March 2024

March 2024

From the President

Along with local presidents Donna Maher, Renton Federation of Teachers 3914, and Carlea McAvoy, South Puget Sound Federation of Teachers 4603, as well as Richard Burton, State Affiliate Political Organizer, I spent last weekend in rainy Las Vegas at AFT’s Western Regional Leadership Meeting. The meeting was filled with valuable information and resources, along with inspiring stories of how individuals and our members have better lives because of the collective efforts of our union, whether at the local, the state or national level.

Within the last year or two AFT has launched two campaigns you may have heard of: Real Solutions for Kids and Code Red campaigns. They’re designed to generate more robust attention to the challenges and opportunities our PreK – 12 and healthcare membership faces. The former connects well with our school-related personnel focused Respect campaign, which is driven by resolution 2024-02, passed at last year’s convention. We mobilized members throughout the legislative session to make sure our legislators know that bus drivers, paraeducators, nutrition services workers, and all the others who keep our schools running truly are essential. The school-related personnel workforce’s working conditions are students’ learning conditions, and when the policies and funding that govern those working conditions aren’t sufficient to meet the need, students and workers alike pay the price. This work will continue with a petition to be launched this Saturday at ClassCon 2024, calling on Superintendent Reykdal to do right by our members. We’ll also urge school boards, teachers, principals and other stakeholders to sign on to our petition and to pass a resolution like the one Senator Markey (MA) introduced to the U.S. Senate in November, calling for better wages, benefits, hours and, overall, better jobs that show the respect school-related personnel deserve.

At the Western Regional Meeting, AFT announced a new campaign in the vein of Code Red and Real Solutions For Kids that will bring attention to the ways we need to push for support for members in higher education. As a member of the Program and Policy Council, I’ve been involved in building the campaign, which seeks to maximize the impact of organizing, bargaining and legislative work through collaboration with affiliates across the country. I participated in a workshop to introduce the campaign and generate discussion among higher ed leaders in the western region. Participants were especially interested in our Communities for Our Colleges Coalition, and it was fun to share some of our terrific wins, especially the most recent legislation we won that makes professional licensure more accessible for undocumented students.

We also heard from two founders of Standing Together, an alliance of Palestinian and Jewish people formed eight years ago that started with the mission of “mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice”. Alon-Lee Green, Sally Abed and the Standing Together coalition are cutting through the political dynamics to bring people together to zero in on the needs of the people and the imperative to build collective power in order to effectively demand the polices that will fulfill their mission. Alon-Lee and Sally powerfully represented their commitment to the interests and needs of the Jewish and Palestinian people in Israel, and also demonstrated their commitment to the same principles we hold as a labor union: solidarity, equity, unity, democracy, and action. I left that session with renewed optimism and a strengthened commitment to fighting for the righteous causes we believe in.

Finally, I’m getting ready to collect pledges and ride at least 100 miles in April – shout outs to leaders Nina Benedetti, Kip Zwolenski, David Shapiro, and Tracy Lai who will join me. But there’s always room for more on the trails! If you or your members want to ride too, please have them contact me. I look forward to seeing how much more we raise this year compared to last for our scholarship fund!

Wishing you all a lovely spring and the renewed energy that comes with longer days. I hope to see you in person at our annual Powerful Locals Conference July 31st – August 2nd, location tbd. Watch for more information soon!

In solidarity,

Karen Strickland, President

Local Highlights & News

The Legislative Session Has Wrapped!

The 2024 Legislative Session ended on March 7th, and we have progress to celebrate and policies and funding to resurrect in a future session. The status of our priority bills and a few others are in the table below. Some warrant comment:

HB 2380 – Increasing Paraeducators Wages (Shavers, LD-10) did not make it through the Appropriations Committee. We had hoped that because it was in the Governor’s budget it might make it through to the final budget, but it did not. This will be a priority next year.

SB 5882 - Increasing the Prototypical School Staffing Model (Stanford, LD-1) did pass. The bill “increases the staff allocation for paraeducators in the prototypical school funding model, unlocking dollars that schools can use to increase staffing, prevent layoffs, or raise salaries for paraeducators and some other support staff. The legislation is funded with $72 million in the state’s general fund in the 2024 supplemental operating budget”, according to prime sponsor Senator Stanford. You can read his full statement on the bill here.

