Two days following the walkouts, a tentative agreement for a 2025-27 contract was reached for WFSE's General Government contract, which includes most state agencies and the vast majority of WFSE members.
The tentative agreement at the General Government table will impact all public sector WFSE members.
Though negotiations for other contracts continue, the general wage increase achieved at the General Government contract often sets the minimum for what other contracts achieve.
Details of the agreement will be out soon. But the financial gains are significant, especially in a difficult budget year.
If you're not covered by the General Government contract, you can stay up to date with negotiations for your contract here.
At 12:00 pm on September 10, WFSE members statewide, from all employers, agencies and colleges, walked out of work and stood in solidarity to demand fair contracts.
WFSE members sent a clear message from over 100 worksites across the state:
We are demanding a fair contract for ourselves, our families, and the people who depend on our work.
For next steps, stay tuned for details on this Contract Negotiations page and on your contract's bargaining updates page.
Let's show that the public is on our side! Print this sign and bring it to your favorite local businesses and ask them to display it in their windows. Take a picture with the owners holding the sign or when it's up in the shop window and send it to [email protected] or tag us @wfsec28 on socials. We'll give them free exposure as a union-friendly shop!
Our theme for this year's contract campaign is United for Washington. There's a lot of pain and frustration in communities across our state. Many of the problems facing working families feel too big to tackle. Those are the problems that we solve as public servants.
As our bargaining teams negotiate at the table, we need our members to communicate to the public and our employers the value of the work we do and how we help each and every Washingtonian.
That's how we win public support and put pressure on management to give us the pay and the tools we need to do our jobs.
After a weeklong vote in December and several run-off elections the first week of January, WFSE members selected the coworkers they want negotiating our 2025-2027 union contracts. Find your bargaining team here.
All WFSE members that negotiate our contracts undergo training to learn what wins at the bargaining table. Trainings are occuring between February and April. See pictures here.
Throughout April, bargaining teams have been reviewing and vetting contract proposals that have been submitted by members over the previous year. Watch the video above to learn what "vetting" your proposals means.
After our bargaining teams review all the contract proposals from the membership, they will put together a bargaining survey containing the most requested contract priorities. Members will then be able to rank those priorities from most important to least important.
The survey helps our bargaining teams focus on what matters most to our members and develop campaigns as necessary to put pressure on management.
With the information from the Bargaining Survey in hand, your bargaining team can begin crafting their initial proposal to the employer. The employer will develop their initial proposal, and negotiations will begin throughout April and May and continue through the summer until we have a tentative agreement that our members can vote on.
As Mike and Ashley explain in the video above, we cannot share precise details of what's occurring at the bargaining table until we've reached a tentative agreement that our members can vote on.
WFSE members negotiate our contracts alongside a negotiations expert from WFSE staff.
The members representing us at the bargaining table have serious responsibilities that affect the lives of thousands of WFSE members, including:
Bargaining teams have the power to alter, modify, change, or concede on all issues to obtain the best possible contracts and reach a tentative agreement, or declare that the team has reached an impasse. They are truly your representatives at the table.
