Local delegates, executive board members, and member of PEOPLE, our union's political action fund, came together on April 27 to decide which candidates our union endorses in a critical 2024 election season.
Have you ever wondered how our union makes decisions about who to endorse in political campaigns?
There’s some misleading chatter floating online about unions, dues and politics. So let’s dive in and explore how political endorsements are made at AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE).
When people ask if our union engages in politics, we say “Yes! We do.”
That’s because no workforce anywhere has more at stake in decisions made by elected officials, who decide our wages, our benefits, our job security and our working conditions.
In October 2017, Mihret Tirfu, a Hospital Assistant at Harborview Medical Center was unjustly medically separated after 17 years at Harborview.
As a union member, her separation was challenged by WFSE and headed to arbitration but the employer settled in mediation after hundreds of signatures demanding Mihret be returned to work were delivered to management.
Stewards are the face of our union, the trusted workplace leaders we go to for information, support and ways to get involved.
We currently have over 950 stewards in AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE), but are always actively recruiting and training new stewards to build our workplace power and ensure all members have union leadership and representation in their workplace.
Thanks to the hard work of our Steward Committee, we are launching a new steward program that includes new classes and a mentor program for stewards-in-training.
Employees of the Thurston Conservation District (TCD) said #UNION YES! for a voice and respect at work by joining WFSE.
Thurston TCD employees are the first conservation district in Washington State (and perhaps the nation) to organize, and they will begin negotiating their own contract soon.
When he first took a job at the Centralia Correctional Center in Illinois, Keith Kracht knew that a career in public service wouldn’t make him a millionaire. But then again, that’s not why he went into public service.
