A health care employee union is canceling a threatened strike by thousands of group home workers now that the Connecticut Senate approved a long-awaited pay raise.
The Senate voted 29-4 Saturday for legislation increasing funding for 18,000 union and non-union workers at nonprofit agencies serving people with intellectual disabilities. That money will be used to provide a $14.75 an hour minimum wage and a 5 percent increase for those workers already earning more than $14.75 an hour.
The bill already passed the House of Representatives and Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to sign it. He says the workers have "far too long" been "underpaid for their critical work." A strike by 2,500 workers at 250 locations was threatened to begin this coming Monday at 6 a.m.
