February 2024

From the President

I was invited to give the keynote speech at the Public School Employees’ legislative conference on February 16th. It was an honor and a treat to spend time with our union siblings in a union representing the same constituencies that we do. My intention was to acknowledge that we’re up against it right now, but that we have a lot of collective power, as long as we decide to use it. That takes a lot of work, but I’m up for it and I hope you are too! I decided to share my speech this month as it is a true reflection of where I am as the president of our union. Thank you for reading it!

Good evening – I am delighted to be with you this evening and I’m really looking forward to standing with you and hundreds of other school support workers tomorrow on the steps of justice! My name is Karen Strickland and I’m the president of AFT Washington – a union like yours that represents the public education workforce from early learning through higher education. I grew up in the union at Seattle Central Community College where I taught in the social and human services program. My experience both at the college and in my union cemented my belief that the labor movement and public education are the two most powerful pathways to economic stability and the freedom to thrive!

Tonight, I want to share my thoughts on three aspects of the current situation – that is:

Who we are and what we bring to our work – both our jobs and in our unions?
I’ll mention briefly a few of the challenges and threats we face – I want to keep that part brief, because our power doesn’t live there.
And finally, we’ll talk about where our power does live.

Although my mom was a union member, so we were technically a union household, and although I graduated from Fort Steilacoom Community College – now Pierce College Fort Steilacoom - I didn’t fully realize how central the union and the community college were to the path I’ve taken in my adulthood. My experience in AFT Seattle, Local 1789 gave me the confidence to speak truth to power and opened up leadership opportunities that led to where I am now. I had a quote on my door at the college for years – Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, said SPEAK YOUR MIND, EVEN IF YOUR VOICE SHAKES. I had the opportunity to do that as a teacher and a union leader.

The power of the labor movement also became more clear to me as my mom aged. She was a single parent with four kids and she was a WFSE member. Her union filed a lawsuit in the 1970s to address pay inequity between men and women. The settlement of that suit meant that she got a big raise for the last 12 years of her career. That raise meant higher pension and social security checks. It also meant she could afford the premium for long-term care insurance. And that meant more options for care as she developed Alzheimer’s Disease in her later years. It's a horrifying disease and my heart goes out to any of you who have a loved one suffering from it.

I share this part of my story because in the day to day grind of life, being active in your union can demand a bit more than you think you have to give. But it’s because of people like you showing up at a union conference on a holiday weekend that our labor movement holds the power we do. Your investment of your time, your energy, your ideas - translate to tangible benefits – and at this moment we don’t know what story someone will be telling about the union difference in their life in twenty years. In the words of Jose Marti - Los sueños del hoy es la realidad del mañana…the dreams of today are the reality of tomorrow.

This year, salary increase is a big lift and we don’t know where we’ll land on increases, but what I can guarantee you is that if we don’t show up you won’t see it in your paycheck. And we don’t know if we’ll convince the legislature to fund COLAs at 100% for four-year college workers...but we do know that if we’re silent there’s a good chance they won’t!

We have a local of Head Start workers, with the worksite spread out across several counties, the workforce pretty disconnected. We struggled to keep the membership engaged. Then at the bargaining table the boss said they had no money for wages because the state required them to provide healthcare insurance but they hadn’t funded it. This was a real problem and these workers were mad! The union difference is that we turned that anger into action. Where the boss threw up their hands and said, “too bad, so sad,” and the workers said, “that ain’t right!”

We got them to agree to work with us on a legislative strategy and, as if he had heavy ankle weights, we dragged their lobbyist into meetings with legislators, we made the case, we got the legislature to allocate funding to pay for the healthcare, and voila! The workers got raises! That would not have happened without the union making it so! And by union, I mean people just like you, workers who contribute to the common good in the work they do supporting our schools and colleges! I know that you have examples too – and I encourage you to celebrate them and make them known.

You know what else you bring to the table? Your job skills and knowledge, and your dedication to public education, which is foundational to our democracy. Remember back in 2020 when the notion of “essential workers” became part of our vocabulary? I sure do. I had hope that the powers that be would genuinely wake up to the invaluable contributions that ordinary working people make day in and day out. Well, my hope was dashed a little bit…we haven’t shifted priorities to the extent I – and I think you too – want to see. But we have seen some movement, we have made some progress.

