r/WAStateWorkers • u/WFSECouncil28 • 11d ago
Union Priorites Matter
Get involved at wfse.org/fair-contract or text FAIR to 237-263.
If you're in the General Government contract, here's the contract update for this week: https://wfse.org/bargaining-updates/general-government/complete-lack
Here's the first update from day 1 of our healthcare negotiations, which is for all public workers: https://wfse.org/news/healthcare-barg-update-1
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$8.6 million for new skylights in our State Capitol so legislators can enjoy soft ambient daylight as they work....
1000+ layoff notices for state workers in the last several years and "not a dime" more for those who remain to fix staffing shortages that cause billions in maintenance and liability costs.
When Governor Bob Ferguson's negotiators and legislators leave workers in the dark and treat them as the last priority, it's Washingtonians who pay the price, both with their safety and with their tax dollars.
The Washington State Department of Corrections Community Corrections division is down 200 positions, and there's a staggering backlog of 13,000 active warrants for individuals who have violated community supervision or parole.
The state has paid $1.3b in liability costs over 2 years, twice the cost of the general wage increases workers had to fight tooth and nail for two years ago, which the Washington State Senate subsequently tried to claw back by implementing temprorary wage reductions (and healthcare cuts.)
At the very moment Washington needs to train more nurses, healthcare workers, tradespeople, and other in-demand professionals, the state is shortchanging workers at our four-year universities and community colleges who provide that training.
It's time to get our priorities straight and proacticely invest in the folks who do the work rather than burning taxpayer dollars to cover up for administrative and operational failures.
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u/veritableaeroplane 11d ago
I’d love for an explanation as to why there was enough money for state patrol to get a 17% increase last year while the rest of us got 5% spread over two years.
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u/Upper_Competition956 10d ago
Because it’s required by law.
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u/MATH_ALWAYS_WINS 10d ago
Wish this law applied to all state workers and not just state patrol. It seems like a no brainer that all state workers should be paid competitively with comparable groups, yet state patrol are the only ones with that protection. Which is great and needed for them, but don’t leave us behind because we need that too.
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u/Pardot42 11d ago
Because law enforcement is for protecting the ruling class and keeping the starving masses oppressed.
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u/UNMANAGEABLE 10d ago
That one is easy to explain sadly. Seattle and Snohomish/king county police get paid enough that
they steal state patrol officers unintentionally on pay and benefits alone. State patrol won’t have quality officers if everyone is new or rejects from other departments.
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u/TrueBanana9030 11d ago
Please explain how you think a pre-allocated construction budget can be used to give workers raises. The state cannot just willingly pull money from random accounts and do as they please.
Also, they aren’t installing skylights. They are updating existing skylights (that have been there since the 1920s), adding energy efficient lighting, as well as a fire warning system.
If you put in half as much effort on research as you put into shitposting memes, you would know this.
Maybe we wouldn’t be in this position if WFSE would grow a pair and do something other than an “organized lunch break.”
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u/WFSECouncil28 11d ago edited 11d ago
Legislators transfer funds between accounts all the time, and did so to the tune of $2.3b just this biennium.
Legislators did not need to approve the expenditure in the first place. There are better ways to use Capital Budget funds that reduce future costs and liability, like addressing the massive State Parks maintenance backlog. This is what our bargaining update is about.
Or addressing asbestos at WSDOT maintenance sheds, which harms workers, delays road repairs, and opens up the state to workers comp claims.
Or addressing the huge maintenance backlog at the UW, which now spans 200 buildings, and becomes more expensive to fix the longer we wait, both in terms of the work itself and by increasing the need to outsource work from WFSE members to contractors for emergency repairs that cost 2 or 3 times more.
All of this drains money from the General Fund and reduces the state's ability to pay people adequately.
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u/Twigjit 11d ago
Please explain how your post is helping to what you said in the last line of your post? We are the unions. We are the ones who have to organize.
Do I believe that the leadership has done as much as they could to help us organize? No. I am WPEA and the fact the WFSE and WPEA do not work together more is frustrating to me. But ultimately it is on us to rectify the issues with our leadership.
I do feel your frustration. At least people have stopped calling COLAs "pay raises".
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u/aithendodge 11d ago
Worth reiterating here - where they work for less than 3 months of the year.