Please read the message below from your bargaining team, and don’t forget to fill out the Bargaining Survey to ensure we know what your priorities are!
Your Voice Matters: Tell Us What’s Most Important to You
Bargaining Update 1
Yesterday, your General Government bargaining team met with the state in our first bargaining session for our 2025-2027 contract.
Your union contract will determine:
- Your pay
- Your working conditions
- How much time off you have to spend with family and friends
- And much more
Present were WFSE members on your bargaining team, negotiators from the Office of Financial Management and various agency representatives.
First and foremost, your team emphasized our shared goal of building a sustainable and highly skilled workforce to support Washingtonians.
We reminded them who kept our state running during the pandemic, risking sickness and working countless hours of overtime in Washington’s greatest time of need.
We pointed out that revenue is higher than projected and our state is positioned well economically.
What Was Discussed
Based on contract proposals submitted by WFSE members like you over the past two years, our discussions today included:
- Protecting our members and the clients they serve from the effects of mandatory overtime
- Ensuring that state workplaces are models of diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Protecting telework and employee work stations
- Making sure management provides our members with the training and development they need to do their jobs
- Mitigating the ever-increasing impacts of climate change
- Strengthening non-discrimination language in our contract
- Reinforcing the importance of filling vacancies in an expeditious manner
- Strengthening the leave articles in our contract and protecting our members’ time off
- Finding bold and creative solutions to workplace safety issues that result in assaults and injuries on the job
What’s Next?
We will be presenting our economic proposals in June. Your team will take part in a 2-day session in mid-June to put together our compensation package.
In our next session, on May 13, we will get the employer’s initial proposal, as well as counter-proposals to what we presented today.
We Need to Hear from You!
You helped us craft our discussion today by submitting proposals for our new contract. Now we want to hear what your priorities are. Please fill out this survey by June 30, 2024.
In Solidarity
Your GG Bargaining Team
Your bargaining team hard at work preparing for these contract negotiations! Click here for the full album.
