Connecticut’s largest state employee union urged Gov. Ned Lamont late Friday to abandon talks of investing pension assets in the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and focus on negotiating overdue wage agreements for public-sector workers.

“These members have put their hard-earned money into the pension fund, expecting a secure retirement, not for it to be used on a sports franchise that plays 18 games a year in Connecticut,” Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in a statement posted to its Facebook page. “We urge the governor to leave the distractions behind and focus on preserving public services and respecting the state employees who provide them every day.”

Lamont earlier this month endorsed the concept of investing pension assets to help keep the team in Connecticut, either at the Mohegan Sun casino, where it currently plays its home games, or at the recently renamed PeoplesBank Arena in downtown Hartford, formerly known as the XL Center.

The Associated Press reported in early August that a group led by Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca reached a deal to buy the Sun from the Mohegan tribe for $325 million and move the team to Boston for the 2027 season.

Though the governor hasn’t said what amount Connecticut might invest to keep the team here, he did say he believes it could be a sound investment.

But Council 4, which represents more than one-quarter of state government’s unionized workforce — more than 12,000 workers across all agencies and departments — disagrees.

State employees “deserve the certainty of a dignified retirement, not the uncertainty of high-stakes investments in political pet projects,” the Facebook post continued. “Their pension contributions are the foundation of a secure retirement that workers have already earned. To use that money on a sports franchise is to gamble with the futures of those who have already sacrificed so much.”

State employee unions granted wage and benefit concessions twice in the decade of the 2010s to help close major budget deficits.