We’re in the 7th week of the 2022 legislative session. Only two weeks to go until the legislature adjourns sine die on March 10.

Budget
The House and Senate have released their budgets, which include the 3.25% COLA and negotiated one-time lump sum for state employees. Left out of the legislative budgets was the governor’s proposal of pay increases for some of the lowest-paying and hardest-to-fill positions in state government. The Senate failed to include them at all, and the House restricted them to General Government employees only. These pay increases will help address the staffing crisis that is spreading across state government and provide much needed relief for state workers struggling to make ends meet.

The Senate needs to hear from you. Tell your Senator to include the targeted recruitment and retention pay increases in the final budget! Article Here for Instructions.
 
Both the House and Senate budgets make important investments in our community colleges, including paying a higher share of staff salaries and financial aid outreach for underserved communities.  And the Senate budget clarifies that DNR can use fire suppression money for the vital “indirect” costs of fire suppression, including investigation, IT support, and payroll.
 
Legislative Staff Collective Bargaining
The bill to grant collective bargaining rights to employees of the legislative branch died at last week’s cutoff. But after more than 100 legislative staff called in sick in protest, the bill is back and is included as part of the House’s budget. WPEA testified in support, of course, because every employee who wants to join a union should be able to join a union.
 
WPEA Bill Tracker
Our WPEA Bill Tracker is live, where you can see which bills affect WPEA members, what our position is, and where they are in the legislative process. The bill tracker will be updated at the end of each week throughout the session.

The House and Senate have released their budgets, which include the 3.25% COLA and negotiated one-time lump sum for state employees. Unfortunately, they left out the governor’s proposal of pay increases for some of the lowest-paying and hardest-to-fill positions in state government. The Senate failed to include them at all, and the House restricted them to General Government employees only. These pay increases will help address the staffing crisis that is spreading across state government and provide much needed relief for state workers struggling to make ends meet.

The Senate needs to hear from you. Tell your Senator to include the targeted recruitment and retention pay increases in the final budget! 

Click the link: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/5693
Fill Out the form with your information
​Select Support
Submit this message:
Please support the governor’s proposed targeted pay increases to help The state of Washington is in the midst of a growing staffing crisis. It is getting harder and harder to recruit and retain skilled employees dedicated to providing the services Washingtonians depend on. Governor Inslee’s proposed budget included targeted pay increases for some of the hardest-to-fill and lowest-paid positions in state service, including custodians, food service employees, maintenance mechanics, and office assistants. Unfortunately, the Senate budget left these pay increases out entirely. State employees have worked hard to serve the public during the pandemic, despite facing furloughs and no COLAs – and the staffing crisis has forced us to do more with less.

Help support hardworking public service employees by passing a budget that includes all of the targeted pay raises for state employees.

We’re in the 6th week of the 2022 legislative session. Only three weeks to go until the legislature adjourns sine die on March 10.
Cutoff
Bills needed to be voted off the floor of their house of origin by February 15 at 5pm in order to continue through the legislative process. Several bills WPEA has been tracking died at this deadline, including: HB 1992, a bill to raise the cap on annual leave from 240 hours to 280 hours (PRO); HB 1806, the bill granting collective bargaining rights to employees of the legislative branch (PRO); and HB 2055, a bill to give private colleges access to state capital budget money (CON).
 
ACTION ALERT
House bill 1837, a bill to restore Washington state’s ability to address work-related musculoskeletal injuries and protect workers, passed the House of Representatives on a 50-48 vote early Tuesday morning after a marathon 9-hour all-night attempt by Republicans to filibuster and kill the bill. The bill addresses ergonomic injuries – those caused by using muscles, tendons, and ligaments in awkward positions or in frequent, repetitive actions, that can cause pain and injury over time. Many of these injuries can be prevented, but the state Department of Labor & Industries is prohibited from requiring employers to take steps to protect workers from repetitive motion injuries.
After such a long legislative fight this week, the legislature needs to be reminded about the importance of this legislation.
TAKE A STAND — Please take a couple of minutes today to do two things:
1 - Thank the state representatives who stood strong all night long against Republicans’ procedural tactics, and voted “yes” on HB 1837. *** IMPORTANT! — If you enter your address and get the message, “Sorry no recipients were found,” that means none of your Representatives voted “yes” on HB 1837. So skip this action and proceed to…
2 - Urge your state senator to take action on HB 1837 and to stand strong with working families (as the House did) and vote “yes.”
You can learn more about HB 1837 at The Stand.
 
WPEA Bill Tracker
Our WPEA Bill Tracker is live, where you can see which bills affect WPEA members, what our position is, and where they are in the legislative process. The bill tracker will be updated at the end of each week throughout the session.
Upcoming
Next week, we expect to see the release of the House and Senate budgets, which will include funding for the 3.25% COLA for state employees.

We’re in the 5th week of the 2022 legislative session, just over the halfway mark.

Cutoff
The legislature has moved from committee hearings to floor votes this week, where bills will be debated and voted on by the entire House or Senate. Bills must pass the House or Senate by February 15 at 5pm in order to keep moving through the legislative process.
Some of the good bills still alive at this point include SB 5847, a bill that will give employees help navigating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; HB 1992, a bill that raises the cap on state employees’ annual leave from 240 hours to 280 hours; and HB 1806, a bill to give collective bargaining rights to legislative branch employees.

WPEA Bill Tracker
Our WPEA Bill Tracker is live, where you can see which bills affect WPEA members, what our position is, and where they are in the legislative process. The bill tracker will be updated at the end of each week throughout the session.

​Upcoming
Next week the state’s Revenue Forecast Council will release its estimate of how much revenue the state will generate in the coming years. This report tells state budget writers how much money they have to work with when writing the budget. House and Senate budget proposals are then expected early the following week.

We’re in the 4th week of the 2022 legislative session. 

Cutoff
This week brought us “policy cutoff,” the deadline by which bills must be voted out of their policy committees if they are going to continue forward in the legislative process. Bills must then be voted out of their fiscal committees by Monday, February 7.
 
WPEA Bill Tracker
Our WPEA Bill Tracker is live, where you can see which bills affect WPEA members, what our position is, and where they are in the legislative process. The bill tracker will be updated at the end of each week throughout the session.

Our 2022 Legislative Session Bill Track is now available here.  Stay up-to-date with bills that effect our members and the labor movement!

We now have translated documents for the Wage Increase MOU in Spanish. See Original Post Here
 
General Government Wage Increase MOU - Spanish
Higher Education Wage Increase MOU - Spanish
Highline Wage Increase MOU - Spanish

General Government Wage Increase MOU - English
Higher Education Wage Increase MOU - English
Highline Wage Increase MOU - English
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*Yakima members have CBA language that ensure identical benefits to the Higher Education MOU. Read the HE MOU for exact terms.