Job actions heating up as members take charge against the targets on their backs; major job action Thursday at Western State Hospital

After the treatment state employees got from the Legislature this year, WFSE/AFSCME members are pushing back against senseless cuts and gutless politicians.

• This week, members at Western State Hospital in Lakewood hold a major job action Thursday to push back against ward closures and the proposed layoff of at least 65 members-layoffs that have not been discussed with the union. A demand to bargain has been filed, but this kind of quasi-after-the-fact notification is unacceptable.
  
  The Western State Hospital job action is this Thursday, Aug. 13, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., at the hospital campus, 9601 Steilacoom Blvd. S.W. in Lakewood (south of Tacoma). If you're able to attend, you'd be striking a blow against any such moves anywhere we have members. An injury to one is an injury to all.
  

• Last Thursday, Aug. 6, Fircrest School Local 341 in Shoreline held a job action to push back against a legislatively mandated study calling for the elimination of 250 beds in all of the residential habilitation centers. Fircrest has a high number of short-term, respite clients--but not the proportionate funding. Local 341 members fear heavy cuts there. The Local 341 members signed petitions, called legislators and rallied at the facility's entrance. Their message to the consultants doing the study: The cuts in RHCs, juvenile rehabilitation, Corrections and elsewhere aren't necessary.

• A steering committee of Child Welfare Services members meets this Saturday to set up their watchdog role of a state panel created by the Legislature to set up two pilot privatization projects over the next six years.

• And the push back has spilled over into members' legislative and political action focus.

The Federation Executive Board voted to withhold all endorsements in the upcoming, Aug. 18 primary election for three state House seats up for election.

That's because the union has suspended its normal endorsements process for the rest of 2009.

The union is also withholding all contributions to candidates for the Legislature and governor until after the 2010 session. No money will go to parties or political committees, either.

"We have supported candidates in the past who have abandoned us when things got tough, and so we will suspend contributions until our members can agree on which politicians truly support our members," said Dennis Eagle, WFSE/AFSCME's director of legislative and political action.

The union will restructure its political program to better weed out candidates who give superficial support from those who take a stand for state employees and stick to it.

"Our goal is to make it harder for politicians to win our support, and to also ensure that our support, when granted, is truly meaningful," Eagle said.

To gather information and ideas to reinvent the union's political program, WFSE/AFSCME will hold a series of three workshops this year. The goal is to strengthen members' voices.

The WFSE/AFSCME Statewide Executive Board adopted all these changes July 18.

The legislative shafting wasn't limited just to WFSE/AFSCME members. The rest of labor is changing the way it does business when it comes to endorsements and contributions.

The governor and legislative leaders killed the Worker Privacy Act after the Boeing Company objected.

The Washington State Labor Council has formed a new political action committee called DIME ("Don't Invest in More Excuses"). It's meant to better coordinate which candidates truly deserve Labor's support. WFSE/AFSCME has contributed to DIME.