June 2025
Adjunct Unemployment Workshops
Monday, June 16th, 2:00 PM or Tuesday, June 24th, 3:00 - 4:30 PM
AFT Washington and WEA have helped hundreds of adjuncts successfully apply for unemployment benefits over more than a decade.
This workshop is intended for seasoned and new applicants alike. The aim is to increase your chances of getting your unemployment claim as adjuncts resolved quickly, decreasing the potential of accidentally triggering delays that could delay payments by months.
Attending a live workshop is important, so we can answer questions live! We do not record sessions, but we can provide additional accommodations as needed.
WAISN Rapid Response Workshop
Thursday, Jun 26, 2025, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) is the largest immigrant-led coalition in Washington. They are a volunteer-driven network of immigrant and refugee-rights organizations and individuals distributed across the state. WAISN has a last immigration rapid response workshop scheduled to stop detention and deportation and keep families together.
Washington State Labor Council Convention
July 22-24, 2025
Your local should have received information from the Washington State Labor Council regarding their convention in July. The more our membership is represented, the better we are able to advocate for our members’ interests and needs. This year we are bringing the resolution passed at our convention, “Our Labor and Our Money Is Our Power” to the WSLC for adoption.
The convention will be held in Vancouver. For more information, please contact wslc@wslc.org.
Treasurer Training
Tuesday, August 5th, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
In this course we will be going over introductory subjects such as:
- Per capita payments
- Maintaining financial control
- Assuring the local is in compliance with their financial governing documents.
- The importance of utilizing available resources such as Connect and Leadernet.
This training will function as a guide to assist you in the early stages of your transition to your Financial or Treasurer role.
Please Note: If you have not made a Connect account, please request one prior to the training using this link: https://awa.knack.aft.org/aftdatasupport#get-connected/.
Please take into consideration that approval times vary around 5-10 business days after your request is submitted.
If you have questions or need assistance on setting up / requesting a connect account, please contact the AFT Washington Data Manager, Briseida Sanchez at bsanchez@aftwa.org or via phone at (206) 432-8075.
Register for the training here.
Human Rights Committee Seeks Members
The AFT Washington Human Rights Committee is sincerely committed to our mission statement of advocating for human rights in our workplaces and our community. We are continuing to work with our locals and allies to combat racism, foster community, and educate our members and communities on the importance of Human Rights. The AFT Washington Human Rights Committee needs your expertise, experience, and investment in upholding Human Rights to do this! We want to have a representative committee that includes all the constituencies within AFT Washington, but to do that we need your participation. You are invited to join the Human Rights Committee as an advocate for the Human Rights issues that are important to our members. To join the Human Rights Committee, contact Ray Carrillo, 206-369-4001, rcarrillo@aftwa.org.
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 Briseida Sanchez at bsanchez@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.