Latest news with #WashingtonPublicEmployeesAssociation
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Union urges Ferguson not to sign budget without their pay raises
Members of the Washington Public Employees Association march at the 2025 public service recognition event at the state Capitol on May 7, 2025. (Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard) Thousands of state government and community college employees in Washington want Gov. Bob Ferguson to ensure they receive a pay raise in July like the rest of the state workforce. They are asking the first-term Democrat not to sign a new state budget unless it pays for their contract, which lawmakers said was ratified too late to be put in the spending plan awaiting Ferguson's signature. This request from the nearly 5,300-member Washington Public Employees Association is a long shot and could require the governor calling lawmakers back to Olympia for a special session. In the meantime, the much larger Washington Federation of State Employees is pressing Ferguson to sign the budget, which would pay for raises for its members and does not include furlough plans that the union fought against. The Washington Public Employees Association delivered a letter to Ferguson this week, asserting that inaction by negotiators in his budget office prevented contract talks from being completed faster so the collective bargaining agreement could get funded. 'I recognize that the position you find yourself in is not an easy one,' union president Amanda Hacker writes in the letter. 'Please recognize that signing a budget that harms over 5,000 of your employees for asserting their legal right to participate in their union is not the correct way out of this situation.' Hacker sought to drop the letter off at the governor's office on Wednesday but was told no one was there to accept it. A Ferguson spokeswoman emailed the Standard late Wednesday, indicating the letter had been received. 'Governor Ferguson looks forward to reviewing it,' communications director Brionna Aho wrote. Also Wednesday, about 100 association members rallied at a public service recognition event held across the street from the state Capitol. Throngs of state workers attended the annual celebration that featured food, music and dozens of information booths representing agencies, community organizations, and service providers. Ferguson did not attend the event, choosing instead to schedule a midday bill signing in Seattle. The Washington Federation of State Employees represents 50,000 state government, higher education and public service workers. It has more than a dozen contracts funded in the budget approved by the Legislature on April 27, the last day of session. 'We want him to sign it,' Ashley Fueston, the federation vice president, said. 'It's definitely a tough situation for all of us. We worked very hard to get our contracts funded. We hope they find a way into the budget.' Those contracts contain general pay hikes of 3% on July 1, 2025 and 2% a year later. These agreements also raise the starting wage for state workers to $18 an hour. Members of the Washington Public Employees Association are not receiving those increases. They work at 14 community colleges and nine state agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue, the Liquor and Cannabis Board and Department of Agriculture. By law, public sector unions in Washington must approve a new contract by Oct. 1 to be considered by a governor for funding in the ensuing two-year budget. But association members overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement with the pay hikes by that deadline. Union leaders told employees then that rejecting the accord would put them in 'uncharted territory.' Hacker said they sought to keep bargaining. But the Office of Financial Management, which represents the state, wouldn't, she said. The union sued to try to force a resumption of talks. Negotiations restarted in December. Hacker lays out the timeline in her letter. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in March and union members ratified it April 3. It is essentially the same contract they turned down, and has 3% and 2% increases, the same as the other contracts. 'As you know, Governor Ferguson was not in office when most of this occurred,' Aho, the communications director, emailed. 'We would defer to OFM for more details.' On March 19, the Office of Financial Management told legislative budget writers that separate tentative agreements had been reached with Washington Public Employees Association general government workers and higher education employees. OFM staff estimated those two contracts would cost $55.8 million for the 2025-27 biennium. In the same letter, OFM director K.D. Chapman-See said the agency supported a 'one-time non-precedent setting suspension' of the Oct. 1 statutory deadline 'to enable these tentative agreements to be considered for funding.' She also included potential language that could be put in the budget bill, making clear the funding would be solely for the upcoming budget cycle. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands of Washington state workers lose out on wage hikes
Members of the Washington Public Employees Association will go without a wage hike for a year. They turned down a contract last fall. They eventually ratified a new deal in March, lawmakers chose not to fund it in the budget. (Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard) Nearly 5,300 state government and community college employees in Washington won't be getting a 3% pay raise in July when most other state workers will. That's because those members of the Washington Public Employees Association did not ratify a new two-year contract until April 3, long past a statutory deadline and too tardy to be cribbed into the next state budget. 'It came very, very late in the process and it would have been quite difficult to respond to,' said Sen. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, one of the Democratic lawmakers who pieced together the final budget agreement. 'We need these groups to get their work done by the deadline.' Amanda Hacker, the association president, said not getting the cost-of-living adjustment this year means the workers will 'fall even further behind not just the private sector, but other state employees.' 'We are devastated. This amounts to punishing our members for asserting their rights in the bargaining process,' she said. 'We're looking at all our options to mitigate the immediate harm to our members.' Meanwhile, the budget does fund the first-ever collective bargaining agreements with legislative employees in the state House and Senate. They contain the pay hikes provided in agreements with other state worker unions. It wasn't a certainty, however. Two of the four affected employee units did not approve their contracts until December. Lawmakers had the entire session to write them into the final deal. By law, public sector unions in Washington must approve a new contract by Oct. 1 to be considered by a governor for funding in the ensuing two-year budget. The spending plan approved by the Legislature on Sunday funds multiple contracts containing general pay hikes of 3% on July 1, 2025 and 2% a year later. These agreements also raise the starting wage for state workers to $18 an hour. Members of the Washington Public Employees Association not receiving those increases work at 14 community colleges and in nine state agencies. Among them are the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue, the Liquor and Cannabis Board and Department of Agriculture. Their members overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement on Sept. 30 with the pay hikes. Association negotiators derided the proposal as a pay cut, saying it would not allow worker salaries to keep pace with rising costs. They initially sought a 30% hike. Union leaders told employees then that rejecting the accord would put them in 'uncharted territory.' Hacker said they hoped to keep bargaining. But the Office of Financial Management, which represents the state, wouldn't, she said. The union sued to try to force a resumption of talks. Negotiations restarted in December. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in March and union members ratified it April 3. It has 3% and 2% increases, the same as the other contracts. The estimated cost was $55.8 million for the 2025-27 biennium, of which $18.1 million would come from the state general fund. The Office of Financial Management provided the figures to lawmakers in March. Stanford said he would expect the state agency and union to request money next year to provide wage hikes to the affected employees. Hacker said there may be other avenues to secure funding for the pay increases. If not, the union will seek to begin talks immediately on a contract to submit to lawmakers in 2026. 'We're no way near done. Our members are mad. The budget isn't signed,' Hacker said. Any agreement would need to be approved by the union by Oct. 1. In the meantime, the agreements with legislative staff of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate will provide the same wage hikes offered to other state employee unions — 5% pay hikes spread over two fiscal years. Legislative assistants in the GOP caucuses unanimously approved contract language by the Oct. 1 deadline. Democratic staff did not, overwhelmingly rejecting proposed contracts with their employers, which are the chief clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate. Three months later, in late December, legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff in the House Democratic Caucus and legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus ratified their respective agreements. A 2022 law cleared the way for partisan legislative staff to unionize and negotiate terms and conditions for the workplace. Employees of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber had to be in separate units unless a majority of each caucus voted to be in the same unit. All four units negotiated collectively on economic issues, like wages and benefits, and separately on workplace-related issues.