Does anyone know what Senate Resolution 450 is? The U.S. Senate passed this resolution in 2023 and it reads beautifully. It echoes what our members told us would make them feel truly essential – earning a livable, competitive wage; having paid leave for snow days or other unplanned closures, having enough staff so they could be safe at work, and other conditions of their work lives. Resolution 450 is a recognition of the value you bring to our schools…and although it’s specific to preK-12, I would extend that sentiment to higher ed too.

Can we just pause for a moment and hold some space for you to appreciate yourself and each other? Appreciate yourself for the essential work that you do, for the contribution you make to students, and for the contribution you make to families and communities. You can bring this appreciation of yourselves into every one of the meetings you have tomorrow to make sure our lawmakers deepen their appreciation of you too. And I’m not saying appreciation is enough….but it’s a start.

Now one last thing about this resolution…and it’s kind of weird. When it gets to the resolves, it says, “Resolved that it is the sense of the Senate that…” and then it’s followed by 17 “shoulds.” Now maybe there’s something I don’t know about the language of Senate resolutions, but I have to say that a powerful body stating that it is their “sense” that 17 shoulds should be reality doesn’t make me feel like they’re as serious as I want them to be.

We’re going to come back to this in a few minutes, but first I want to mention some of the challenges and threats we’re up against.

Our country is in a bit of a mess right now…we’re looking at the dismantling of the DOE, the undermining of our government systems with illegal firings, losing funding at the school, college, city, county, and state levels because we believe in social justice, equity, and human rights, ….that’s just a short list of the mess.

On top of that, we’re facing an enormous revenue deficit in our state, leading to Gov. Ferguson asking state agencies and the four-year colleges to plan for cuts and making minimal investment in K12 and CTCs. This is a problem…but there are solutions…more on that in a moment.

And then we have the so-called Freedom Foundation…I know some of you have received a valentine urging you to drop your union membership – I want to say just one thing about the freedom foundation, and it’s their own words about why they exist:

“The Freedom Foundation is more than a think tank. We’re more than an action tank. We’re a battle tank that’s battering the entrenched power of left-wing government union bosses who represent a permanent lobby for bigger government, higher taxes, and radical social agendas.” (If wanting working people to have salaries that let them thrive, not merely survive; if having enough staff so students can get the support they need so workers can be safe at work; and if access to affordable healthcare is a radical social agenda, workers really like radical social agendas!)

“Through education, litigation, legislation, and community activation we have liberated public employees from political exploitation.”

All three of these examples of the challenges and threats we face share a commonality: they all boil down to a fight between the obscenely wealthy and working people! That’s it. The people with all the money want even more. They want more power, of course, and I suppose they really need that sixth luxury home or that next-size-up yacht! I mean, they do have to keep up with the Zuck, right?

Don’t you wonder, in a state with a booming economy like Washington, how can it be that the governor has asked our four-year colleges and universities to plan for a 3% cut? In our booming economy, how can it be that state agencies have been directed to show him what 6% looks like?

How can it be that hard-working dedicated people who work for the well-being of our communities, our neighbors, our friends and families earn so little that they need childcare or housing subsidies or food assistance just to get through the month?

And yet, we have a revenue deficit and are being asked to do with less…less staffing, less budgets for equipment, fewer counselors and nurses than we need…the list goes on.

What that tells me is that in this society, it is more important to protect the wealth of the obscenely wealthy than to invest in the wellbeing of working people like us, than to invest in communities where everyone can thrive. We are up against a mighty power structure, but we have allies in our legislature and we can work with them to tip the scale towards the interest of most of us and away from the few with too much money for their own good.

Back to Senate Resolution 450 – and the curious language that the Senate has a “sense that…” How do we turn that “sense that things should happen” to something we can take to the bank?

I want to explore that question with three of the tools in our tool bag:

First of all, I think we can feel confident in our power to make the change we want to see, because we are winning, left, right and sideways!

Think about it:

an improved – and still improving - minimum wage
state-provided paid family leave
we’ve got a working families tax credit
Seattle’s 60% vote to tax high incomes to fund affordable housing!

And maybe the most powerful reflection of Washingtonians’ commitment to working people, and our shared belief that extremely wealthy people should contribute their fair share to pay for it, is November’s vote on the initiative that would have repealed the capital gains tax – 47 of 49 counties voted to keep the cap gains tax! In Okanogan County, where the majority voted for Trump, the voters beat back the attempt at repeal with a 17% lead!

