December 2022
From the President
Greetings Friends,
First, I want to wish you and yours a peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. The many holidays celebrated at this time of year offer respite, reflection, relation and so much more, even while creating the potential added stress. Please do take care and seek the best these last weeks of 2022 have to offer.
Looking ahead into 2023, the AFT Washington Executive Board plans to offer several Race and Labor workshops in January and February, both in person and virtually. Board members Gillian Reese (Local 461), Peter Pihos (Local 2084), and David Ortiz (Local 6191) will be reaching out to local presidents by region to arrange workshops for local leaders. Our hope is that your local leadership will participate as a team and then host a workshop for your membership in Spring or Summer. This workshop is an opportunity to deepen understanding of systemic racism within our union and our workplaces and to strengthen our commitment to disrupting it constructively.
While the course of the pandemic has changed, it’s not over! The impacts continue in many forms. Some of you continue to bargain working conditions, such as the technology and support needed to effectively teach virtual classes. Others are dealing with increased workloads resulting from vacant positions. Some are getting sick or dealing with long COVID or have loved ones who are. Education at every level is, and will be for a long time, struggling to respond to students, families and communities suffering the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, whether that is in the form of inadequate services for students with disabilities, food insecurity exacerbated by the pandemic, disrupted social and emotional development, or a loss of hope for what the future holds.
The disparities that existed before the pandemic were illuminated glaringly early on. Early learning centers, PreK-12 schools and colleges now have an essential role to play in healing and strengthening students and communities. The demand is significant, but our positions as educators and union leaders afford us the opportunity and the responsibility to insert our collective voice into defining the solutions. Our up-close perspective on the unmet needs of our members and the people we serve is invaluable at this moment in time, when it would be far too easy to revert back to habitual practices.
Some of AFT’s recent work can help us maintain clarity on what is important and how we uphold that. From our multiple year campaign to address the student loan debt crisis (and the successes that have resulted) to the recent report on staff shortages in PreK-12 to the work being done to support healthcare workers and patients, our union has been out front calling the question on what kind of society we want to live in. Nonetheless, every day we see decisions made that are contrary to our vision of a better world. For example, in addition to the union busting practices of Starbucks and Amazon, we just saw railroad workers thrown under the train with Congress’ failure to require the companies making eye-widening profits to provide the basic necessity of paid sick leave.
In addition to the support provided by AFT Washington, your local can tap into a variety of resources and support offered by AFT to make the biggest and most effective impact we can. Our power extends beyond our state: nationally, we are a collective of 1.7 million members working in healthcare, education, and public services, and including retirees (one of whom, Renee Potter (Local 8045R) doorbelled in Arizona and called Georgia voters to get out the vote recently – Go Renee!). The power we hold and the gains we’ve made are something to reflect on and celebrate as we close out 2022. We have plenty of wins to build on and rest assured, we can count on plenty of challenges and opportunities coming our way. I hope you’ll have some down time over the break and can take a look at what your local and others have done for inspiration as we head into another year in these challenging times.
In solidarity,
Karen Strickland, President
Local News And Highlights
Don't Let Pay Inequity Take A Bite Out Of Student Success!
By Anna-Marie Magdalena, State Affiliate Political Organizer
Members are delivering the message to our legislators – we need to invest in CTC staff and faculty for our students to succeed. AFT members Amanda Chin, Greg Bem, and Georgina Garretson delivered cookies to our legislators in Olympia. Students in the Culinary Arts Program at Renton Technical College and AFT union member Chef Robert Holland baked these scrumptious cookies.
The cookies we delivered to legislators.
Senator Emily Randall with members and also a cookie.
RTC students with Chef Robert Holland.
Representative Kristine Reeves with Greg Bem and Anna-Marie Magdalena, and cookies.
Action Team Coordinators are meeting regularly to plan future actions and work on engaging a broader spectrum of members. Please reach out to Anna-Marie Magdalena amagdalena@aftwa.org on the recruitment opportunities for Action Team Coordinators at your local.
Members Speak at Senate Higher Education Work Session
By AFT Washington Staff
Last week, several AFT Washington members spoke in the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee’s work session. They brought the message of the challenges that our members face as they balance their dedication to serving CTC students with financial security and well-being to legislators, and emphasized that the state must invest in improving wages for CTC faculty and professional staff, and must address pay inequity for adjunct faculty.
We’re sharing some of the particularly impactful comments that members made.
Lisa Fortson, courtesy of TVW
Assistant Director of Financial Aid and AFT member Lisa Fortson shared that "It is a fear that as wage compression continues, more professional staff will be lost. This has significant implications for our students." She noted that professional staff in the CTCs earn roughly 14% less than their peers in similar states!
