WA State JwJ Workers' Rights Victories
(September 2006)
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After community rallies and pickets and workplace actions to protest attempts to double monthly worker health benefit fees, state worker unions succeeded in maintaining quality affordable health plans that directly impact over 100,000 workers and their family members. This victory indirectly impacts many more state residents as the low-income Basic Plan and many other private and public sector employer plans are influenced by changes in the state worker plan.
Jobs with Justice prioritized this sweeping struggle and worked closely with the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) to mobilize the broader community to support state workers holding the line for all of us. Hours before a major rally at the Governor's Town Hall meeting in Puyallup, state managers made peace on the healthcare issue. Management withdrew attempts to raise monthly worker healthcare fees, agreed to reimburse workers for their previous over-garnishing of wages, and converted the 2005 wage bonus of 1.6% into a permanent raise. See below for details of what workers achieved and background of the struggle.
Within a few weeks of this victory, over 60,000 state workers in a number of different unions negotiated contracts that go fully recommended to a membership vote now in progress. For details of the WFSE contract in General Government, go here. Not all unions have reached tentative agreement, so stay tuned for action alerts.
More details of the health benefit victory
- The state commits to an 88 percent share of premium costs and employees to 12 percent in both 2008 and 2009, with a $20 million premium stabilization account to cover any unexpected inflation increases. This means an employer share of $717 in 2008 and $752 in 2009.
- The employer commits to covering 100 percent of the cost of basic life, basic long-term disability and dental insurance.
- Represented employees will receive a lump sum payment of $756 on July 1, 2007. This is the difference between the $744 employer amount negotiated in the current contract and the $681 a month state officials say the state is actually paying. That works out to $63 a month. This will mitigate any increases that go into effect Jan. 1, 2007 (amounts the Public Employees Benefits Board is expected to approve tomorrow).
Background
State managers had proposed cuts to our biggest health plan in the state despite a budget surplus. In fact, managers had taken surplus budget savings from the state workers' health plan and spent it on improving management's health plan before proposing to double state worker's monthly health benefit fee. State government is the largest employer program in our state and changes to state worker healthcare put pressure on affordability and quality of many other Washington residents' healthcare benefits.
As part of an unprecedented national movement, millions of immigrant workers and their allies hit the streets in Seattle and cities all around the nation on April 10th and May 1st. We united to stop Congress from denying millions of workers the right to seek employment, the right to organize their workplace, and other basic human rights.
While the bosses and their friends in Congress attempt to trivialize these marches, the absence of any legislation this summer leaves no doubt that our voices were heard and that we were successful. Successful in that we stopped a bipartisan effort to criminalize millions of workers and their allies, and halted the largest deportation program in the history of this country. The proposed deportation program would have been bigger than 'Operation Wetback,' when more than a million workers, many of them American Citizens, were deported in the 1950's by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now called ICE).
Stopping this 21st Century 'Operation Wetback' schemed up by Representative Sensenbrenner and supported by many in both parties were the massive numbers in the streets and the most powerful display of collective strength by working people in Seattle since the 1919 General Strike. Now that we've slowed the tide, we must take the offensive to organize ourselves and our neighbors, to raise our voices and defend democracy, and to continue to take action against corporate greed and government injustice.
This spring, JwJ joined together with the Laborers Union, elected leaders, and other Change to Win unions to protest the Seattle Housing Authority's (SHA's) decision to contract work to 3 Kings Environmental. Despite knowledge of numerous environmental and workplace safety violations, SHA hired 3 Kings for asbestos removal and demolition of the Rainier Vista housing complex in Rainier Valley. The 75 people in attendance went door to door to educate local residents that the company contracted to remove asbestos near their homes focused more on the bottom line than worker and neighborhood safety.
As a result of this action, 3 Kings is no longer doing demolition and abatement on Seattle Housing Authority properties. Additionally, SHA reached out to the Laborers Union for advice on how to improve contracting procedures. Future contracting decisions by this taxpayer-funded agency could include workers' wages, healthcare, and safety training as considerations, in addition to a contractor being the lowest bidder. The SHA and Laborers Union are still in conversation . . . stay tuned as more action may be needed to hold SHA and 3 Kings accountable.
50 low-wage Tacoma Rehab nursing home workers are on their way to living wage jobs after winning recognition of their new union (SEIU 775) on August 24.
- Nursing home workers and their union SEIU 775 (Service Employees International Union Local 775) won $20 million in funding for the long-term care industry from the state legislature last year.
- Now many of these low-wage healthcare workers have some budget cushion to negotiate for living wages and affordable healthcare and union organizing is busting out at local nursing homes
- Next year, the workers through their union SEIU 775 will go to the state Legislature to get much more funding so all workers in the industry will have this same opportunity.
A Jobs with Justice community leader helped run the vote process called "card-check neutrality" that avoids the nasty boss retaliation rampant in Bush labor board elections. The workers will now negotiate for living wages and affordable healthcare and have state funding to back it up.
It's victories like this that we need to help low-wage workers bring through out Washington State. This fall, we will honor over 1000 newly organized Cingular workers for joining WashTech-CWA in a similar process.
We need our combined volunteer activism and funding to continue to build a better world. Please contribute to JwJ online today.
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