So your legislative agenda includes support for a more fair tax system…we have that same goal on ours. Our track record tells us we can achieve this….maybe we’ll move from the second most unfair to the 3rd, 4th…maybe even the 5th! And there’s no doubt that we must win on this in order to avoid cuts to the invaluable programs our state runs – childcare, healthcare, housing assistance, environmental protections, repairs on bridges and roads…and in education.

We may not be asked to game out 3% cuts in our preK-12 schools, but a lack of investment is, in effect, a cut. And we will feel the effect of cuts in social programs, because when our students, families, and the communities we exist in are harmed we feel it too…the school environment doesn’t exist in a silo.

The majority of Washingtonians are with us on this!

And there’s more! Another tool in our tool bag?

You. You are here. I used to teach a class on advocacy and each year we’d take a trip to Olympia. My students ranged in age from their early twenties to their 60s…and each year, very few of them had ever gone to Olympia to talk to their legislators. Most people never do. It matters tremendously that you are here so that legislators hear directly from you about the impacts of their decisions. You are the expert on your working and your living conditions!

Not only that, but your absence has an impact. They keep track of how many people speak up on each side of a question. The need is relentless, but we have to be ready to speak up.

Coalition work is another tool we have; we are more powerful when we work together. I’ve been really inspired as we’ve worked in coalition with you and other unions over the past few years, both on the legislative agenda as well as in bargaining around SEBB and school transportation policy.

Coalition work is a real show of force, because those who might like to divide and conquer us – whether within our union, our schools and colleges, or between stakeholders – learn pretty quickly that won’t work. When we gather on the steps of justice tomorrow and show our solidarity with pride and power, we send a clear message to legislators that we understand that our fates are tied to one another and that we understand that we all do better, when we all do better!

And finally, let’s talk about community.

Years ago, my national union president, Randi Weingarten, made the comment that “Community is the new density.” She was getting at the fact that union membership had been declining for a long time and that we needed to recognize and act to erase the lines between our communities and our unions. That joining together would build union power and benefit the broader community. That really resonated with me.

Then recently I offhandedly made the comment that community is our superpower and it felt right…it felt true. From my perspective, we are leaving a whole lotta power on the table if we don’t connect with and build relationships in our communities. We’re all working people. We all have a stake in having schools and colleges that thrive. We are all struggling with the price of eggs!

My favorite example of a community coalition that we’re part of is Communities for Our Colleges – an organization we work very closely with, and which started in March of 2020…not sure anyone remembers what was happening then…

I actually met with the newly hired director of C4C the day before Inslee called for a shut-down. Fernando Mejia-Ledesma is a rockstar of an organizer, because he got busy and organized this coalition of students, staff, faculty, and community organizations virtually. In 2021 we won a hugely significant bill which included a range of investments in the CTCs, include reducing the eligibility for state residency from three years to one year for immigrant students, increasing counseling services, and adding 200 new full-time tenure track faculty positions. The most that had been achieved prior to this bill was 23. For the whole state!

Key to the success of this coalition is that it operates on the principle of nothing about us without us…the people impacted by policies are at the table, they’re developing the policies, they’re advocating for the policies.

In closing, I want to acknowledge what’s ahead of us. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of the 2025 session. I’d put money on the bet that we’re in for a roller coaster ride.

We are going to need to rely on one another to keep our eyes on the prize, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us.
We are going to need to remember that we stand on the shoulders of ordinary people, just like us, who did extraordinary things.
We are going to need to commit to our righteous cause.
And let’s not forget that the labor movement was born in times of strife and a mighty foe…it was born for times like these.

Thank you for you work you do at your schools and colleges, thank you for investing in the labor movement, enjoy your evening with your union family, and be ready to rock the party in Olympia on the steps of justice!

In solidarity,

Karen Strickland, President

Local News & Highlights

Lobby Day Was Amazing!

By Richard Burton, State Affiliate Political Organizer

This year’s Lobby Day in Olympia involved over 100 member activists, from 23 different affiliated locals, and 27 different legislative districts – all participating in over 80 legislative meetings. It was a busy day!

In addition to those in-person meetings, members also participated in a rally in support of improved wages and staffing for School-Related Personnel, joining with hundreds of such workers and allies from Teamsters Local 763, SEIU Local 925, Public School Employees of Washington – SEIU Local 1948, the Washington Education Association and the Washington State Parent-Teacher Association. If you saw last year's rally, this one was even bigger, and we made our voices heard, very literally - Larry Delaney, president of WEA, led rally attendees in chants that echoed off the buildings. One of our own local leaders, Kari Madden, President of the Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals, Local 461, spoke powerfully about the need for respectful wages.