Jacqui Cain, courtesy of TVW
We also see pay inequity between part-time and full-time faculty, regardless of the essential role filled by part-timers. AFT Washington’s Vice President for Contingent Faculty Jacqui Cain illuminated how pay inequity has even harsher impacts on faculty of color when she noted that "Pay inequity disproportionately impacts faculty of color. I often speak to faculty of color who are called to teach who tell me that they can't keep doing this... I can't make it."
Suzanne Southerland, full-time faculty at Clark College and WEA member got right to the point, noting that "Students do well when their teachers do well.” She also noted how the low salaries result in challenges hiring faculty of color, a priority of the Legislature and our Colleges - “We were only able to hire two faculty of color for nine open positions.” Without economic security to begin with, low salaries require a sacrifice many underrepresented candidates can’t afford to make.
Anna Wolff, courtesy of TVW
Vacant positions lead to increased workloads for staff throughout the colleges and barriers to services for students. Anna Wolff, AFT union president for faculty at Whatcom CC sees the impact daily - "I see how overworked and overburdened my staff colleagues are, and I see the profound impact that has on my students in my classroom..." while Sue Nightingale, Chair of WEA’s Higher Ed committee shared her observation - "Students are facing locked doors. They are going to our student affairs office and looking to make an appointment with, for example, the disability resource center and there is a sign on the door that says 'Due to low staffing we are not open today.’"
The state wants and needs a CTC system that thrives, with doors that are open to all, and with the classes and supports students need, just as much as we do. To do that, our system needs full funding from the state to fulfill its potential and provide our communities with the bridge to a future of economic security and well-being, and we will keep giving that message to legislators.
AFT Washington’s 2023 Lobby Day!
Our 2023 Lobby Day is fast approaching! It will be in person in Olympia on Monday, February 20th, from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
We show up for our students every day in our classrooms, our technical and community colleges, and our four-year institutions. This year we are showing up in-person to push our legislators for student success, including:
- Pay that reflects the importance of the work we do
- Adjunct pay equity
- Reduced barriers to student support services
- Real commitment to the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
We will be meeting close to Olympia's Capitol campus and will provide training for lobbying legislators, our talking points, and a meal and snacks for the day.
Register here.
The Struggle to Protect Reproductive Rights and Organizing In The Current Environment
Join our Human Rights Committee on Human Rights Day, Saturday, Dec. 10 for “The Struggle to Protect Reproductive Rights and Organizing in The Current Environment!” This conversation about how to protect reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and the right to education will be held via Zoom from 10:00 to 11:30 AM.
As members of AFT Washington’s Human and Civil Rights Committee watched decisions of the Supreme Court come down, the importance of creating space to both acknowledge and strategize how we fight back to defend and expand our human rights became clear.
International Human Rights Day is Dec. 10 and provides the opportunity to come together in solidarity. Reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and the right to education, enshrined in the International Declaration of Human Rights, are not guaranteed and some interests are actively seeking to take them away from us.
Join AFT Washington for a discussion and inspiration to action around ways to reaffirm and protect our rights, and the importance of continuing the fight even in an unwelcoming legal and political climate. Speakers will include:
Mary Le Nguyen, who is the first Executive Director of color in Washington Community Action Network’s (Washington CAN) 40-year history. Her lineage includes her grandfather who fought under Ho Chi Minh during the French occupation where his resistance resulted in the family home being burned down and his imprisonment. Mary has organized within the labor and reproductive justice movements for over 10 years and waited tables for nearly 20. Mary has a MA of Arts in Policy Studies from the University of Washington.
Rigoberto Valdez, Jr. is currently on loan to MLK Labor, to coordinate the Presidents’ Organizing Initiative (a partnership of National Unions, the AFL-CIO and local labor movements to pilot new external organizing strategies). He is a member of UFCW 3000. For more than 27 years, Rigo has dedicated his life and career to organizing workers. Currently, Rigo is the President of the United Latinos of the UFCW, is a founding member and is on the Executive Board of OUTreach (UFCW LGBTQ+ Caucus), a member of the Executive Board of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), serves on the National Executive Board of LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American Advancement), and is a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County, Immigrant Protection and Advancement Taskforce.
Xochilt Lopez, who emigrated from Jalisco, Mexico in 2009, looking for a better life. Xochilt has three children. While working at a packing house in Yakima, Xochilt decided to improve her English and get a degree so that she could have a career helping the community. She received her Associate degree from Yakima Valley Community College, and is currently working on her bachelor’s degree. While at YVCC, Xochilt started a student club, Connection Bridge, to support students navigating the college. She also began working as an organizer with the Alliance for a Just Society and the Communities For Our Colleges coalition. She does outreach to potential students, current students, and parents to enlist them in the fight for free community college and the support it takes for everyone seeking degrees to complete them.
