November 2024

November 2024

From the President

For many months, our members along with our AFT siblings around the country have spent many hours writing post cards, making phone calls, knocking on doors and talking to friends, family members, neighbors and their union siblings. AFT spent two months on the road, visiting 20 states and hosting local events in support of our endorsed candidates and the communities they seek to represent. Organized labor and progressive groups have worked tirelessly to counter the destructive goals, the disinformation campaign and the hostile, violent and dehumanizing messaging of the Trump campaign.

In spite of our collective, heroic efforts, we were unable to win this election and, instead, face four years of tumult and potential degradation of the things we value – our democracy, our commitment to the public good, a planet we can thrive on, real opportunity for economic security at every stage of our lives.

The vision of AFT Washington is a just society with access for all to unions, education, health care, and social programs that provide equal opportunity. We value strength through solidarity, unity among diverse members, action toward our goals, democracy in our locals, quality programs for students and fairness for members. During this uncertain time, we remain committed to our vision and values as we work to defend our democracy and make it stronger, protect our schools, centers and colleges to ensure that our members and those we serve thrive, and pursue the Real Solutions we need for all of our communities.

We have a great deal of work ahead of us to protect the gains working people and our communities have made over the years, and we can be comforted and empowered by the knowledge that we are in the excellent company of allies as we seek to achieve the world we want to live in, one in which we lift one another up and leave no one behind.

Here in Washington

We have many terrific Washington State wins to celebrate in this election! The people have voted NO! on Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124. 2109 would have repealed the hard-fought-for capital gains tax, taking an enormous bite out of early childhood education and PreK-12 education. 2117 would have rewound legislation passed by our elected leaders in Olympia and signed into law by Governor Inslee designed to address the climate crisis. 2124 would have turned Washington’s long-term care program into an “opt-in,”, which would have resulted in weakening the foundation of the program to the point of nonviability. We are thrilled that Washingtonians have pushed back hard on the ultra-wealthy backers of these initiatives, understanding that holding wealthy people accountable for their fair share and showing we need and support to take serious action to address the climate crisis.

Unfortunately, Initiative 2066, reversing important legislation related to attaining clean energy and forcing municipalities to adhere to corporate interests rather than resident interests has a slight lead at this time, with about 65% of precincts reporting at the time of writing. If it passes, this initiative is likely to face a court challenge.

At the Federal level

State Senator Emily Randall has won the CD 6 race and will replace retiring Representative Derek Kilmer. She has been a champion of our issues in the State House and we look forward to continuing that work as she tackles a challenging Congressional scenario. Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has an 11,000 vote lead in the Congressional District 3 race, outperforming the same candidate she defeated two years ago. The winner has not been declared yet. In CD 4 in Central Washington, Representative Newhouse is ahead by a few thousand votes; you may recall that he is one of only two Republican representatives in the country who voted to impeach Donald Trump who is still in office.

We are on the brink of winning two additional democratic Senate seats in LD 10 in Skagit County and in LD 18 in Clark County. Janet St. Claire (LD 10) is ahead by a mere 153 votes and Adrian Cortes leads by just over 1000 votes. Also in LD 18, our endorsed candidate for position 2 in the House trails by just 222 votes. In neighboring LD 17, Marla Keethler is ahead in the senate race and Terri Niles leads in House position #2. In LD 26 in Kitsap County Adison Richards has a significant lead and it seems likely we will pick up another House seat there.

All of the incumbents we endorsed in the state legislature won. The end result is that we have stronger majorities and we anticipate that this will contribute to further improvements of our regressive revenue system.

Statewide offices

All of our endorsed candidates for statewide positions won their races and we especially look forward to working with Governor-elect Bob Ferguson and the continuing superintendent of public instruction Chris Reykdal in the upcoming legislative session.

Many thanks to those of you that participated in our Get Out The Vote activities and our endorsement process. Next up: the 2025 Legislative Session begins on January 13^th and we will be reaching out leading up to that date and throughout session to make sure our elected leaders know what we need and take action to achieve it!

In solidarity,

Karen Strickland, President

Local Highlights & News

From The AFT: Project 2025 and Its Potential Impact on Higher Education

Project 2025 dedicates an entire chapter on its plans for "conservative" education, with 44 of the 922 pages of its Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise outlining extreme changes to K-12 and higher education. Lindsey Burke of the Heritage Foundation's education policy department is listed as the chapter's author. The radical changes it proposes would reverse decades of civil rights protections and widen the access gap, making college education more inequitable and unaffordable. This extremist policy proposal is being used as a blueprint for undermining higher education's role as a bulwark of democracy. If enacted, Project 2025 will erode academic freedom and institutional autonomy by an overreach of governmental intrusion into program and curriculum; eradicate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives while permitting attacks on civil rights for all current protected classes; and diminish academic workers' rights and union protections. A few of Project 2025's proposed plans for higher education are highlighted below.

