State workers OK strike
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OLYMPIA - Members of Washington's largest state employee union have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, but union leaders last night said they have agreed to a cooling-off period that will prevent any walkouts until Wednesday.
Leaders of the Washington Federation of State Workers, who finished tallying the votes at 8 p.m., said they are planning "random and unannounced" walkouts to pressure the Legislature for bigger raises, better benefits and fewer cuts in state programs.
Federation spokesman Tim Welch said the union had agreed to a request from Attorney General Christine Gregoire to hold off on any walkouts to give lawmakers and Gov. Gary Locke time to resolve the dispute. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 22.
State workers are demanding the same pay raises teachers have been promised. Under a citizen initiative approved last fall, teachers would receive a 3.7 percent raise this July and 3.1 percent raise next year.
Fred Olson, Gregoire's spokesman, said it was too early to say whether she would go to court to block a strike. But he said the attorney general requested the strike delay to help avoid litigation.
"State law is very clear that strikes (by state workers) are illegal," said Locke, a Democrat who was elected with labor support.
Even the union realizes there are legal questions. "We totally understand that if there's a work stoppage we might have to face her in court," Welch said. The Federation has 19,000 members in hundreds of job classes, including social workers, highway maintenance workers, fish and wildlife patrol officers, custodians and mental health counselors. But union leaders have pledged to keep at least enough workers on the job sono one's health or safety are put at risk.
A walkout by state employees would be the first in 24 years.
One of the most obvious impacts to residents in the Puget Sound could involve morning and afternoon commute. Federation employees control the directional signals for express lanes on I-5 and the I-90 bridge. They also work in the control booths for Seattle bridges, work as custodians and groundskeepers at the University of Washington and tend to mental patients at Western State Hospital.
Meanwhile yesterday, the Service Employees International Union, which represents 800 nurses in state hospitals and institutions, announced that its members overwhelming approved a strike and could walk off the job next week.
Of the nearly 9,000 Federation members who cast ballots, 79.8 percent voted to give their leadership authorization to approve "job actions up to and including a strike." Under the union's rules, a two-thirds vote was needed.
Executive Director Greg Devereux said the Federation is considering the possibility of not just random walkouts, but a general walkout.
Devereux sent letters to all 19 labor councils in the state, asking that their members, an estimated half-million people, honor the Federation's picket lines.
With the state facing its grimmest budget situation in close to a decade, Locke and legislative leaders have said it will not be possible for them to meet the union's demands. Lawmakers are grappling with a huge budget shortfall that was brought on largely by soaring health care expenses and the cost of several citizen initiatives.
"I understand that," said Diana Parkison, a state employee since 1975. "But they've got big businesses in this state that they've given all kinds of tax breaks to. They're trying to balance the budget on our backs. Enough is enough."
Locke angered state workers in December when he proposed a budget that would give them smaller raises over the next two years - 2.2 percent and 2.5 percent - than teachers and require them to pay a greater share of their health care costs.
Senate Democrats recently approved a budget that includes the raises state workers want, but would still require them to pay more for health care.
State workers are also upset over many of the proposed government program cuts being discussed in Olympia. Allen Richards, a hearing officer in the state's Medical Assistance Administration, voted against allowing a strike. A 12-year state employee, Richards said he believes state workers have been "shortchanged" over the years, but that going on strike might actually hurt the union's cause.
"We would look very foolish at this point," Richards said. "It would be perceived as overpaid state employees asking for even more."
At least two other major unions have opted not to strike, at least for now - the Washington Education Association, which represents 70,000 teachers, and the 3,000-member Washington Public Employees Association. This week's strike vote was the federation's first in more than two decades. In 1975, the union fell 70 votes short of what it needed to call a strike. A strike vote two years later lost by a much wider margin. The only statewide public worker strike was in 1977, when members of the Washington Public Employees Association walked off the job for two days in a dispute over wages.
Union organizers say that there will always be enough staff on duty to care for developmentally disabled residents at Rainier School and in other state facilities, including prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
But the union does want enough disruption that the public notices and complains to legislators. "Our answer to them is, `You need to call your legislator and let them know that the state employees are valuable people,' " Federation member David Pardy said.
The 800 nurses in the Department of Social and Health Services and the Department of Health plan to walk of the job late next week if lawmakers don't address their concerns - staffing shortages and potential cuts to state programs.
"We believe there is enough management nurses and directors of nurses who can cover for the need of the patients and we expect those people to get in there and roll up their sleeves and get to work," said Diane Sosne, president of District 1199NW of the SEIU.