Sunday, September 18, 2005
Union staffers picket WEA over contract
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
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The state's largest teachers union has its own labor problem.
About 50 members of the Washington Education Association's Staff Organization — that is, the people who make the union run, from secretaries to lobbyists — picketed outside the union's Federal Way headquarters for the second straight day yesterday as the WEA's board of directors met inside.
The informational picket was in protest of the WEA's latest contract offer, which workers said would take away training funds and eliminate protections against forced transfers while providing a meager 1 percent pay raise.
"We're gravely disappointed," Staff Organization President Lucinda Young said. "They have very regressive proposals on the table. We work very hard to get cost-of-living adjustments and fair contracts for our teachers. We're just trying to get the same thing for ourselves."
The WEA, which represents 77,000 public-school employees, has about 160 workers in nearly two dozen offices around the state, including organizers, lobbyists, lawyers and office staff. WEA's leadership began negotiating with the Staff Organization in June on a contract to replace the one-year agreement that ended Aug. 31.
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