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11/15/2017 07:30 AMWhether she’s helping workers get fair wages or spreading the word about how state issues affect East Haven residents, Kim Glassman is committed to seeking equality and fairness for all.
Kim is the director for a non-profit organization called Foundation for Fair Contracting of Connecticut, a group that assists public agencies, contractors, and construction workers with a focus on appropriate payment of prevailing wage rates, proper classification of workers, licensing, and correctly-administered state apprenticeship standards.
“It’s very rewarding working with folks who just take a lot of pride in their work,” she says.
At the core of Kim’s work are fair wages and ensuring all workers are paid equally regardless of sex, race, or union membership. For government-funded construction projects, Kim’s job is to confirm all workers are paid and classified correctly.
Kim finds working with state and local governments a satisfying experience.
“Everybody that I work with strives to be transparent and accountable, and to make sure that workers get to work with dignity,” she says.
Kim says there’s not a lot of glory working with wage compliance and government contracts, but there are some “bad players” in the industry that need to be held accountable. Fortunately, there are also many good contractors in Connecticut that hire local workforces and pay them well, she says.
Kim is pleased to be back home in East Haven after a professional opportunity took her to Washington, D.C. to help establish a fair contracting organization in the Washington D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virgina area. While it was good career experience, she says she missed her family and friends, including her husband, State Representative James Albis (D-99).
“It was a real education; I learned so much,” Kim says of her time in D.C. “It was so rewarding, I think that I came back to Connecticut with a lot more tools in my chest to be able to employ to help our industry here at home.”
In Washington, Kim met with labor liaisons to federal agencies including the U.S. Army, NASA, and the Department of Energy. She learned more about federal wage laws and enforcement, noting that they’re different from those at a state level.
“I’m really proud of the work I did there,” Kim says, “In a short period of time, we established what I believe to be an incredibly valuable organization that adds value to not just workers’ lives, but to the functionality of our government, and I’m proud to say that organization is very strong and is very successful.”
In her current hometown, Kim has helped start a group called East Haven Progressives. She says it ties into her support of the Working Families Party, a political third party that advocates for issues including raising the minimum wage and ensuring workers can retire with dignity. The party sometimes cross-endorses candidates put forward by the Republican or Democratic parties.
“Personally, I feel invested in the Working Families Party because there is an economic agenda that their organization promotes that really speaks to me,” Kim says, adding that she thinks it speaks to other people in Connecticut and across the country as well who are frustrated with stagnant wages and a growing wealth gap between the rich and poor.
Kim and other members have canvased East Haven, knocking on doors and asking people to sign petitions to lawmakers advocating to close the income gap between the wealthy and poor. She says that locally there’s a great deal of passionate and support for the issue.
On how that ties back to the East Haven Progressives, Kim says, “This little group…will be a continual opportunity to engage with our neighbors,” and to keep the conversation going about values that matter most to them and how to seek action through local community activities or political means.
The group was joined by Action Together CT (New Haven area chapter) at its most recent meeting on Nov. 14. Action Together is a coalition of allied chapters across the state whose mission is to educate and mobilize Connecticut residents to support causes aligned with American ideals of equity, opportunity, and justice for all.
Kim says that East Haven Progressives welcomes groups and speakers at meetings with a focus on issues affecting the town and its residents, such as health care reform and property tax reform at a state level.