Action Needed: Support Staff Pay Increases Challenged by OFM
Thousands of WFSE members in support staff positions organized statewide and launched the #SupportStaffSupportUsAll campaign and won increases through crosswalked reallocations during 2025-27 contract negotiations.
This was a long-overdue acknowledgement of the difficult administrative work that makes all our state agencies and colleges run.
Now the Office of Financial Management is trying to backtrack on a hard-fought victory.
- Click here to send an email to the Governor’s Office demanding the state honor what we negotiated for the hardworking support staff of Washington state!
- Call the Gov: Once you’ve sent a letter, increase your impact call the Gov’s office at 360-902-4111.
Are you a member of the secretary series? Scroll down for instructions in filing an appeal.
If you're a member of the Secretary series who received notice of an incorrect reallocation, you are strongly encouraged to appeal that decision following the reallocation process in your contract. It will be in the Classification section. Scroll down for details.
- Scroll down to see the actions WFSE is taking to enforce what was negotiated.
What is Happening Now?
During negotiations, the Office of Financial Management proposed to eliminate the whole Secretary series. They proposed to reallocate...
- All Secretaries to Administrative Assistant (AA) 1
- All Secretary Seniors to AA 2
- All Secretary Leads to AA3, and
- All Secretary Supervisors to AA4.
- In addition, increases to the AA series were agreed to.
Now they are walking that commitment back, telling agencies, colleges, and universities who use the state classification system to make their own reallocation determinations.
Members are already receiving notice that they are being reallocated to lower job classifications than what was committed to in bargaining.
Statewide Grievances in the Works, Unfair Labor Practice Considered
Our union is preparing to file statewide grievances on behalf of all impacted members, under all impacted contracts. This includes:
- General Government & Department of Corrections
- Community College Coalition
- Central Washington University
- Eastern Washington University
- The Evergreen State College (Classified)
- Washington State University
- Western Washington University
In addition, our union is actively investigating the filing of unfair labor practice charges. While we are pursuing enforcement action, this fight cannot be won without you – the real power of our union, the hard-working members of WFSE!
How to File an Appeal
How to file an appeal, what to include, where to go, and what makes it impactful
If you are a member of the secretary series and you were incorrectly reallocated, follow the steps below with the assistance of the Member Connection Center ([email protected] / 833-MCC-WFSE).
Appeals are based on individual circumstances and require active participation from members. The MCC has a dedicated team available to assist members with your appeals, but ultimately appeals are a member-driven process.
Any requests for reallocation should be directed to the MCC at [email protected].
- First find the Classification language in your contract. In the General Government, it's in Article 41. Find your contract here.
- As a best practice for all appeals, gather your most recent Position Descriptions and likely request a desk audit.
- Thoroughly review your files, saving all relevant documents and ensuring everything is date-stamped through the appeal process.
- Adhere to deadlines because you do not want to miss an appeal opportunity; timelines are important!
Got questions? Contact your Member Connection Center (MCC) at [email protected] if you need further guidance.