened behind closed doors as the next SEBAC deal approaches.
Before taxpayers are handed that bill, Lamont should disclose what commitments, if any, he made while seeking labor’s endorsement.
