By Enrie Marusya, Union Organizing Representative

The Contingent Faculty Issues Committee is asking all faculty to sign a petition that calls on the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges to take action for Pay Parity and Job Security for Part-Time & Contingent Faculty. Additionally, we are asking all available faculty to attend the virtual State Board meeting on 10/20 from 1:30-2:10pm, where we will present the petition. We are calling on the State Board to institute benchmark goals for pay parity across the system (85% compared to full-time starting salary), just cause termination for adjuncts, and 75%/25% ratio of full-time to part-time faculty. A strong turnout of supporters to the board meeting will help ensure our voices are heard. You can sign the petition here.

Adjunct faculty are also encouraged to join our Facebook group to keep up to date on this action and future actions as part of AFT Washington’s Adjunct Equity Campaign. This action and petition are just the beginning of this campaign!

Welcome HyeEun Park, Our New Government Relations Specialist!

HyeEun Park is proud to be the Government Relations Specialist for AFT Washington. She brings over a decade of community organizing, political campaigns, and government relations experience to the role. Previously, HyeEun served as a senior policy analyst for the Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance, program manager during the 2020 Census for King County, and political strategist for YWCA Seattle, King, Snohomish. She earned her undergraduate degree from the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University and earned her MPA from CUNY Baruch as a National Urban Fellow. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with friends and volunteering. 

You can reach out to her at hpark@aftwa.org, and you'll be seeing her in meetings soon! Welcome HyeEun!

Take A Survey On Institutional Equity and Accountability

The Institutional Equity and Accountability Alliance (IEAA) is a new task force created by the AFT Washington with the goals of bringing together local leaders, community partners, and other allies in solidarity, and leveraging that power to combat issues of inequity at our workplaces, particularly in employer implementation of policies, practices, and contract language.

The IEAA is seeking feedback about how our members feel about the ways employers have been using and communicating about federal COVID-19 relief funds they have received. The IEAA intends to use the information collected from this short survey to guide its focus and priority for the coming months. We appreciate your participation and if you have questions about the IEAA or the survey, you can email IEAA@aftwa.org for more information.

Inoculating Against the Freedom Foundation's Misinformation

As we mentioned last month, the Freedom Foundation has taken advantage of the vaccine mandate to approach workers about dropping their union membership. Their goal is not, as you are aware, to encourage workers to make the right choices for their situations but to destroy unions, which enhance worker power and representation. This week, we mailed materials to all members, which should be arriving in mailboxes today or tomorrow.

If you need additional resources, or if your local and members are being heavily targeted, let us know so that we can best help members make the right decisions for their specific circumstances.

From the AFT: Major Changes To The Public Loan Service Forgiveness Program

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced major changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, finally addressing the serious problems AFT members have faced in accessing student loan forgiveness. This is a game-changing victory for educators, healthcare professionals and public employees and will allow millions of Americans to discharge their student debt sooner, offering them increased economic mobility and access to opportunities to thrive.

Does this settlement apply to you?

If you have worked in public service for 10 years or more and made 10 years of payments on your student loans, you are likely eligible to have your debt discharged under PSLF. Even if you were denied PSLF in the past OR your loan servicer said you do not qualify, under this settlement, your application will be reconsidered. In the past, only on-time payments made on direct loans using income-driven repayment plans or standard 10-year repayment plans counted toward PSLF.

Here's what is new:

• The department will retroactively count your past payments toward your 120-payment requirement for PSLF, even if they were made on the wrong loan type or on the wrong payment plan.
• This means your loan payments WILL count, even if you made those past payments on:
  • Current or prior Federal Family Education Loans; or
  • Graduated or other types of payment plans that did not previously count.
• Other types of payments, such as past rolling late payments, will also count.

This is a huge win for AFT members struggling with student debt. If implemented correctly, this settlement will help ensure that millions of people, including tens of thousands of educators, nurses and public employees, will have their loans completely forgiven or be given credit for years of past payments, putting them much closer to full forgiveness.

The Biden administration continues to work on implementation of these changes, with input from the AFT, to ensure a fast, clear and simple process so public service workers can get full credit for the payments they have made toward PSLF and soon see a zero balance on their student loan statement.

What you need to do now to get help from the AFT:

• Sign up for AFT notifications now. We'll notify you as soon as you can apply.
• Our partner, Summer, will help AFT members navigate this new process. AFT members can sign up for a free account with Summer here.
  
  

  From Barnard Iglitzen & Lavitt LLP: Frontline Workers Get Workers' Compensation Protection for Public Health Emergency Diseases

  Almost a full year after the onset of the pandemic, the Washington Legislature enacted Senate Bill 5115 —the Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELA). Effective May 11, 2021, this law gives workers’ compensation protections for frontline workers that get sick from certain diseases during a public health emergency. Usually, workers bear the burden of proving their injury or illness occurred because of their job. Even though Labor & Industries (L&I) must construe workers’ compensation statutes in favor of the employee, the burden to prove that an illness was contracted on the job can be a high hurdle.

  To make it easier for workers, the State Legislature has adopted “presumptive disease” statutes that presume workers contract certain diseases from their job. Essentially, these statutes shift the burden that workers face in proving the origin of their illness to employers. Then, the employer must prove that the worker contracted their disease from some other source to avoid liability. The Legislature’s shift of this burden recognizes that certain workers are more likely than not to contract specific diseases from their employment.

