June 2022
From the President
Greetings Friends,
The end of the school year has arrived ... perhaps more significantly, another COVID-school year! Whatever your summer looks like – working as usual, working part-time, travelling, or enjoying a slower pace of life – I hope that you’re able to take some time to rest, reflect and re-energize.
As for your AFT Washington team, we’ll be here to support our locals and continue moving our state-wide programs. Please note that we’re implementing a new system internally for coverage of staff vacations. Your UOR will let the local president know when they’ll be out of the office. During that time period, if an urgent need arises you can call (206-242-4777) or email aftwashington@aftwa.org and the “UOR of the day” will get back to you within 24 hours. This system will allow us to manage time demands and make sure you get the support needed.
Other priorities for this summer are our Advocacy Team’s preparation for the 2023 legislative session, which entails everything from supporting our endorsed candidates’ campaigns to drafting legislation to building relationships with community and labor allies. There is plenty of opportunity to get involved in this work, so please let us know if you want to get your members involved.
I’ll be at the AFT (Boston) and WSLC (Wenatchee) conventions in July, along with delegates from a number of our locals. I look forward to spending time in Boston with our delegates from the Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals, AFT Seattle – Faculty, Everett Higher Education, and the Tacoma Community College Federation of Teachers. The WSLC convention registration is still open, and I encourage your local to send delegates. Go to their convention page for more information.
We are hosting our annual Powerful Locals Conference virtually August 4 – 6. This cost-free conference provides an opportunity to build skills and gain knowledge designed to maximize your power in the workplace. We encourage teams from the local to attend because a team can more effectively bring back to the local all that they learned; individual members are also welcome. And, if your local has never used the Powerful Locals tool or would like a refresher, we’re running a workshop on it in July – read on for more information on both events.
Juneteenth is Sunday and it’s a day for celebration as well as remembrance. I found this article by Henry Louis Gates Jr. informative and thought-provoking - What Is Juneteenth? Establishing this holiday presents us with the opportunity to consider more deeply the history of our country and the long-lasting consequences of that history, opening pathways to a more just and equitable society. My hope is that Juneteenth will serve to reinforce our collective effort in moving the arc of the moral universe toward justice and I hope you will take some time to participate in activities occurring in many communities and learn more about this holiday.
One of the long-standing consequences of our past is economic inequity which shows up in a myriad of ways in the lives of people of color. A specific impact we’ve been working on is student loan debt, which disproportionately harms people of color. For the last couple of years, AFT has provided as a benefit access to the program called Summer which assists debt holders in navigating the difficult and often predatory loan servicing system. Members will be provided with their personalized link for easy access to this service. The federal government’s waiver program to improve access to public service loan forgiveness expires on October 31st, so it is essential that all of our members who may qualify get this information and take action. Even if you don’t qualify for PSLF, Summer can help you get your student debt more under control; it’s worth checking them out.
On a note closer to home, we’re also looking at our trainings and adding some new ones, as well as planning out the schedule for the fall. If there’s something your local would particularly like to see over the summer, such as our new Race & Labor training, let us know.
Along with developing new trainings and slotting them into our schedule for the fall, this summer our executive board will engage in strategic planning for our racial equity work. We have a number of programs and projects whose purpose is to move us to becoming an antiracist, unified and inclusive union, as called for in Resolution 2020-04 but there is always more to do than we can effectively manage. Intentional and strategic prioritizing and implementation will allow us to continue meaningful progress toward our goal. I look forward to sharing our plan with you in the fall.
Finally, I would like to attend your board meeting in fall to provide updates on our work, particularly around the 2023 legislative session plan and our ongoing racial equity work. I’ll follow up with you individually in September, but please let me know if there’s a meeting date that will work best so I can get it on my calendar.
Wishing you all the best for a gratifying summer – I hope to see you soon.
In solidarity,
Karen Strickland, President
Local News & Updates
Powerful Locals Is Coming!
By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist
Have you ever wondered how to encourage member engagement in the hybrid world? Want to hear about contract bargaining strategies that have given members wins? Powerful Locals is the place for you! It is a great opportunity to grow your local's power and network. Powerful Locals will be fully online this year.
Our two core tracks will be on Member Engagement and Bargaining Strategies. For mini sessions, we are offering New Employee Orientation, Fiscal Analysis: Knowledge Is Power, Technology For Organizing, and Information Requests: Process and Employer Accountability. We will also offer constituency-specific workshops for Classified and Contingent Faculty members.
The plenary session will focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and will feature the work of the Anti-Racism in Collective Bargaining group. The plenary is open to all attendees.
If you’re not familiar with the Powerful Locals Assessment Tool, we will be hosting a workshop on how to use it July 12th from 5-7 PM. You can register here.
