Post by Logan on Jun 22, 2016 8:24:50 GMT -6
State workers rally on eve of labor contract negotiations
State workers rallied Tuesday in Tumwater as part of a summer campaign to persuade the state to provide a labor contract that would boost salaries, make health care more affordable and provide better working conditions for public-sector employees.
Washington Federation of State Employees, the state’s largest union, organized Tuesday’s rally — the first in a series around the state — to raise awareness about setbacks in the public sector workforce over that past decade and the importance of the upcoming labor contract.
About 150 people attended the rally outside the headquarters of the state Labor & Industries Department, which came on the eve of the next round of bargaining on the 2017-2019 contract covering 30,000 state employees. That two-day bargaining session is Wednesday and Thursday in Lacey.
Labor contracts are negotiated biennially, and the conditions in the existing contract have become unsustainable, employees said Tuesday. But because they are in a two-year contract, it could not be changed.
Read more here: www.theolympian.com/news/politics-government/article85159767.html
State workers rallied Tuesday in Tumwater as part of a summer campaign to persuade the state to provide a labor contract that would boost salaries, make health care more affordable and provide better working conditions for public-sector employees.
Washington Federation of State Employees, the state’s largest union, organized Tuesday’s rally — the first in a series around the state — to raise awareness about setbacks in the public sector workforce over that past decade and the importance of the upcoming labor contract.
About 150 people attended the rally outside the headquarters of the state Labor & Industries Department, which came on the eve of the next round of bargaining on the 2017-2019 contract covering 30,000 state employees. That two-day bargaining session is Wednesday and Thursday in Lacey.
Labor contracts are negotiated biennially, and the conditions in the existing contract have become unsustainable, employees said Tuesday. But because they are in a two-year contract, it could not be changed.
Read more here: www.theolympian.com/news/politics-government/article85159767.html