Letter Action: State Services Save Lives
We've called our legislators, held rallies in the Capitol Building and across the state, provided testimony on legislation, written our message across our neighborhoods, and sung our message through the streets of Olympia. We've made progress fighting increases to our healthcare and efforts to strip us of our bargaining rights. Despite fierce resistance from the millionaires who relentlessly seek to add to their superyacht collections, we've even made inroads on more progressive taxation - and that's in Washington State, which has one of the most unfair tax systems in the country.
WE are the ones who run this state. WE protect the children, pave the roads, and preserve the parks. WE keep the drinking water safe, support those with developmental disabilities, and give people second chances in society. WE are Washington: state workers build and run this beautiful place we call home.
And still - our elected officials choose to push furloughs, they choose cuts that will harm and kill our most vulnerable. They choose to give up on any hope that we'll make it through our workload crisis and our hiring freezes. And we will not stand for it!
Join us in contacting the people who are deciding whether to bring us down the same road we've taken again and again, that protects the privileged few over the vulnerable, the working class, and the many of us who don't have a choice of homes to sleep in each night. Complete one or both of the letters below, and edit as you see fit (please do not make threats or be outright disrespectful), and email it to the following people, plus your representatives. Don't use work time, your work email, or any work resources to do this. You can send this every day, or as often as you feel comfortable doing so, if you're able! And please share with your friends and coworkers! Once you send these, click Take Action above to find more ways to fight furloughs and cuts.
Governor Bob Ferguson
Senator June Robinson
Representative Timm Ormsby
Representative Greg Nance
Senator Drew Hansen
Senator Marcus Riccelli
Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self
Senator Claire Wilson
Senator Bob Hasegawa
Representative Nicole Macri
Senator Jamie Pedersen
Representative Steve Bergquist
Find your own legislators to contact here.
For everyone else, copy and paste the following email list. If you have trouble, try swapping the semicolons for commas:
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Keep Kids Safe
Hello [Senator/Representative NAME],
I am writing to you because I have seen in the recent budgets for both the House and Senate that lawmakers plan to cut critical positions across the state but specifically the Department of Children Youth and Families. I am absolutely outraged as cuts to frontline positions will absolutely result in the harm and even death of Washington’s most vulnerable children.
I have heard you say that you want to maintain the services for those who need it most, but I cannot understand how that is possible when our lowest paid state employees are over 30% behind the private sector, and your legislation would push us even further behind. As a child welfare worker we have seen our workload increased by the legislature year after year, without any of the increases in staffing we need to create safe caseloads. This ongoing demand to do more and more work with fewer and fewer resources has resulted in a revolving door of caseworkers. Except that now, many positions are on a hiring freeze so there is often no one new coming in when our coworkers leave.
Four years ago lawmakers recklessly passed the Keep Families Together Act (HB 1227) without a single additional frontline worker to meet the new workload demands. Since its passage year after year we have been promised more staff and more resources to keep up with the crushing workload increases and instead what we have received is a wave of more unfunded mandates. And now both House Democrats and Senate Democrats propose cutting what frontline staff we do have in the face of a 220% increase in child fatalities and near fatalities.
Workload and HB 1227 have consistently been cited as a primary factor in child fatality and near fatality reviews and yet neither have been addressed. Now you are asking us to not just do more with fewer staff, but to do more with fewer staff, lower pay, and with fewer days of work.
Neither budget proposes changes to the ever-ballooning web of upper management in child welfare; instead, only frontline case-carrying staff face the slashing of critical positions.
As a lawmaker knowingly planning to reduce frontline staff, do you have a plan to increase state employee retention to maintain critical services while also cutting frontline case-carrying staff, our pay, and the hours we have to do our work? Workers in child welfare are already subject to widespread wage theft because, in desperation to keep kids safe despite the lack of resources, they work off the clock.
Do you plan to reduce the work required by child welfare workers to match the chronic short staff? Since 2007, we've been short over 1,000 workers, a gap that continues to grow due to legislated workload increases, which has consistently been cited as a reason we cannot keep kids safe.
If our staffing levels continue to be unsafe, do you in the legislature plan to take responsibility for critical incidents such as child deaths, instead of continuing to allow state employees to be blamed?
Or are you willing to have the wealthy pay what they truly owe to save the vital frontline services child welfare workers provide to the most vulnerable children and families in Washington state?
Protect Public Services
Hello,
I am writing to express deep concern regarding the budget proposals to reduce state worker pay, implement furlough days, close essential facilities, and cut critical positions. These proposals will severely impact critical services, especially for vulnerable populations served by case workers across the state and institutions like those in DDA, JR, child welfare, and Western State, already facing staffing crises.
While you've stated a commitment to maintaining services, the proposed budget contradicts this. State employees, especially lower-paid ones, are already 30% behind the private sector. As a [insert job/community member here], I’ve seen the damage underfunding causes.
Just a few examples:
· Naselle Youth Camp Closure: The closure of Naselle Youth Camp did not eliminate the need for such facilities. Instead, it has led to increased assaults on staff and residents at the remaining institutions and has even limited visitation and the ability to provide youth an education. This has increased costs and decreased safety.
· Mental Health Institution Underfunding: Chronic underfunding of state mental health institutions, the closure decades ago of a third facility, and the failure now to establish additional capacity, has resulted in costly lawsuits, increased assaults on staff, and a revolving door between homelessness and emergency rooms for vulnerable adults.
· Youth Mental Health Service Deficiencies: Inadequate funding for youth mental health services, including residential settings, has forced children with severe delays and behaviors to endure prolonged stays in emergency rooms, often without basic amenities.
· Caseload Overload: Exploding caseloads across agencies like DDA, APS, and child welfare, without corresponding increases in resources or caseworkers, compromises the safety and effectiveness of these critical services.
As a state we also face the impending retirement of experienced state employees and low pay that these bills would lower even further, is a serious threat to the critical services state employees provide. I urge you to consider the essential role state employees play in maintaining the fabric of our society. Who will:
· Ensure our roads are safe?
· Process critical referrals for the most vulnerable children and families?
· Maintain the state's IT infrastructure?
· Make sure our drinking water is safe?
And more!
Proposals to close Rainier School, Yakima Valley School, and DOC reentry centers will only exacerbate the existing crisis, driving more vulnerable individuals into homelessness, emergency rooms, and jails.
We must prioritize safe staffing levels to ensure that all Washingtonians have access to the essential services they need. This cannot be achieved when state employees face lowered pay, fewer staff, and reduced benefits.
[AGENCY SPECIFIC PARAGRAPH] As a [INSERT JOB HERE] I provide [explain very briefly what you do ex. I respond to stranded motorists; I inspect our crops; I support those exiting incarceration]. Without me [what would fall apart? Our drinking water wouldn’t be safe; traffic accidents would increase; people wouldn’t get a second chance]. Include an ask: Will you take responsibility when criminals abscond from supervision instead of letting selfless state workers take the fall?
We cannot continue to do even more with even less. As we learned in 2007 austerity budgets do not work, it is impossible to force more work for less pay and fewer resources, and will hurt all Washingtonians except the wealthy. Save critical services and support legislation that has the wealthy pay what they truly owe.