by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
September 30, 2024
A union representing nearly 5,000 state government and community college employees in Washington has overwhelmingly rejected a new two-year contract, putting it in a position its leaders have described as “uncharted territory.”
Members of the Washington Public Employees Association voted down the tentative agreement, which contained a proposed 5% pay hike. Union negotiators derided this as a pay cut, saying it would not enable worker salaries to keep pace with rising costs of food, housing and health care.
The union sought a 30% hike as it looked to make up for what leaders said has been two decades of contracts with little or no increases leaving workers with 21% less in purchasing power over the past 25 years.
“Our members love their work, they love serving the public, but they cannot afford to keep falling further and further behind,” WPEA president Amanda Hacker said in a statement. “With these votes, our members are calling management back to the table to negotiate so we can break this negative spiral. We look forward to reopening negotiations as soon as possible.”
In contrast, one of the state’s largest public employee unions soundly ratified a new two-year deal containing nearly the same economic terms.
The Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents 50,000 state government, higher education and public service workers, approved the tentative agreement in voting that concluded Monday. The federation had 14 negotiated contracts getting voted on.
The largest contract, covering nearly 40,000 general government employees, was approved by close to 85%, union officials reported.
The tentative agreements voted on by the federation and the public employee association contained general pay hikes of 3% on July 1, 2025 and 2% a year later. They would also raise the starting wage for state workers to $18 an hour, assure the state will continue paying 85% of employee health care premiums, and add new types of leave such as for those experiencing wildfire emergencies.
By law, public sector unions must approve a new contract by Oct. 1 to be considered by the governor for funding in the next two-year budget, which Gov. Jay Inslee will propose in December. Inslee was not involved in the negotiations.
The Washington Public Employee Association bargaining team recommended rejection of the state’s “last, best and final offer” by its members working at 13 community colleges and in nine state agencies. Among them are the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue, the Liquor and Cannabis Board and Department of Agriculture. Members of the Washington Public Employees Association voted down a tentative agreement containing the state’s last, best offer. Members may have to go without a wage hike for a year absent a new deal (Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard)
A master agreement covering more than 2,500 state agency employees was rejected by roughly 82%, according to union officials. A separate contract covering roughly 2,000 classified staff on community colleges fared worse, with 91% turning it down.
On Monday, the public employee association signaled its willingness to restart talks with the Office of Financial Management, which handles negotiations. It is the governor’s budget office. If a new agreement is negotiated and ratified in the next few weeks, the union would have to lobby the Legislature next session to fund it since it would be arriving after Oct. 1. And the next governor would need to sign off on it too.
Otherwise, the terms and conditions of the union’s current collective bargaining agreements will be in effect and there would be no general wage increase. Any new negotiated tentative agreements would need to be reached by Oct. 1, 2025 in order to be funded by the Legislature in the 2026 session.
But if the two sides return to bargaining and fail to reach a new agreement by Oct. 1, 2025, state law allows the employer to unilaterally implement the terms of the state’s last best offer for the second year of the 2025-27 biennium, which would run from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.
For the federation, the focus is making sure the deals get funded.
Kurt Spiegel, executive director of Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28, said in an email that the vote shows the membership “was aware of the significant state budget deficit being forecasted” and with that information “supported the tentative agreement by a very wide margin.”
“With newly elected officials coming in and the state budget deficit, we are preparing our members for a busy legislative session to ensure all our contracts are fully funded,” he said.
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