3/21/18
This is the weekly Federation Hotline updated March 21.
Governor to sign DOC Peer Support Bill Thursday
Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday (March 22) will sign into law our priority DOC Peer Support Bill.
HB 2611 gives Community Corrections officers and specialists the same post-incident privileged communications protections as other law enforcement officers when talking to peer support counselors.
HB 2611 is among dozens of other bills to be signed by the governor starting at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Governor’s Conference Room at the state Capitol in Olympia.
Also signed into law recently:
From The Stand: Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday (March 19) signed five bills — dubbed the Access to Democracy package — to improve voter access and strengthen democracy in Washington state. http://www.thestand.org/?p=65224
Take our work-life balance survey
Take our survey: Telework, Alternative Schedules, and Flexible Work Hours. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s 21 questions to help your work-life balance.
Take this WFSE/AFSCME's survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/worklifebalance-AFSCMEC28
Why?
We need your help to identify where innovative scheduling and work options should be created and where they are happening to benefit our members. We all want the best working conditions, family work balance, and efficient workplaces. It creates better service to our communities. This is one way to increase retention of our members doing critical services and recruit qualified staff.
REMINDER: There’s still time to RSVP for AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Training in April
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. training April 7 (Spokane) and April 14 (Seatac)
If you’re a WFSE/AFSCME local president, secretary-treasurer, treasurer or trustee, there’s still time to sign up for AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Training: 4/7/18 in Spokane; and 4/14/18 in Seatac.
To RSVP, contact Emily Roberts, (360) 709-1961 or [email protected]. Or RSVP online at https://wfse.org/calendar
Profile in Action: Local 304's Tommy Fuglestad
SNEAK PEAK: From the upcoming WFSE/AFSCME March 2018 Washington State Employee newspaper:
“First deaf member of Executive Board wears armor of empathy to fight for others”
Go to: https://wfse.org/news/profile-action-local-304s-tommy-fuglestad
Clueless in Seattle, Pullman...
The latest report on the highest-paid state workers is out. http://fiscal.wa.gov/salaries
No surprise. None of us made that list. But guess who did?
“The highest-paid state employees, year in and year out, work for state universities, and the biggest paychecks go to football and basketball coaches.” — seattlepi.com 3/20/18
Yet the UW has let go of dozens of custodians in the past nine years, while the university has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in new building construction. “All of this upward expansion has to fall on someone’s shoulders, and in this case, it is the increasingly overworked custodians whose job it is to keep campus clean and safe for everyone,” according to the UW Daily 2/26/18.
And the UW wants to close its great UW Laundry and displace 120 workers who make a lot less than the football coaches at the top of the list.
Across the state, WSU wants to raise parking rates 2.8% — funding the salaries of Mike Leach and top administrators on the backs of workers and students.
For more, go to “What’s wrong with this picture”: https://wfse.org/news/whats-wrong-picture
State Investment Board explains investments involving gun manufacturers
In case the question comes up from colleagues and retirees:
From the Washington State Investment Board:
WSIB Investments Involving Gun Manufacturers
“As part of the WSIB’s $128 billion investment portfolio, some of the funds are public equity index funds that are constructed by including a small, proportionately weighted share of essentially every publicly traded company in the U.S. stock market. The WSIB’s U.S. public equity index funds currently result in approximately $5.3 million of investments (as of December 31, 2017) in U.S. companies whose businesses include some form of gun or ammunition manufacturing. This represents investment exposure of .004 percent (about 4 cents of a $1,000 investment). These investments do not represent any actively selected investment in these companies; they are a byproduct of passive index funds.” http://www.sib.wa.gov/wsib_exposure.pdf
And the Seattle Times: http://www.theolympian.com/…/the-stat…/article205562994.html
Mark Janus, yeah that Janus, disagrees with those pushing his case at the US Supreme Court
In a switcheroo we hope the justices on the United States Supreme Court catch, the plaintiff in the Janus case says union collective bargaining is “beneficial.” Yet the court case with his name on it could wipe that out.
As The Stand noted today, “Even Mark Janus, the Illinois social worker who is the plaintiff in a case intended to defund public employee unions, doesn’t agree with his corporate backers’ shaky legal arguments. Veering off-script recently, he said ‘collective bargaining is beneficial to people and workers’ and admitted he signed on to the suit because he didn't want any of his dues money to support Hillary Clinton. But as an agency fee payer, it never did.”
The New York Daily News goes into more detail. See the story at: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/janus-faced-war-unions-article-1.3886640
More of the truth finally comes out on the Janus case
"In These Times" traced and documented the dark troika used by billionaires in their plot to kill unions -- using the Janus case and other tactics. http://inthesetimes.com/features/janus_supreme_court_unions_investigation.html
“Behind closed doors, a different face is revealed. Those same people cheer 'defunding' and 'bankrupting' unions to deal a 'mortal blow' to progressive politics in America.
