The General Government Bargaining Team saw significant progress at the table during the latest bargaining session Sept. 1 and 2 at the Thurston County Fairgrounds in Lacey.
The union and management reached tentative agreement (TA) on eight articles – bringing to 26 the number of articles TA’d. That’s nearly half the contract.
The General Government team worked overtime over two days to respond to management proposals and ship counterproposals to the state side. Thursday, the pace significantly picked up with the eight TAs.
The team continues to look at your identified priorities and is working hard to get the best contract possible for these terrible times.
The General Government team bargains again next week on Sept. 8 and 9 and is looking forward to more mutual creative problem-solving.
On health care bargaining, the Federation-led coalition of all state employee unions is still awaiting some word from the state on whether they’re ready to come back to the table and discuss a health care article that gives some basis for a settlement. The union proposal on the table is not unreasonable given the reality that state employees may be in the middle of a four-year wage freeze and sacrificed already with other significant cuts to pay from furloughs, benefits, pension funding and lost jobs.
OTHER TEAMS:
Other teams bargained this week including The Evergreen State College, Western Washington University, the Community College Coalition and the DSHS Institutions Supplemental Bargaining Team. As we get details, we’ll report them here and post them at www.wfse.org > Bargaining.
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