Register here.
It’s Time To Build The Bridge To The Future
AFT Washington is calling on Governor Inslee to understand the working conditions our members have, and that they are the learning conditions of our students. We are calling on the legislature to make significant investments in our state’s CTC system, which is a bridge to the future, connecting our diverse student population with the quality jobs of tomorrow. We have a digital version of the petition to sign here, and your UOR will be working with you to get paper petitions circulating on your campus.
AFT Washington Joins Divest Washington Coalition
Divest Washington is a coalition of beneficiaries of State of Washington pension funds and other Washingtonians affected by climate change and pollution, who are demanding that the Washington State Investment Board divest its holding from fossil fuels.
In 2021, 4.7% of WSIB funds (over $8 billion) was directly invested in fossil fuels. Another 14% of WSIB funds were in index funds or other broad markets funds that include some fossil fuel investments, and 4% of WSIB funds were in banks that fund fossil fuels.
Divest Washington is calling for no new investment in fossil fuels due to their financial, health, and climate risk, and for transparency in existing fossil fuel investments with the goal of zero fossil fuel holdings by 2026. They are also calling for climate-safe investments, using a social justice framework that accounts for impacts on frontline communities, including rural communities and communities of color, across the state.
AFT Washington’s Executive Board voted to join the coalition, and we look forward to being part of the work! AFT is the largest national union to support the Green New Deal, and AFT Washington has partnered with several climate coalitions, most notably Pass The Federal Green New Deal, to work for a better climate future for all of us.
Union Tips And Reminders
Reminder! Best Ways to Contact AFT Washington
With the holidays coming up, many of AFT Washington’s staff will be taking time off. We have implemented a UOR-of-the-day program that means when UORs are out, someone is designated to respond to urgent requests. Your UOR will give you contact information as needed.
In order to contact other staff, we encourage you to address urgent issues to the aftwashington@aftwa.org email address; the Admin Support Team monitors that box and can forward requests to the person best suited to respond.
Please note that AFT Washington’s office will be closed on December 23, 26th, and 30th, as well as January 2nd, in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
AFT Washington's 2023 Convention Is Just Around The Corner
Mark your calendars now for the AFT Washington convention, which will be held May 18-20, 2023! We’ll have much, much more information as we go, but two things to be aware of now are resolutions and board awards. We are particularly encouraging leaders to consider resolutions that you want to bring forward.
If you have any questions about whether your idea is suitable for a resolution, talk to your UOR! They can help you turn your idea into a strong resolution that will guide our work. Resolutions can be in support of a constituency — such as last year’s resolution supporting contingent faculty — or for the full state federation, as 2020’s anti-racism resolution is. There are many options in between, and we’ll have more information on them as well very soon.
The board awards are detailed in the Spotlight (which should be to you by next week). They are divided into categories, most of which only union members are eligible for, but the Cesar Chavez Human Rights Award is a special case: that award is for an individual, group, or local who has a mission or vision that embraces human rights and confronts challenges to human rights head on. Be thinking about people you would like to nominate for the awards and talk to your UOR about the process of nomination!
AFT Connect: Better Data For A Stronger Union
Connect is AFT’s web-based, secure local data management system. It provides a great way to record individual member data, and so much more!
- Capture detailed employment and employer information about members, prospective members, and retired members of your local.
- Make sure your members can access their union-provided benefits (discounted insurance, home mortgages, travel, goods and personal services).
- Keep track of changes in member earnings to ensure proper payment of your local’s per capita obligations.
- Manage your local executive board as well as COPE and other local committees.
- Plan outreach to your members and prospects. Have the information you need to conduct mailings, email, phone and text message outreach via local efforts or using AFT’s communications tools. Record member event attendance and outreach responses.
- Create forms and surveys.
- Track your local’s engagement with and support from Community Allies.
Readily use these features and more through AFT Connect’s dashboard, upload bulk spreadsheet updates of your membership, or let Connect help your local turn data into a powerful outreach and management tool through easy, customizable reports.
Maintaining your local’s membership and leadership information in Connect meets AFT and AFT Washington requirements for your local to remain in good standing.
To get started with AFT Connect, or to request training and other member data support, contact Christine Landon at clandon@aftwa.org.
Communications Help Is Available
Is your local not sure how to best use your website? Did you know you can have a free website? Would you like help with figuring out strategies for better communications outreach? Got something for the whole union to hear about? We can help with all of these, and more!
On top of helping your local, we can provide outreach to the union as a whole, through the Pulse and the Union Spotlight. We are actively interested in anything your members are doing, such as workshops or innovative problem solving.
If you have questions about them, want guidance, or are interested in learning more, please contact Cortney Marabetta at cmarabetta@aftwa.org.
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