Healthcare Barg Update #1
Today, your WFSE Executive Committee, along with other WFSE members and representatives from more than 40 other unions in the Healthcare Coalition, met with Governor Ferguson’s representatives from OFM to begin negotiations for our 2027-29 healthcare benefits.
WFSE’s Executive Director Kurt Spiegel serves as the lead negotiator for the multi-union coalition which fights for hundreds of thousands of state and higher education employees and their family members.
As we have seen at the negotiation tables for our collective bargaining agreements, the state came unprepared to make a proposal.
We provided our proposals to improve public workers’ healthcare in about 10 minutes.
The state spent most of the day explaining the state budget crisis and how healthcare for public employees works.
Then they suggested we cancel our next scheduled meeting on Thursday because they wouldn’t have a proposal by then either.
That leaves ONE day left to negotiate a deal that will determine:
- The affordability of healthcare for public servants, which is more important now than ever given rising costs
- Whether public service remains an affordable career
- Whether Washington State can achieve its goal of being the employer of choice
Tell the Governor: Don’t Repeat the Mistakes of the Great Recession
We know what happens when the state chooses knee-jerk cuts to its workforce to “save” money. No money is saved.
It’s a recipe for liability costs, small inexpensive projects becoming massive expenses, outsourcing work to contractors for double or triple the cost, shrinking the tax base, and losing the ability to collect revenue.
Almost nothing is more important to stopping the cycle of cuts, decreasing services, and then more cuts than healthcare.
Too many of our members are balancing the commitment to serving the people of Washington with the responsibility of caring for their own family.
What are we fighting for?
The scope of what can be negotiated between our coalition and the state is very simple: it’s the dollar amount expended by the state on behalf of each employee for health care benefits, and the dollar amount that must be paid by employees.
Thanks to countless letters, phone calls, and rallies by union members, we have prevented the state from jacking up our healthcare costs year after year.
For over a decade, the employer has paid 85% and employees have paid 15%.
Just last year, we defeated an attempt by the Washington State Senate to raise our costs to 20%, as well as suspend our right to negotiate over healthcare for two years.
Sitting outside the Governor's Office to protest proposed cuts to healthcare and furloughs,
both of which were defeated.
Our members have continued to meet every challenge placed before them. We maintained essential services during a pandemic. We continued to show up despite ballooning workloads, workforce shortages, and the elimination of thousands of positions.
Our members have always contributed toward the cost of healthcare and understand the value of high-quality coverage.
The issue before us is not whether employees should contribute. It is whether rising costs will continue to shift an increased burden onto the workforce.
Stay tuned for an update after our next session and check out wfse.org/fair-contract if you’re looking for updates from your bargaining team.
In solidarity,
Your WFSE Healthcare Coalition Bargaining Team
Mike Yestramski, WFSE President
Ashley Fueston, WFSE Vice President
Tracy Stanley, WFSE Secretary
Jeanette Obelcz, WFSE Treasurer
Kurt Spiegel, WFSE Executive Director