Pre-register now for early notification when we open registration for Powerful Locals.
Resolution 2022-01: Calling For Legislative Action And Building Labor Support on the Issue of CTC Workforce Pay
By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist
At the June meeting, AFT Washington’s executive board passed a resolution that laid out the issue of CTC workforce pay as a roadblock to improving stability, diversity, and student outcomes. This will be a primary component of our legislative agenda next winter, and the resolution notes that. We will be bringing the resolution to the Washington State Labor Council Convention next month, to call on the broader labor community to support the efforts to improve CTC workforce pay through several methods, primarily making this issue a key part of the WSLC’s legislative priorities next year and actively supporting policies and legislation that address inadequate compensation.
You can read the resolution here.
Still Seeking Responses - Recruitment and Retention Survey for CTC Faculty and Staff
By Bob Downing, Union Organizing Representative
AFT Washington’s Community and Technical College Council has launched a Recruitment and Retention Survey for all of our members working in the CTC system. Please take five minutes and let us know what you think about the quality of your job and your college today! Your response will inform our legislative priorities for 2023 and onward. We know we need greater funding, more diversity, and more student support services to keep our schools strong and to expand access to higher education in Washington state—let us know how you are affected by filling it out today.
You can find the survey here. Please share it with your members!
Community and Technical Colleges Contract Website - A Resource For Local Bargaining Teams!
By Christine Landon, Data Manager
If you’re a chief negotiator or member of your CTC local’s bargaining team, you’ve probably wondered whether there’s better language for particular topics of upcoming or current negotiations with your employer. What have other AFT Washington and Washington Education Association CTC locals gotten into their contracts that you’d like to propose in your next round of bargaining? Where can you find out?
For the past several years, there’s been an answer to that question here in Washington state! Together, AFT Washington and the WEA have collaborated on a website that posts current and recent negotiated agreements, available as downloadable PDFs. The site is accessible by invitation only.
If you’re interested, email our Data Manager, Christine Landon, at clandon@aftwa.org with your name, local, and role on your negotiation team. Local presidents who are not negotiation team members can also request access. Since the site is most valuable when current agreements are available to others, you can and should also send Christine your new or current contract for upload and sharing!
Union Tips & Reminders
From The Stand: Juneteenth Events
Juneteenth, an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War, has been celebrated by Black Americans since the late 1800s. But this year for the first time, the holiday — which fall on Sunday, June 19 — is both a federal and Washington state holiday.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed legislation establishing the new federal holiday and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed HB 1016 sponsored by Rep. Melanie Morgan (D-Parkland) making Juneteenth a legal state paid holiday, starting this year. (The Legislature had previously designated Juneteenth as a day of remembrance.) Because it falls on a Sunday this year, Monday, June 20 will be a paid holiday for Washington state employees and many private-sector workers at a growing number of companies.
But it’s not just another holiday, it’s a day that all working people should celebrate and reflect upon.
“Juneteenth is a day of profound meaning to Black workers, as it should be to all working people who cherish and defend the freedom to live our own lives, speak with our own voices and enjoy the fruits of our labor,” said the late AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Juneteenth reminds us that we are independent of those who hire us, who seek to control us and who view us as objects with costs instead of as human beings with inherent dignity and worth.”
Read more at The Stand about the Juneteenth events that union organizations are planning.
From The LERC: Summer Institute For Union Women
Our pandemic separation has been long – it has been three years since our last gathering in British Columbia. Join us to re-emerge from isolation, and reconnect with union sisters!
Summer Institute for Union Women (SIUW) includes leaders and activists from unions, labor studies programs, apprenticeships and worker organizations from across British Columbia, the Western U.S., Hawaii, and Alaska. SIUW is for all our cis and trans union sisters, as well as our non-binary siblings who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women.
SIUW 2022 is a comprehensive three-day leadership institute consisting of skills building workshops, cultural activities, political action and education sessions designed to expand our understanding of solidarity and rebuild connections across our region.
The training runs from Thursday, June 23 to Saturday, June 25. Learn more and register here.
Economic Opportunity Institute Dinner
Save the date for EOI’s Changemakers Dinner on September 15th, 2022! The Changemakers Dinner is their annual celebration of the progress we are making together and a fundraiser to power the work ahead. After two years of celebrating remotely, EOI is hopeful that we will be able to return to an in-person event depending on COVID-19 levels and safety at the time of the event. For those who are distant or prefer to join from home, we will continue to make an online option available.
AFT Washington has 10 tickets for the Economic Opportunity Institute dinner, which will be held in person on September 15th. If you or a member in your local is interested in attending, please contact Geno Amador at gamador@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 Christine Landon at clandon@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.