ESHB 1893 – Unemployment for striking workers (Doglio, LD-22/Keiser, LD-33) made it all the way to the Senate with significant support from Labor and opposition from business, especially Boeing. Unfortunately, the votes weren’t there to pass the Senate (voting against were Senators Van de Wege, LD 24 and Mullet, LD 5, both democrats and both leaving the senate to run for other offices), and the bill has died…for now. It was amended to specify that benefits would not be paid if the related strike has been deemed unlawful by a court. For most of our members, strikes are not protected activity, but they are not illegal. There are so many ways in which employers have far more power in the workplace than the workers do, and this bill is a step towards reducing that power imbalance.

Noteworthy Budget Items – some of these were priorities for us, others were not but are meaningful. This is not a comprehensive list.

In previous legislative reports provided to the Executive Board and the councils, we have kept you apprised of the six initiatives funded by a very wealthy individual, Brian Heywood, who opposes investment in the public good. The current status is that I-2111, I-2081 and I-2113 passed the Legislature; I-2117, I-2109 and I-2124 will be on the ballot in November.

It’s Time To Get On Your Bike And Ride!

It’s time for AFT Washington’s second annual bike-riding fundraiser for the AFT Washington/Barnard Iglitzen and Lavitt Scholarship! We’ll spend the month of April riding, pledging, and making a difference for our members and their families!

Last year we had six riders and raised about $6000 through pledges from locals, friends, and family – this let us offer six scholarships to AFT Washington members and their families. This year, we can do it again, and do even more!

If you are interested in signing up to ride, you can download the pledge sheet here. (And don’t forget to let us know you are!) You can also download the flyer and share with your members.

If you would prefer not to ride but want to support the fund, your local can pledge an amount per mile or per ride for members who ride – contact Tammy Fouts at tfouts@aftwa.org to get set up with that!

And – very important – if you are an AFT Washington member you and your family members are eligible for the scholarship. The application will open in June – get ready to apply. But first, let’s get on our bikes and ride!

Walla Walla Professional Staff Have A Tentative Agreement

By Enrie Marusya, Union Organizing Representative

AFT- Walla Walla Professional Staff (AFT-WWPS) is proud to announce that they have reached a Tentative Agreement with Walla Walla Community College on a new contract. AFT-WWPS is the newest local union of AFTWA.

“This is a game changer for our professional staff at Walla Walla Community College. I’d like to thank all of the members who took action to support the cause and our team at the bargaining table, from signing petitions to button-up and AFT Blue days, to attending board meetings. It really made a difference,” said Joshua Slepin, co-chair of the negotiations team.

Highlights of the contract include placing all professional staff on a salary scale. For the lowest paid workers, this represented a raise of up to $5,000 in the first year of the contract. All workers will now also enjoy annual step increases—which they didn’t have before. Some workers will also receive premium pay for working in a second language.

“One of the main issues some of our staff faced was ongoing job creep. We are fortunate to now have a process for reviewing workloads and either adjusting pay or reassigning work when this happens,” said Melissa Holecek, also a co-chair of the negotiations team.

Last but not least, AFT-WWPS-represented staff will now have better job security, with an end to annualized contracts, just cause discipline and an established RIF process.

Slepin notes that they didn’t win everything they wanted. “There’s still a ways to go. In the next contract, we’re going to want to focus on severance pay and recall rights, among other things. But overall, we are very grateful to management’s negotiations team for responding to our needs.”

“And we bargained in record time, just five months from the start of bargaining, we reached a TA!” Holecek added. “We’re looking forward to joining classified staff and faculty on our campus as unionized employees.”

Union Tips & Reminders

Classified Conference 2024

Saturday, March 23rd

Make sure that your calendar is marked for this year’s Classified Conference! Likely workshops include behavioral issues and conflict resolution, nutrition and teaching kids to make healthy choices, Child Find and FAPE, identifying your communication style, planning for retirement, understanding state-provided benefits, know your rights, and more.

Register here.

Labor and Immigration Summit

Saturday, March 23rd

The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO Labor and Immigration Committee is proud to announce the 2024 Labor and Immigration Summit. This summit will focus on the intersections of labor rights and immigrant rights in our work to build an inclusive labor movement for all working people.

Registration and more information here.

Worksite Representative Training

Wednesday, April 24th, 5:00 - 7:00

Whether you are called a union steward, building rep, officer, executive board member, we all want to do our best to represent our members. During this training you will learn the importance of engaging our membership, building our power inside and outside of the worksite, and enforcing our contract.

Register here.

AFT National Convention

Monday, July 22^nd – Wednesday, July 24^th, 2024

From the AFT: We are honored to call the 88th convention of the AFT. The AFT convention is the highest authority of our union and demonstrates union democracy at work. The convention is hereby called to convene at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, on Monday, July 22, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. and will remain in session until such time as it has given full consideration to such matters as legally may be brought before it.

More information here.

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!

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.