'Together We're Stronger'
Washington's state employees are making history and organizing under the new collective bargaining law.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
Head Start workers here recently organized a union with the Washington Federation of State Employees/ AFSCME Council 28. They ran their campaign by the book, and they made history: Theirs is the first brand-new unit to file for representation under the state's new collective bargaining law.
"I learned about the law when a co-worker showed me an article in the union newspaper," says Theresa Sullivan, the committee's point person. "We realized that we needed to organize."
The new law may eliminate many current civil service protections including seniority rights and defenses against contracting out. Only workers represented by a union will be able to negotiate these protections into binding contracts. The Department of Personnel will determine the wages, benefits and working
conditions for unrepresented workers.
This Head Start is run through the Community Colleges of Spokane, so its staff members are state employees. The unit of 111 teachers, associate teachers, social-work aides and cooks — in 11 sites around the city — began their journey to power last summer.
STEP BY STEP. The workers organized one step at a time. First, a group met with Council 28 staff to "learn how to go about it," says Sullivan. The union invited them to organizer training, followed by a one-day program on house calls.
"Then we really got to work. Three of us did house calls," says Sullivan, "trying to contact people we thought could be leaders." The 16-person organizing committee represented almost every site. These activists fanned out, doing house calls and holding discussions with their co-workers during breaks.
On Sept. 24, members of the organizing committee traveled to Olympia to file their petition with the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC); they had authorization cards signed by 75 percent of the eligible staff. The next day, workers startled Head Start managers by presenting them with a copy of the petition and requesting recognition. Under the new law, PERC must certify the union, but the workers are keeping up their momentum as they await state action. Their next steps: to nominate bargaining team members, get membership cards signed and distribute a contract survey — while preparing to negotiate an interim contract.
"We might be your first [to organize under the new law], but we won't be the last," Sullivan declared, addressing the Council 28 convention a few days after the filing.
"The most exciting thing was to see all the workers pull together," she says. "We know we're going to have power and a voice. We'll be able to speak up for the low-income families in our program and to protect ourselves."
CATCHING THE SPIRIT. Just weeks later — carrying banners proclaiming "Together We're Stronger" — workers from the state's departments of licensing and health filed authorization cards to form a union with Council 28, a potential of 1,500 new members.
"We want a place at the table where decisions are made about our job, our lives. It's that simple," said Theresa Phillips, a staffer at the Department of Health.
Department of Licensing employee Art Minor pointed to the big picture: "We love our jobs. We love our state. We want to keep Washington great. And we believe organizing ... will help us make the services we provide even better." Health and licensing are the first state agencies to file for elections under the new law.
