Like many DCYF workers in Washington, Taylor Andrews-Garcelon loves her clients but has felt her job get more stressful and dangerous in the last few years.
Big decisions about our working conditions and livelihoods were made in Olympia during the 2024 legislative session. Through our union, we had a seat at the table and came away with major improvements for public employees.
Some of the nation’s largest cultural institutions accepted more than $1.6 billion in federal help to weather the coronavirus pandemic, but continued to let go of workers – even though the assistance was meant to shore up payrolls and keep workers on the job, according to a report released by AFSCME Cultural Workers United.
Update: In a significant victory, WFSE members have ratified the two below agreements. Final versions of these agreements will be added as soon as they are available.
After several years without raises, we won a historic 3% across-the-board raise, as well as increases for specific classifications (about 2/3 of our membership).
An overwhelming majority of members also voted to ratify the vaccine mandate agreement with UW.
When Fran Krugen’s late husband was first diagnosed with diabetes, his insulin cost about $35 a bottle.
But Krugen, an AFSCME retiree from Arizona, will never forget the day when she and her husband went to the drug store to pick up his insulin and the pharmacist told them it now cost $900 a bottle.
“This was medication he needed to live, and we had insurance,” she said at a press briefing earlier this month. “We looked at each other and had to ask ourselves: Do we make the house payment? Do we buy food? Or do we pay for his medication?”