“A key director of this charade is the State Policy Network (SPN), whose game plan is revealed in a union-busting toolkit uncovered by the Center for Media and Democracy. The first rule of the national network of right-wing think tanks that are pushing to dismantle unions? 'Rule #1: Be pro-worker, not anti-union. … Don’t rant against unions. … Using phrases like ‘union fat cats’ and ‘corrupt union bosses’ and other negative language reduces support for reform.'
“And yet, SPN groups have systematically spearheaded attacks on unions and workers in statehouses and courtrooms nationwide. The Janus case, and its precursor, Friedrichs v. the California Teachers Association, represent SPN’s most audacious move yet, an effort to kneecap the unions of public-sector workers—including teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, park rangers, prison guards, police and firefighters—in a single blow.”
That’s it for now.
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3/15/18
This is the Federation Hotline updated March 15.
Union Membership Equals major settlements for members in four agencies
Members in four agencies – Enterprise Services, Employment Security, Ecology and DSHS (Western State Hospital) -- have won settlements validating their work totaling nearly $60,000. All four came on unfair labor practice (ULP) complaints filed by the Federation.
It couldn’t have happened without members in those agencies standing up and sticking together to right the wrongs, along with Federation subject matter specialists and union attorney Ed Younglove, according to the coordinator of all four settlement processes, Herb Harris, the Federation’s coordinator of PERC activities.
Harris reports:
• Department of Enterprise Services
DES motor pool members contested the contracting out of electrical car chargers at the motor pool. The motor pool is on leased land and the agency tried to use the lease as an excuse for the contracting out.
Settlement of our ULP claim came Feb. 28. DES will pay $10,000 to be distributed to the DES members who would have done the work and for the agency to meet its legal bargaining obligation in the future.
• Employment Security Department
The union filed a ULP complaint contesting the agency’s reallocation of four positions from classified service to Washington Management Service – implemented before bargaining could occur.
The Feb. 22 settlement requires ESD to pay $10,000 to be distributed to the members, $1,920 in back dues and to return one position back to the bargaining unit. Also, the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) will enter an order finding that the Employment Security Department has committed an unfair labor practice.
• Ecology
The Federation’s ULP complaint contesting the Department of Ecology’s contracting out of cubical move work was settled last month with the agency agreeing to pay $8,000 to Ecology members whose work was contracted out. Ecology also admits the agency failed to live up to its bargaining obligation.
• DSHS (Western State Hospital)
The Federation filed a ULP complaint against contracting out of construction and maintenance work at Western State Hospital. Under the March 5 settlement agreement, DSHS will pay $30,000 to bargaining unit members who should have done the work that was contracted out. Eligible employees will see those payments on their July 25, 2018 paychecks. DSHS also agreed to hold monthly Western State Hospital Consolidated Maintenance Operations meetings for discussions on keeping construction and maintenance work in house and instead of being contracted out.
Post-session update: “We do better by sticking together”
Dates haven’t been set yet for signing of the many priority pieces of legislation we won in the 2018 legislative session that ended a week ago. One of those, the long-stalled biennial capital construction budget, was passed and signed into law in January.
While we wait, we can recognize what we’ve won.
We need to celebrate our victories to validate the good we can do together now and in the future. To do that, we’ve set up a special webpage where you can download fliers on four of those legislative victories: PSERS expansion; stopping contracting out of Child Welfare Services; DOC peer support; and shared leave expansion. Go to: https://wfse.org/news/legislative-victories
And while you’re on our website, download the “We do better by sticking together” flier that’s gone viral on national social media: https://wfse.org/news/union-membership-equals
To recap, the top “8 for 2018” in the legislative session were:
• PSERS. SHB 1558 expands the Public Safety Employees Retirement System (PSERS) to include direct-care workers in DSHS and Veterans institutions. It allows those eligible (and for whom it makes sense) to retire at age 60. It recognizes the unacceptable rates of assault and injury these institutions workers face.
• Child Welfare. SB 6407 among other things repeals the pilot project contracting out of Child Welfare Services in demonstration sites that was to begin in December 2019. SB 6407 was requested by the Department of Social and Health Services.
• DOC Peer Support. HB 2611 gives Community Corrections officers and specialists the same post-incident privileged communications protections as other law enforcement officers when talking to peer support counselors.
• Shared Leave. ESHB 1434 expands the shared leave program to include pregnancy-related disability or illness, or for parental leave to bond with a new child. This is an idea that came from the bargaining table in 2016.
• Part-timers. HB 2669 leaves no doubt and adds part-time employees to civil service.
