Melissa Bailey Photo
The governor lent his name to help a Democratic mayor get reelected in Hartford, but in New Haven Tuesday he remained neutral.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was asked about the New Haven mayor’s race after greeting Mayor John DeStefano at a press event at the AT&T headquarters on Orange Street. DeStefano, who beat Malloy in a 2006 Democratic primary for governor, faces three challengers in a Sept. 13 party primary as he seeks a 10th term. DeStefano supported Malloy’s opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial primary; some of the people opposing DeStefano’s slate of aldermanic candidates this year helped Malloy win office.
Asked whom he supports in New Haven’s race, Malloy said “whichever Democrat wins.”
“I support the Democrat. Whoever the Democrat is, that’s who I’ll be supporting.”
“I’m supporting the concept of a primary, which they’re having, and whichever Democratic candidate wins.”
Malloy in June endorsed Pedro Segarra, the Democratic mayor of Hartford, who faces a primary for his seat.
He was asked Tuesday why he is staying out of New Haven but not Hartford.
“I’m not getting involved in very many primaries,” Malloy said. “[Hartford] happens to be one. I live in that city, so you know, it’s a personal choice that I had to make myself.”
Malloy technically moved to Hartford this year when he became governor. He has lived for decades in Stamford, where he served as mayor.
AT&T Touts 80 New Jobs
Malloy showed up in New Haven as part of a statewide jobs tour. After shipping over a thousand jobs out of state, AT&T announced Tuesday that it will add 80 new jobs in its fastest growing division, U-verse wireless internet and “advanced television service.”
The 80 new U-verse technicians will be hired between now and “early next fall,” said AT&T New England Vice President And General Manager Steve Krom. Each will be paid $15 to $19 per hour, plus benefits, in full-time, unionized jobs, he said.
At an afternoon press conference, Malloy applauded AT&T for creating new jobs, even as the state has “failed to produce jobs” for the past 22 years. The latest monthly labor report showed the state shedding 300 jobs, Malloy said.
The new hires come after AT&T has significantly shrunk its Connecticut workforce. The number of unionized workers, who represent two-thirds of AT&T’s employees, shrank from 6,200 to 4,100 employees in the past two years, according to Bill Henderson, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1298. In the course of those reductions, 1,000 jobs were sent out of state, Henderson said.
The cutbacks fell mostly on the wireline, or landline, side due to competition from other cable companies, said Krom. He said since AT&T started offering high-speed U-verse internet three years ago, it has created 600 to 700 jobs in that division, which has helped to balance out the cuts in other areas.
Henderson’s union was the first to back Malloy in the Democratic primary for governor. He said AT&T has not treated workers well; he rattled off examples of new hires getting fired for what he saw as arbitrary reasons. Henderson was skeptical of the 80 new jobs, when by his count 40 percent of workers who join AT&T don’t make it to the end of the year.
“We’ve got the governor there touting what a good company this is? This is ridiculous,” Henderson said.
Krom said the company is improving its hiring process and has lowered the attrition rate to 30 to 35 percent.
Tremors, No Ticket
The last time Malloy visited New Haven, he left with a parking ticket. This time, a state police escort again parked in a no-parking zone, but this time he appears to have escaped ticket-free.
Malloy didn’t leave, however, before experiencing the tremors of a D.C.-based earthquake. Tremors shook AT&T’s headquarters and prompted the building’s evacuation just as the governor was walking out the door.
“This is what happens when the governor comes through—an earthquake!” quipped one AT&T worker standing in the company lobby.