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.
As a fish hatchery specialist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1998, Kurt Spiegel was lucky. He had a good state job, and even better he had a great coworker—a friend to learn the ropes with as they navigated state service.
Thanks to her hard work in the AFSCME Free College program, WFSE Local 443 member Kaycee Keys was recently promoted to Fiscal Analyst 4 at the Department of Social and Health Services, earning a significant pay raise.
Keys found her way to this new position through perseverance, a desire to help others, and public service.
After finding herself in difficult times, Keys learned about DSHS employment programming when she visited an office to apply for food stamps.
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived at a time when our nation’s health care workers were already experiencing burnout. The National Academy of Medicine, in a report from 2019, said that 35% to 54% of nurses and physicians in the United States had “substantial symptoms of burnout.”
