Union official to lead DOL
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy again appointed a union leader as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Labor, tapping AFT Connecticut President Sharon Palmer to lead DOL.
AFT Connecticut, a member of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Â represents 28,000 teachers, with Palmer herself having taught 20 years in addition to serving as a Waterford town representative.
Former Bridgeport and Stamford official Dennis Murphy has been acting DOL commissioner since the departure last spring of Glenn Marshall, a longtime carpenter”™s union activist from Milford with an extensive background in workers”™ safety and rights, but relatively scant experience in workforce development.
“During the education reform debate last session, one of the strongest advocates in the effort to fix what”™s broken in our public schools was Sharon Palmer,” Malloy said, in a prepared statement. “While we may not have agreed on every aspect of the proposal, we always agreed that change was not just inevitable but necessary. And the final product that I signed into law last year is a better bill because of Sharon”™s input.”
Palmer, who has served as president of AFT Connecticut since 2003, graduated from St. Joseph”™s College and has a master”™s degree from Eastern Connecticut State University.