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State Sen. Martin Michael Looney at WNHH FM.
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Martin Francis Looney.
“It took a while, Dad,” Martin Michael Looney said to himself after the final vote was cast, “but we’re there.”
Looney, president pro tem of the State Senate, uttered those words quietly after the chamber passed a law banning mandatory “captive audience” meetings held by employers to intimidate workers out of joining unions.
That was one of the highlights of this year’s legislative session for Looney. He spoke about those highlights — and his hopes for next year if he succeeds winning a 16th two-year term in November’s general election — during an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Democrat Looney this year faces a challenge for the 11th State Senate district seat, which represents roughly half of Hamden and the eastern half of New Haven, from Republican Steve Orosco. (Click here to read and watch a recent interview with Orosco.)
The captive audience law “prohibit[s] an employer from coercing employees into attending or participating in a meeting sponsored by the employer concerning the employer’s views on political or religious matters.” It was not one of the most prominent measures to pass in this year’s session. It meant a big deal to Looney.
He first introduced the measure in 2005. He first heard about the need for it as a child, from a story his late father Martin Francis Looney told him.
Martin Francis drove a forklift at New Haven’s former Winchester rifle factory. He worked on a machinist union organizing drive at the plant in the 1950s.
One day, Martin Michael said on “Dateline,” Martin Francis “was told to get off the forklift and get into a room.
“Two big beefy men shut the door and stood there with their arms folded to make sure that nobody even attempted to leave.
“The first thing that everyone was told was that the plant would probably close in two years if the union was voted in. The second thing they were told was that unions were connected to Communism and that their loyalty would be suspect.
“They were told that if they were not yet naturalized citizens — and some of them weren’t — they could be subject to deportation if they were seen as friendly to a union. They were told that even if they were naturalized citizens — my father was, having been born in Ireland — that could eventually be revoked if you associated with unions.”
Martin Francis persisted. The union drive fell short. A second one commenced. He worked on that one, too.
“The company tried to break him. They tried to either make him quit or kill him. They took him off the forklift and made him lift heavy freight.”
Martin Francis “stuck it out.” And on try two, the workers succeeded in winning union recognition. Martin Francis returned to driving the forklift — and became a union steward.
“That’s why it has been a crusade of mine for many years,” said his son Martin Michael.
Even with the advent of modern communications, giving employers many new ways of communicating with workers about union drives, some employers were “insistent” on preserving the right to hold these in-person captive meetings, Sen. Looney observed. Why? “This one is the most coercive. That’s why they want it. They want to be able to herd people in a room and threaten them.”
Under the newly passed law, employers in Connecticut may no longer require employees to attend such closed-door work-hour meetings. Beefy guards can’t legally prevent the Martin Francises of today from walking out the door.
Looney said he’s also proud that the legislature passed tens of millions of dollars of new funding this year for mental-health help for kids in schools and through a 24-hour mobile crisis service, boosting pre-school education, and a clean air act that will electrify much of the state’s and schools’ bus fleets and make it easier for people to afford to buy e‑vehicles. He’s also proud that a legislative coalition he assembled succeeded in changing the state’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program to double the amount of money sent to New Haven for revenues lost on tax-exempt properties.
Looking ahead, Looney said that if reelected he plans to reintroduce a “medical Miranda” law that requires cops to to seek treatment for arrestees complaining of health problems. The measure passed the Senate this year, but not the House. Looney is banking that what happened to Randy Cox soon afterwards in New Haven will boost the bill’s chances in 2023.
Meanwhile, Looney had strong words in the interview for New Haven’s Board of Education on two issues.
One issue is maintaining HVAC systems. The state approved $75 million this session for HVAC upgrades in schools statewide. He noted how badly New Haven’s schools need the help due to lax maintenance — despite the state spending more than $1 billion to help rebuild all the schools. The legislature included language in the latest bill to ensure that school districts like New Haven’s spend the money this time to change filters and maintain HVAC systems.
Looney also weighed in on the current controversy considering how New Haven teaches reading. He noted that 84 percent of third-graders are reading below grade level, part of a broader set of recently released scores that officials have termed a “crisis.” Meanwhile, New Haven school officials are resisting committing to following the dictates of a “Right to Read” state law requiring districts to switch from “balanced learning” to more phonics-driven “structured literacy” based on decades of brain science research about how young kids learn. (Read about that here, here, here and here.) Following a national trend based on brain research studies, the state has mandated that all school systems move from a“balanced literacy” reading curriculum to a more phonics-centered “structured literacy” curriculum. Superintendent Tracey stated at a recent symposium that New Haven will not be pushed by a “bandwagon” into switching from teaching balanced literacy, which she insisted has succeeded in teaching a diverse New Haven student body how to read.
“The city should absolutely get in line with this. It’s appalling what the reading levels are in the New Haven Public Schools. You can defend a system if it is working. It is not working,” Looney said.
“That’s failure,” he said of the reading statistics. “You need to do something else.” He said to expect him and his colleagues to “apply pressure” as the state reviews New Haven’s steps in complying, or not complying, with the law.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with State Sen. Martin Looney on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
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