Another rally at noon drew widespread involvement from our member activists, as we joined with Communities for our Colleges and shared their call for Cost-Free College and Paid Pathways, aka SB 5115, the Washington Dream Service Incentive Grant. Another of our local activists, Joseph Colón from Tacoma Community College Federation of Teachers, Local 2196, served as a co-MC at this rally. In addition to our own members, there were higher education students and community members in attendance from Spokane, Bellingham, Yakima, Tacoma, Everett, Bellevue, and Seattle.

This was an exciting day with many rallies and allied organizations in Olympia. The meetings and conversations that members had sparked the kinds of ideas and collaborations that strengthen us as a union. But we know – at both the state and national level – there is more work we need to do. We will continue to advocate for our priorities and for progressive revenue from our state lawmakers from now until the end of April. And we must redouble our efforts to engage our communities in the struggle against attacks from the other Washington to defend the very existence of public education itself. Onward!

Eliminating The WEIA Cap

By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist

We have a very exciting opportunity to eliminate the $9 million cap on the Workforce Education Investment Act (WEIA) fund this session! Representative Reed (LD-36) sponsored HB 1839, which removes the cap in recognition of the fact that we need to fund higher education. The bill itself notes, in a new section, that Washington faces a critical workforce gap in an economy projected to grow significantly faster than the national average over the next decade. About three quarters of those jobs will require post-secondary credentials of all kinds, but the state is also projecting a shortfall of about 600,000 credentialed workers in the same timeframe.

With the need and shortfall in mind, this bill will to grow investment in workforce education by removing the cap, as well as identifying that additional resources would be best guided to expanding eligibility for the Washington college grant, increasing teacher training programs, and growing the number of in-state student seats – all moves that will help get students back in school to fill that gap.

This bill has a hearing on Tuesday, February 25th and we need to show our strong support for it! A reminder email will be sent out on Monday the 24th, when the window for comment and sign-in will be open, asking you to sign in PRO or provide written testimony as to why this bill is essential.

The bill makes the argument for us: we live in a state that benefits from a strong economy that relies on an educated, talented workforce, and the state needs to do more to make sure that’s sustainable. Watch your inboxes on Monday for a reminder!

Strengthening Our Locals Against Trump

By AFT Washington Staff

As you’ve seen in the news recently, public education is under serious threat right now. It’s time to strengthen your local to defend against the wealthy villains who want to destroy unions and rip away worker power! Plan, but don’t panic.

The so-called Freedom Foundation has contacted a number of locals with their usual invitation to leave the union. We are putting together an inoculation piece that will be available to you to send to your members next week. If you’d like to discuss local needs further, please contact Cortney Marabetta at cmarabetta@aftwa.org/206-499-4826.

AFT has identified several areas of vulnerability to attack by nefarious actors like the Freedom Foundation. Please put the following items on your next executive board or council meeting to be sure that you’re meeting legal requirements; we anticipate that these will be used as wedges by bad actors.

Are you filing your 990 tax returns each year?
Is your nonprofit tax-exempt status up to date?
Do you have the following policies signed by each elected leader in your union?
- Whistleblower policy
- Conflict of Interest
- Records Retention

If you are missing any of these, please contact your UOR and let them know; we’ll assist with fulfilling these requirements.

Convention Update: Nominations & Elections

By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist

The AFT Washington Executive Board nomination forms are now live! You must receive nominations from 10 members in good standing and specify the role you are seeking; the people nominating you can sign a paper form you can download here or a digital form linked here, whichever is more convenient. Nominations are due to the AFT Washington office by Friday, April 25th.

The duties of the board and election information are outlined in the bylaws. Article V covers the composition of the board, the duties of the officers, and the length of term. Article VI addresses the nominations and elections process in more detail.

We also have a guide to the nominations process that you can view here.

The Third Anti-Racism In Collective Bargaining Report Is Available

By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist

The Anti-Racism in Collective Bargaining Project began in 2021 at the direction of President Karen Strickland and the AFT Washington Executive Board.

The first report's scope of work was to develop guiding equity principles for crafting and promoting anti-racist language in CBAs, evaluate CBAs to identify language with a potential racist impact, and provide examples of anti-racist language. The second report of the project focused on safe workplaces, faculty feedback and course surveys, and complaints against faculty.