• Interpreters. 2SSB 6245 expands the state’s successful interpreter procurement system for medical Interpreters to other high-demand agencies like Labor and Industries.
• Supplemental Budget. ESSB 6032, the final supplemental budget, helps vulnerable people, students, public safety and the natural resources that make this state great. It funds the expansion of PSERS. Its funding rate for our health plan expands three benefits, including a new virtual diabetes prevention program; and a change in the waiting period for dental crown replacements in the UDP from 7 to 5 years. The supplemental budget is the smaller, off-year spending plan that tweaks the major biennial budget adopted last year. More at: wfse.org/news/senate-house-pass-budget
• Biennial Capital Budget. SSB 6090, the Capital Construction Budget held hostage by the previous Senate majority for 287 days starting 11 months ago finally passed Jan. 18; the governor signed it the next day. It freed up billions of dollars for infrastructure and ended layoffs of state employees whose positions are funded by that budget. This would not have happened without the efforts of WFSE/AFSCME members since last April with job actions, visits to legislators, Lobby Days, emails, phone calls and petitions. We saved the day for taxpayers – once again.
REMINDER: There’s still time to RSVP for AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Training in April
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. training April 7 (Spokane) and April 14 (Seatac)
If you’re a WFSE/AFSCME local president, secretary-treasurer, treasurer or trustee, there’s still time to sign up for AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Training: 4/7/18 in Spokane; and 4/14/18 in Seatac.
To RSVP, contact Emily Roberts, (360) 709-1961 or [email protected]. Or RSVP online at https://wfse.org/calendar
WSDOT Worker Memorial Event set for April 4
The state Department of Transportation’s 2018 Worker Memorial Event will be 10 a.m., Wednesday, April 4, in Olympia.
It will take place at Office Building 2 (the DSHS building next to WSDOT Headquarters), 1115 Washington St. S.E., Olympia, WA 98501.
This is the agency’s annual event honoring fallen and injured DOT workers and reminds everyone about the importance of work zone safety as the busy spring and summer construction season begins.
If you wish to attend, RSVP to Susan Neff at (360) 705-7715 or [email protected].
Bargaining update: Community College Coalition Bargaining Team posts priorities
The Federation’s Community College Coalition Bargaining Team that begins negotiations May 9 has posted priorities based on members’ bargaining proposals online at: https://ccc.wfse.org/news/bargaining-priorities
The Coalition represents more than 3,200 employees at 12 Community College campuses across Washington: Bellevue, Centralia, Community Colleges of Spokane, Everett, Green River, Lower Columbia, Peninsula, Seattle, Shoreline, South Puget Sound, Tacoma, and Whatcom.
A summary of those priorities:
The team is prepared to begin negotiating our 2019-2021 contract. Nominations and elections for CCC bargaining team members concluded last fall, and since then our representative bargaining team has been hard at work:
• Soliciting contract proposals and survey responses
• Crafting contract proposals from your submissions
On May 9 our team will meet with management to begin the work of reaching a contract that reflects our shared values.
During negotiations we will focus on attaining a contract that enables our Colleges to:
• RECRUIT & RETAIN high quality staff by establishing competitive salaries
• ENSURE SAFE, STABLE working conditions
• CREATE ENFORCEABLE POLICIES related to evaluation, professional development, and workload
• PROVIDE A PATH TO PERMANENCE for our part-time brothers and sisters; and
• CREATE A RESPECTFUL & INCLUSIVE workplace for all
More online at: https://ccc.wfse.org/news/bargaining-priorities
Members-only benefits update: Trustmark open enrollment extended!
WFSE/AFSCME members can still enroll this year for our new Trustmark Universal Life Insurance with Long-Term Care members-only benefit.
Universal Life is permanent life insurance that helps shield your family from financial hardship if you or your spouse is suddenly out of the picture. It includes a benefit to help pay for qualified long-term care services, should you ever need them.
Contact Barbara Dickson at (425) 827-8397, option 1. NW Benefit Advisors can answer your questions and enroll you in this benefit.
Information online: wfse.org/trustmark-universal-life-insurance
Shared leave requests:
IN NEED OF SHARED LEAVE: Jose “Tony” Loya, a social services specialist 3 with DSHS in Seattle and a member of Local 843, is requesting shared leave while he is in reasonable accommodation process for reassignment to a new position as a result of a medical condition. To help with a donation of eligible unused annual leave or sick leave or all or part of your personal holiday, please contact your human resource office.
IN NEED OF SHARED LEAVE: Daniel Ramey, a fiscal analyst 2 with DSHS in Olympia, has been approved for shared leave. To help with a donation of eligible unused annual leave or sick leave or all or part of your personal holiday, please contact Ksea Cantonwine at (360) 902-7687, or your human resource office.
That’s it for now.
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