WA state workers plan walkout to spotlight intensifying contract talks

The Washington state Capitol building in Olympia, on Feb. 7, 2024. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

Tens of thousands of state employees will stage a walkout next month in a united demonstration of frustration with the tenor of negotiations on a new two-year contract, including a wage offer they consider “disrespectful.”

Leaders of the Washington Federation of State Employees are urging their members statewide to walk off the job at noon on Sept. 10 to demand livable wages and safe staffing levels. Members will use their lunch time or scheduled vacation for the walkout, according to the union .

“We’re doing this for ourselves and our families, for each other, and for the folks who depend on our work. A fair contract can’t wait,” reads a post on the union website. The union is encouraging walkouts “at every worksite, every employer and every WFSE contract.”

The federation is negotiating 2025-2027 contracts on behalf of several bargaining units that collectively represent 50,000 state government, higher education and public service employees.

After a 15-hour bargaining session on Monday, the parties remained no closer to an agreement on critical matters like compensation, according to a news release from the union.

“We’re given an impression that we were important, but then they’re treating us like we’re second members of society,” said Tom Cline, the senior systems administrator at Peninsula College and a bargaining team member for the Community College Coalition.

Formal talks with the Office of Financial Management on new collective bargaining agreements began in the spring. Sessions are planned nearly every week through the end of September. Any agreements are supposed to be ratified by union members by Oct. 1 so they can be considered for funding in the next two-year budget.

The state presented its initial compensation proposal July 22. Union negotiators, in an update to members , called it
“short-sighted and disrespectful.”

“We won’t accept it,” they added.

In a news release, the federation expressed frustration with the growing turnover rate for state government employees. According to the federation, 40% of state employees have turned over in the last eight years because of resignations alone.

Federation leaders declined to say how much the state offered general government workers, but in a Tuesday news release, they said the proposals could amount to a pay cuts for all members and staffing cuts at institutions like Green Hill School, a youth detention facility, and Western State Hospital, one of two state-owned psychiatric hospitals for adults.

They said management made “dire predictions about the budget and our state’s economic future” in the wake of a June revenue forecast. That report predicted a $500 million drop in projected tax collections for the upcoming budget cycle. The next forecast is in September.

“While Washington’s population has boomed and the legislature has piled on more and more work, our pay hasn’t kept pace and it’s become increasingly difficult to get people to stay on the job,” wrote union leaders, who urged members to “apply pressure” with calls to Gov. Jay Inslee.

In separate contract talks, negotiators for a Department of Corrections employee bargaining unit said they voted for arbitration Aug. 14 after receiving a “last and final offer” of a general wage increase of 2% in July 2025 and 1% the following year.

Inslee is not involved in negotiations. He will have to decide whether the budget proposal he releases in December funds agreements reached with the various unions.

“These negotiations are ongoing with [the Office of Financial Management] and we’re careful in how we address them,” said Mike Faulk, Inslee’s press secretary. “The governor’s support of our hard-working public employees over his 12 years in office speaks for itself.”

In a statement, the director of the Office of Financial Management said the goal is to craft a contract “that balances fiscal realities with the state’s needs, policy priorities and the critical role our employees fill in serving the public.”

“We anticipate limited revenue in the upcoming biennium,” said the office’s director, David Schumacher. “Just as we’ve asked state agencies to limit new programs and request only essential funding, we are applying the same principle to our negotiations.”

In addition to next month’s walkout, state employees are rallying across Washington on Tuesday in six cities, including Seattle, Spokane and Olympia.