A construction union protested today outside WTIC radio in Farmington beginning at 2 p.m., an hour before former Gov. John G. Rowland goes on the air. The Laborers say they also will organize a boycott and petition the FCC over the show’s “trash talk and biased information.”

A staple of Rowland’s drive-time radio show is criticism of the Hartford-New Britain Busway as a boondoogle, even though planning for the project began during his administration as an alternative to a more expensive widening of I-84. It was Gov. Dannel P. Malloy who gave final approval.

“John Rowland has a case of convenient amnesia when it comes to supporting the CTfastrak (Busway) project,” Charles LeConche, the business manager of the Connecticut Laborer’s District Council, said in an email to reporters.

To construction unions, the busway is jobs.

LeConche’s other complaint is Rowland’s animosity toward public-sector unions, which reaches back to his time as governor. The union leader says WTIC should air opposing points of view. It would have been easy to rectify that today by inviting LeConche inside to chat on the air.

A video of the decidedly quiet protest.

Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

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