To MY Brothers and Sisters:

First and foremost; I would like to take a moment to congratulate and welcome all of you who have recently been voted into Office for this next term as either this Union's Vice President; Treasurer; Recording Secretary; Board Member; and or Trustee. During our next term, working together, I am confident as your President that collectively we will continue to work hard in our ongoing efforts for the overall betterment of the Connecticut State Prison Employees Union.

During the past term, there had been great progress made to improve our availability; the quality of services and tools provided; our professionalism both in house and out; and last but not least our general finances. As a group we had freely given of our time and ourselves to do what is right for you our Members as individuals and as a whole. And…although sometimes you didn't always know or see what was going on around you; we worked tirelessly to affect remedies to ensure your rights were upheld and enforced based on our contract and the plethora of issues at hand. To sum it all up…we had fulfilled the obligations of the Offices we had been elected into and I for one am proud of what we were able to accomplish during that term.

However, now we have a new term to think about with a new Executive Board. We must put our efforts into building upon the fairly solid base previously established. We must not let our guard down on any issues still out there and most importantly…we must work in unity to continue in every effort we are confronted with and we must do so with the same vitality, the same synergistic strength, and with the same quiet and yet effective aggression of recent past.

Together…we will take this Union to yet another level of professionalism!

Together…we will work to improve that which we still can!

And together…we will strive to be all that you had hoped we would be as your newly elected officials.

You have my word on this as your President.

In Solidarity, Jon T. Pepe President AFSCME Local 391