New Haven Independent

The scheduled 3 p.m. endorsement by AFSCME Council 4, representing 35,000 workers, means DeStefano has a lock on Big Labor’s support as he heads into the final days before the State Democratic Party convention, which begins Friday.

The Sargent’s endorsement back in New Haven was more of a hometown pat on the back for DeStefano, the city’s mayor. Sargent remains the city’s largest manufacturer, although that means far less than it once did. UE Local 243 represents 425 union workers there.

As the company’s HR envoys hovered to make sure no employees made inappropriate (i.e. bad-for-Sargent) comments to reporters, DeStefano bounded onto a makeshift stage to accept a union jacket from chief Steward Wayne Morrison and local President Raymond Pompano (center and right in photo).

In remarks to a floor full of workers, DeStefano stressed his plan for universal health care. He noted that 370,000 people in Connecticut lack health insurance. “These are working people,” he noted.

He also noted that the recent seven-week strike at Sikorsky was over health care.

“Jodi Rell never showed up one time at that line,” he said. “She didn’t understand what that was about.”

Local prez Pompano said his union has never before endorsed a candidate for governor in Connecticut. Both in remarks to the crowd and in comments afterward, he, too, focused on DeStefano’s health care plan. On a national level, “our union has been fighting for that for 25 years,” he said.

Health care was also the first reason 54 year-old press operator Vivian Stubbs offered for her support of DeStefano’s candidacy. She doesn’t personally know anyone without health insurance, she said, but “I like what he’s saying.”