The third report has been released. This report focuses on developing recommendations for establishing what constitutes exceptional work and to formally recognize it in CBAs. At the same time, the project seeks to identify ways to adequately compensate “exceptional work.”

Exceptional work is the labor, visible and invisible, emotional, intellectual, and physical, done by faculty members of color in order to provide cultural representation, extraordinary leadership and initiative relating to EDI advancement. It also includes mentorship, formal and informal, of students and peers. Importantly, this labor often occurs in contexts in which the employees doing the labor are vulnerable because they are minoritized, lack seniority and/or job stability, and/or are asked to “carry the water” for ideas and initiatives that challenge orthodoxy and authority within their departments, programs, and/or institutions

You can read the third report here.

Union Tips & Reminders

Adjunct Unemployment Workshops

March 21st, 2025, 12:00 - 1:00 PM OR March 24th, 2025, 2:30 - 3:30 PM

AFT Washington has helped hundreds of adjuncts successfully apply for unemployment benefits over more than a decade.

This workshop is intended for seasoned and new applicants alike. The aim is to increase your chances of getting your unemployment claim as adjuncts resolved quickly, decreasing the potential of accidentally triggering delays that could delay payments by months.

Attending a live workshop is important, so we can answer questions live! We do not record sessions, but we can provide additional accommodations as needed.

The AFT Washington Retiree Chapter Needs You!

At the 2023 AFT Washington convention, delegates unanimously adopted Resolution 2023-04, “Organized Retirees For Action”. The AFT Washington Retiree Chapter, local 8045R, has been working on developing a strategic plan and establishing an organizing team to carry out the goals established in the resolution. This is where you come in!

The Retiree Chapter is calling on local leaders to do two things to support this resolution.

Appoint a retiree from your local to serve as a representative and advisor to the Retiree Chapter.
Work with AFT Washington and AFT National to grant authorization to move identified retired members in your local’s Connect database account to the Retiree Chapter’s Connect account.

A flyer about this is available here. An organized retiree chapter is a powerful force, but it’s too easy to lose track of our retired members. Help us grow the chapter and build our retiree power!

If you have questions about the project, please contact Richard Burton at rburton@aftwa.org or at 206-225-0621.

Human Rights Committee Seeks Members

The AFT Washington Human Rights Committee is sincerely committed to our mission statement of advocating for human rights in our workplaces and our community. We are continuing to work with our locals and allies to combat racism, foster community, and educate our members and communities on the importance of Human Rights. The AFT Washington Human Rights Committee needs your expertise, experience, and investment in upholding Human Rights to do this! We want to have a representative committee that includes all the constituencies within AFT Washington, but to do that we need your participation. You are invited to join the Human Rights Committee as an advocate for the Human Rights issues that are important to our members. To join the Human Rights Committee, contact Ray Carrillo, 206-369-4001, rcarrillo@aftwa.org.

AFT Connect: Better Data For A Stronger Union

Connect is AFT’s web-based, secure local data management system. It provides a great way to record individual member data, and so much more!

Capture detailed employment and employer information about members, prospective members, and retired members of your local.
Make sure your members can access their union-provided benefits (discounted insurance, home mortgages, travel, goods, and personal services).
Keep track of changes in member earnings to ensure proper payment of your local’s per capita obligations.
Manage your local executive board as well as COPE and other local committees.
Plan outreach to your members and prospects. Have the information you need to conduct mailings, email, phone, and text message outreach via local efforts or using AFT’s communications tools. Record member event attendance and outreach responses.
Create forms and surveys.
Track your local’s engagement with and support from Community Allies.

Readily use these features and more through AFT Connect’s dashboard, upload bulk spreadsheet updates of your membership, or let Connect help your local turn data into a powerful outreach and management tool through easy, customizable reports.

Maintaining your local’s membership and leadership information in Connect meets AFT and AFT Washington requirements for your local to remain in good standing.

To get started with AFT Connect, or to request training and other member data support, contact Briseida Sanchez at bsanchez@aftwa.org.

Communications Help Is Available

Is your local not sure how to best use your website? Did you know you can have a free website? Would you like help with figuring out strategies for better communications outreach? Got something for the whole union to hear about? We can help with all of these, and more!

On top of helping your local, we can provide outreach to the union as a whole, through the Pulse and the Union Spotlight. We are actively interested in anything your members are doing, such as workshops or innovative problem solving.

If you have questions about them, want guidance, or are interested in learning more, please contact Cortney Marabetta at cmarabetta@aftwa.org.