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 The Washington Public Employees
Association (WPEA) began as the Washington State Employees
Association (WSEA) in 1956. WSEA was started by employees who were
dissatisfied with the representation and costs of their union at that
time, their union’s position on key
issues affecting state employees at the time, and the union's focus on the needs
of a narrow segment of its members.
WSEA incorporated as a non-profit, in part,
to insure the rights of its members to participate in and direct its
efforts as voting stockholders.
In the early years, WSEA
engaged primarily in lobby efforts:
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The Legislature on
salary-benefit issues
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Personnel System on merit
issues and
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The rights of its
employees at all levels of government.
... and many of its leaders
were supervisors and managers.
During the 1970’s, WSEA
become more of a labor union by negotiating collective bargaining
agreements and endorsing the union shop -- where it had WSEA’s programs
changed to focus more on bargaining and grievance appeal representation, and less on lobbying.
WSEA’s membership also
changed as bargaining units were created, so that fewer and fewer members
were employed outside units were yet to be created. Membership also
decreased as WSEA members found themselves in newly created Federation units. As a result, WSEA became smaller in membership size and
concentrated on bargaining units. Previously, we had 5,000 members, most
were not assigned to bargaining units, many of whom were supervisors and
managers.
New Interest in Membership
In 1975, the Washington
State Employees Association became the Washington Public
Employees Association (WPEA) because of interests expressed by
public employees outside State government. WPEA currently represents one
such unit at Fort Vancouver Library.
In 1977, WPEA conducted the
only strike by state employees against their employer. While the two-day
action was successful in winning pay raises from then Governor Dixie Lee
Ray, no other state employee union supported us. While the rest of organized labor (Teamsters, ILWO, etc.) supported us, the Federation and
other state unions accused WPEA of "grandstanding" by conducting
an illegal strike.
In the early 1980’s WPEA
turned to more professional representation, personal service to members,
increasing union shops from 7 to 20 out of 28 units, and addressing key needs of members.
In the 1990’s WPEA began to
focus more on empowering and mobilizing its members, especially on the
statewide issues of consequence to not only our members, but to all public
employees:
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Closing the state
"pay gap"
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Collective bargaining on
wages, decent pensions, and health benefits funding.
With the
passage of the Personnel System Reform Act (PSRA) in 2002,
WPEA Convention leadership passed a resolution which created a task force to review
affiliation with an international union in order to assure
successful collective bargaining and membership growth.
The Resolution also required that the review be mindful of
retaining WPEA’s self-governance and structures. The
task force was to report their findings and make a
recommendation to the Board of Directors. The affiliation
task force was comprised of eight members and one staff
-- all appointed by the WPEA President.
After an
exhaustive year-long investigation of numerous
international unions, the Task Force narrowed the options
for possible affiliation to three unions. After intense
negotiations with each, the Task Force agreed that
UFCW’s Affiliation Agreement was far superior in meeting
the needs of WPEA.
WPEA
Affiliates with International
After nearly 50 years of being an independent union,
WPEA members voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW),
effective May 19, 2003. This partnership has helped WPEA
to grow our membership and provide the strength,
resources, and experience to advance our members’
concerns, while retaining our autonomy.
With 1.4 million members
- more than 50,000 here in Washington - UFCW has a long successful history of
negotiating wages, benefits, and working conditions, and
are committed to representing the needs of all workers,
private and public.
WPEA, with the
support of the UFCW International Union, will continue to
be committed to providing quality services and dedicated
to improving the work environment for ALL public employees
in Washington State.
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