  The COVID-19 pandemic showed how our society needs many types of in-person workers to carry on. Unfortunately, these same essential workers are left exposed to COVID-19 and future public health emergency-related diseases. With HELA, if a frontline worker gets sick from COVID-19 or another public health emergency related disease, the worker is presumed to have contracted the disease from their job. Workers’ compensation coverage can include health coverage for disease related expenses, disability, and line of duty death benefits.

  HELA defines frontline workers broadly to include first responders, grocery and food supply workers, workers at facilities that treat patients infected with public health emergency diseases, transit workers, childcare workers, retail workers, hospitality workers, restaurant workers, home health care aides, corrections officers, educational workers, and librarians. If one of these frontline workers contracts an infectious or contagious disease causing a public health emergency through respiratory means or physical contact, then the worker is presumed to have contracted the disease from their job.

  To be eligible for the presumption, the worker must provide verification that they contracted the disease to their workers’ compensation administrator (L&I if the employer is insured by the State, or the employer if the employer is self-insured). Additionally, the employer can seek to shift the burden of proving the worker contracted a public health emergency disease back onto the worker. Employers can do so by showing the worker was exposed to the disease from another job or a non-employment reason. The employer can also rebut the presumption by showing that a worker was working from home or on leave for quarantine just before being exposed to the disease.

  HELA also requires employers to provide notifications to L&I and to employees and to provide additional protections to high-risk workers. Employers with more than 50 employees must notify L&I if ten or more of their employees test positive for a public health emergency disease. Employers must also notify employees of a potential exposure if known. Lastly, employers cannot discharge, permanently replace, or discriminate against employees that are at high risk of severe illness from the disease due to age or underlying health conditions. The high-risk employee must have a recommendation from a medical provider to remove themselves from the workforce.

  
  

  New Benefit from the AFT: Life Insurance for the Top Three Officers

  You should have been contacted by the AFT regarding a new, $2,500 life insurance policy that covers each of the top three officers in AFT locals (that will generally be President, Secretary, and Treasurer) during their time in office. This benefit is offered in recognition that those roles are essentially a new full-time job on top of the officer’s regular job.

  From their message: “Our plan over the next few weeks is to alert affiliate presidents first so that we can ensure our officer lists are correct and that we have term start and end dates and correct contact information. Then, we will send a notice to the three named officers of every AFT affiliate asking them to complete an online beneficiary form and download the certificate of coverage. This group of affiliate leaders – President, Treasurer and Secretary - are covered whether they complete this beneficiary form or not, but typically the insurance company prefers a named beneficiary.

  Be on the lookout for a communication the last week of August to affiliate Presidents. Any questions you may have can come to Tish Olshefski (tish.olshefski@aft.org).&rdquo

  
  

  From the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network: Statewide Action for Immigration

  There will be statewide actions on immigration taking place next week on Monday October 11^th and Tuesday October 12^th to capitalize on members of Congress hopefully being in district for a planned recess.

  Over the past 20 years, the Immigrant Rights Movement has fought for a pathway to citizenship for millions of people. And for the past 20 years, we’ve been let down.

  Democrats are once again ready to vote on a reconciliation package that does not include a pathway towards citizenship. Congress is on the precipice of passing a once-in-a-generation investment in care, climate, jobs and education, and it must include citizenship.

  Enough. The time is now to hold Democrats accountable and mobilize because the livelihood of millions of us depends on it.

  
  

  The Tax Town Halls Are Still Going On

   

  The Washington State Tax Structure Workgroup is a state workgroup that identifies options to make the state's tax code more equitable, transparent, adequate, and stable. Getting robust investments in education calls for a strong, progressive tax structure.

  
  
  

   

  
  
  

  The workgroup has a series of Tax Town Halls to learn more about the priorities of taxpayers and business owners in the state of Washington. They are divided up by region - you can learn more about the regions here. Not sure which district you're in? Check on Find My Legislator!

  
  
  

   

  
  
  

  Next week's town hall will be for the West region, so if you are on the peninsula or right at the bottom of the sound, get ready! The town halls are every week on Wednesday through November 3rd. Check out the workgroup's website and register for a town hall. You are not required to attend the one for your region, though it is preferred.

  
  
  

   

  
  
  

  You can find more information and registration links here. The meetings are virtual.

   

  
  
  

   

   

   

  Masks Available!

  By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist

  As a reminder, the AFT Washington office has a supply of N95 and surgical masks, as well as face shields. The face shields are proving useful for teachers who work with students who have hearing impairments and use lip-reading as a means of communication, and can relieve the need to lecture for several hours in a mask, as well. If your local would like to get some masks and/or face shields, please contact Lydia Petroske at lpetroske@aftwa.org to arrange for pickup or mail delivery.

   

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

• Track your local’s support from Community Allies.
• Record member event attendance.
• Create forms and surveys.
• Capture detailed employment and employer information.
• Manage COPE and other local committees.

Readily use these features and more through AFT Connect’s dashboard or let Connect help your local turn data into a powerful tool through easy, customizable reports.

Connect is replacing both Membership Suite and the Affiliate Toolkit Workspace. Get ahead of the rush and sign your local up to use Connect today!

To get started with AFT Connect, contact Christine Landon at clandon@aftwa.org.