Melissa Bailey Photo
Charles Vossbrinck and his colleagues at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station voted yes on a state contract that would have avoided layoffs, then lost their jobs anyway.
Vossbrinck (pictured) is now among eight workers at the station slated to lose their jobs at the end of August if state unions don’t come up with a new deal to avert 6,500 layoffs statewide.
Vossbrinck, who’s 58, is a molecular biologist who has worked at the Ag Station for 15 years. On Thursday, he got notice that he would lose his job in six weeks.
He’s one of eight people, including five scientists, whose positions are being eliminated at the Ag Station as part of a wave of budget cuts designed to mend the state’s $1.6 billion budget hole. State workers were offered a concessions deal that would have guaranteed their jobs for four years; union leaders and a majority of state workers supported it, but the proposal failed to get the 80 percent approval needed from all the states’ unions. Now state unions are scrambling to come up with another deal before Aug. 31, or else face 6,500 layoffs and a wave of cuts that would hit social services and force the closure of New Haven’s juvenile jail.
Workers at the Ag Station perform a variety of research, experimentation and oversight, including inspecting every plant from nurseries before it leaves the state.
The Ag Station, headquartered on East Rock’s Huntington Street, was a hotbed of support for the contract that could have saved workers’ jobs.
“Most people wanted it,” Vossbrinck said.
The 38 scientists and 33 technicians who work for the Ag Station are part of the Engineering, Scientific & Technical Council, also known as P‑4.
That union had a polling station at New Haven’s Ag Station site to ratify the contract. The vote was overwhelming for the contract, according to Ag Station Director Louis Magnarelli: 50 voted yes, and 5 voted no. (That was one of the highest percentage tallies in favor of the deal in the state, according to AFSCME spokesman Larry Dorman; he said one higher-ed local voted 59 – 5 in favor.)
Magnarelli (pictured) said he was “shocked” to find out that the contract failed statewide. Then he began the painful process of determining which positions to cut. The state budget office gave him a directive to cut $1.2 million in fiscal year 2012 and $1.3 million in fiscal year 2013.
The Ag Station employs 92 people, 25 funded by federal grants and 67 paid for by the state. The state suggested cutting 20 positions, for a 30 percent reduction in staff. Magnarelli determined the agency could not afford to lose 20 people.
“That forced me to get into our scientific ranks,” he said. Because scientists are higher-paid, he was able to reduce the number of layoffs to eight filled positions and five vacant ones.
The cuts fell evenly across the agency’s core areas, agriculture, public health, food safety and forestry, Magnarelli said.
One of the vacant positions on the chopping block is a chemist to develop methods to detect heavy metals in food or other materials like crayons or paint. A person in that position would be capable of doing sophisticated extractions to detect arsenic in foods, he said. That chemist would be a member of the Food Emergency Response Network, working with the federal government to respond to hazardous accidents like the BP Gulf oil spill.
“By losing these vacancies, this is impacting the future of food safety,” Magnarelli said.
On Friday, two summer interns — whose jobs won’t be cut — were busy watering zucchini plants at the Ag Station. They’re working on an experiment to measure plants’ ability to uptake pesticides from polluted soil.
The Ag Station has a farm in Hamden, a headquarters in New Haven and two other sites. Magnarelli said some of the research projects will have to be canceled. Losing scientists will have another impact, Magnarelli said — the agency will “lose competitiveness in getting grants,” because scientists double as grant-writers.
Vossbrinck said he works in molecular biology and insect pathology. For example, he’s studying a parasite called microsporidia to see if it can be used to control pests on farms.
The layoff notices brought a wave of tears through the place he’s worked for 15 years, he said.
“It’s going to change my life forever,” Vossbrinck said of his pink slip. He noted that the scientists who lost their jobs studied for 10 years to get their degrees, and spend a lot of time helping the state keep up with the latest scientific knowledge.
At 58 years old, Vossbrinck said he’s holding out hope that state unions will ratify another labor deal after meeting this week to change their bylaws.
If not, he said, “I’ve got to go out and start a whole new life.”
It's a shock to lose your job but it's also an opportunity to reinvigorate your career. I lost my job when I was 56 years old and eventually found something more interesting. Don't give up hope just keep and open mind.