On Tuesday, January 14, HB 1888 was heard in committee. Public employees testified about the harassment they or their coworkers have faced on the job. One former corrections officer described being stalked and harassed for more than 10 years by an inmate who used public records requests to access her personal information.

The bill’s opponents – representing newspaper owners, other media companies, and the Freedom Foundation – argued that public employee birthdates are necessary to hold the government accountable. When committee Chair Mia Gregerson asked the media representatives to respond to the safety concerns raised by vulnerable public employees, they dismissed the concerns, saying that such personal information was widely available other places.

Public employees have answered the call to do the people’s work. That work is often thankless and dangerous. Our employers shouldn’t expose public servants to more harassment and risk. Tell your legislators to pass HB 1888.
You can watch the hearing on TVW here: https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2020011083
 

On Friday, January 17, the Senate State Government Committee heard SB 5246, a bill that would, in its current form, release the city, state, and zip code of our home addresses. The same lobbyist for the newspaper owners who opposed HB 1888 testified in support of SB 5246, pushing forward a bill to expose even more of our members’ personal information to anyone who asks for it. WPEA testified against the bill, and we expect that it will either be amended to fix this section, or the bill will be stopped in committee.
You can watch the hearing for SB 5246 on TVW here: https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2020011143

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Mike Nelson, who leads the classified employee union (WPEA), told the board his group would like to know what happens next.

“We are extremely concerned about the financial wellbeing of this institution and how it will impact classified folks in the next year,” he said. “We were shocked by the number of classified folks who were laid off and the positions that were laid off. It didn’t make sense to us from a union standpoint.”

Many of the employees were front-line, student-serving people, he said, with low salaries.
The cuts put a burden on those who are left, he said, and eventually will impact students.
“We didn’t really have extra people,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of fat here at WVC, so the people who do the work are going away and the workload will be distributed to other classified staff.”

He asked the board to be more proactive in reaching out to employees.

“There are a number of folks here who have been laid off. They are very upset about what has happened here because they think it could have been avoided,” he said. “I believe it could have been avoided, with proper management, proper fiscal responsibility and a good plan.”

So far, he said, they haven’t heard the plan.

“President Richardson has not been able to convey to us in a satisfactory manner his intentions to correct the problem. Time and again he has stated what the problem is — we don’t necessarily agree on that — but he has not been able to articulate how we are moving forward. That is something we look forward to hearing as soon as possible.”

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Paid Family and Medical Leave provides paid time off when you need it most. It’s here for you when a serious health condition prevents you from working or when you need time to care for a family member or a new child, or for certain military-related events.

Nearly every Washington worker can qualify for paid leave as long as you work a minimum of 820 hours (about 16 hours a week) in Washington during the qualifying period, which is about the last year. The 820 hours can be at one job or combined from multiple jobs.
To be eligible, you only need to have worked in Washington the 820 hours, experienced a qualifying event and be able to provide proof of identification. Many documents can be used to prove your identity, including school transcripts and birth certificates from other countries.

​To find out more information please click here.

The WPEA Offices will be closed between December 25 through January 1.  If you have an emergency, please call (360) 943-1121 and hit "0" - you will be transferred to the main line and prompted to leave a message in case of an emergency.  That line will be checked daily to assure that WPEA is able to respond to emergencies in this time period.

Thank you for being our members and we hope each of you have a happy holiday season.