CONTRACTS RATIFIED

To recap, all of the Federation’s contracts have now been ratified, beating the Oct. 1 deadline set in law. It’s important to make that deadline—it’s one of the legal conditions before the governor can request funding and before the Legislature can vote on that funding.

Since Monday noon, when the General Government, Higher Education Coalition and Washington State University ratification results came in, four more contracts have been ratified:

• Eastern Washington University Bargaining Unit 1 – 94-39 to ratify.
• Eastern Washington University Bargaining Unit 2 – 9-4 to ratify.
• University of Washington Police Management – 5-0 to ratify.
• University of Washington (main Seattle campus, Harborview Medical Center, Bothell, Tacoma, Friday Harbor, Pack Forest) – 474-136 to ratify.

While we’re on the subject of contracts, some of you have voiced concern about recent media reports suggesting the Legislature is considering unilaterally changing these contracts because of the dark economic clouds on the horizon.

To set the record straight: The Legislature votes on the funding of the contracts. They cannot change the contracts. They can’t touch the non-economic parts. On the compensation and other economic items, they vote thumbs up or thumbs down on funding. If they vote down the funding, the state and the Federation go back into negotiations.

The short answer is: The Legislature can’t micromanage your contracts. And with your help, the Federation will once again mount a comprehensive campaign to win legislative funding for what we believe is a package of fiscally responsible contracts.