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​Victory: Senate Retracts Healthcare Hikes, Attacks on Bargaining Rights

Patrick Sugrue
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Our thousands of phone calls, letters, emails, our rallies across the state yesterday, and our march on the Capitol worked.

The Senate introduced a new healthcare bill, Senate Bill 5807, which includes:

  • No increases to public workers healthcare premiums
  • No suspension of our right to negotiate over healthcare costs

Text STAND to 237-263 to tell your elected officials to get rid of their furlough plan as well!

This is a huge victory.

The employer/employee split of healthcare costs would never have come back down to 85/15 if they had raised the employee responsibility to 20% as they originally proposed.

And if we had allowed the legislature to suspend our right to negotiate what our members pay for healthcare, it would have seta terrible precedent and undermined a right that our members a generation ago fought for and won.  

Senator June Robinson, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, deserves our thanks for listening to us and proposing an alternative.

Senate Bill 5807 does, however, include the cancelation of PEBB's SmartHealth voluntary wellness plan, and we'll need to keep pushing to get rid of furloughs before April 27.

Not a WFSE member? Join our movement here.

Return to #WashingtonForAll landing page here.

Watch the playlist from yesterday's march on the Capitol
Watch on Instagram here

Our Progress Fighting Furloughs

Ryan, a WFSE Local 443 member, and Britta, a WFSE Local 872 member phone banking fellow WFSE members in our priority legislative districts yesterday after a long day of chants at the Olympia rally.

Ryan, a WFSE Local 443 member, and Britta, a WFSE Local 872 member phone banking fellow WFSE members in our priority legislative districts yesterday after a long day of chants at the Olympia rally.

Next, onto furloughs, the other main takeaway that has been proposed to public workers' pay and benefits.

  • Through our activism, the Washington State House of Representatives crafted a budget that DOES NOT include any furloughs on our members.
  • The Senate proposal still includes one furlough day a for two years, which would equate to a 4.98% reduction in pay. That would all but cancel out our general wage increase in our upcoming 2025-2027 contracts.

Our lobbyists have heard from an increasing number of elected officials who have pledged to not vote for any budget that includes furloughs.

Lisa Parshley speaking at the WFSE rally

"I will not vote for a budget that does not honor the contracts, or a budget that has furloughs in it. Absolutely not." - Representative Lisa Parshley, 22nd Legislative District

The entire 22nd Legislative District delegation in on board with NO FURLOUGHS for public workers. Are your elected officials?

Ask Your Elected Officials to Commit to No Furloughs

Members at the capitol holding No Furloughs signs

Call your elected officials and tell them to join the 22nd Legislative District in committing to NOT balance the budget on the backs of public workers through furloughs.

The House and Senate are negotiating between now and April 27th to finalize the budget. They need to hear from as many of us as possible.

Check to see if you live in one of our priority districts, in which case a call to your elected officials direct office lines is best. If not, use the instructions below.

Phone Call Script and Numbers

An easy way to call your elected officials is by using our patch through 888-258-4588 to be connected to the Legislative Hotline.

Call 888-258-4588 and ask to leave the message below for your two representatives, your senator, and Governor Ferguson:

"I'm a member of the Washington Federation of State Employees who works at ________. I want a final state budget with:

  • No furloughs or pay cuts for public workers
  • No increases to my healthcare costs
  • Taxes on the super rich instead of layoffs, budget cuts, and facility closures."

For more information, text STAND to 237-263 or visit our landing page here.