1. Ban public employee labor unions (pages 599-605):
   • Allow loopholes for employers to eliminate public employee unions in the middle of a contract.
   • Allow states to ban labor unions.
   • Allow the elimination of overtime protections and ignoring the federal minimum wage.
   • Allow employers to retaliate against union organizers.
   • See the AFL-CIO's website for an in-depth insight into Project 2025's plan for labor unions, at www.betterinaunion.org/project2025.
2. Eliminate the Department of Education (pages 327, 360-361):
   • Transfer the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education to the Department of Labor and the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Institutions Program to the Bureau of Indian Education.
   • Eliminate or move the Office of Postsecondary Education to the Department of Labor.
   • Reduce and block grant funding to historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges and universities.
   • Eliminate GEAR UP and 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant programs.
   • Move the National Center for Education Statistics to the Census Bureau.
3. Impose federal oversight of higher education accreditation bodies and processes (pages 351-352):
   • Urge Congress to prohibit accreditors from requiring institutional DEI policy to be a condition of accreditation.
   • Eliminate the connection between financial aid eligibility and accreditation.
   • Establish new accreditors that are loyal to the administration.
4. Transfer federal student loans to the Treasury Department and eliminate student loan forgiveness programs (pages 327, 337-340, 353-355):
   • Eliminate income-driven repayment programs for borrowers with lower incomes, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
   • Eliminate PLUS loans for parents and students.
   • Remove guardrails that protect students against predatory schools and loans that result in excessive student loan debt.
5. Eliminate DEI and affirmative action and reverse federal civil rights protections for underrepresented and LGBTQIA+ students, and halt Title IX investigations (pages 330-334, 352-357):
   • Move the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice, preferring civil rights enforcement to be done through litigation in the federal courts.
   • Under the DOJ, the Civil Rights Division would "prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers" that have DEI or affirmative action programs.
   • Rescind the Biden administration's Title IX regulations with protections for LGBTQIA+ students, especially those identifying as nonbinary.
   • Eliminate federal funding for international education (Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965) and create barriers to recruiting and retaining international students and faculty.
   • Prohibit accreditation agencies from using what the authors view as their "gatekeeper" role under Title VI to encourage DEI in higher education, as it is tied to a university's accreditation regarding access and equity.
   • Programs under Title VI include foreign language and international studies and the Fulbright Hays Program, which all receive federal funding.
   • Eliminate the lowest qualifying wage levels for H-1B workers, restricting and changing the H-1B visa process for international students and faculty, which could drastically reduce the international student and faculty populations, both of which are largely in STEM-related fields (National Science Foundation, 2024).
   • Allocate a 40 percent funding increase to international business programs that require instititions, faculty, and fellows to certify how their programs' goals benefit American interests.
6. Impose changes to scientific organizations that would affect research and innovation, threatening global competitiveness (pages 133-136, 462):
   • Require "any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest in a concrete way aligned with conservative principles" (page 686).
   • Eliminate federal workers across agencies, including career scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
   • Require oversight of federal funding for scientific research, including reducing funding for climate-based research.
7. Devalue higher education credentials and student rights (page 357-358):
   • Call for a presidential executive order eliminating bachelor's degrees as a requirement for a federal job unless "the requirements of the job specifically demand it."

Sources:
Bethany Smith et al., "Graduate Enrollment in Science, Engineering, and Health Continues to Increase among Foreign Nationals, while Postdoctoral Appointment Trends Vary across Fields" (National Science Foundation, 2024), https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf24320.

Lindsey M. Burke, "Department of Education," in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, ed. Paul Dans and Steven Groves (The Heritage Foundation/Project 2025, 2023), 319-362, https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/files/2024-07/Project%202025%20Education%20Department.pdf.

From The AFT: How Project 2025 and MAGA Republicans Would Harm Students, Educators, School Staff, and Public Education

Project 2025 calls for:

• In its preamble, having teachers and librarians “imprisoned” or “classed as registered sex offenders” over teaching banned books or teaching “pornography,” which could mean anything related to gender, sexual orientation or anything else deemed inappropriate (page 5).
• Eliminating the Department of Education (page 319).
• Creating a universal private school voucher program (pages 319, 347).
• Eliminating Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (pages 325-326).
• Transitioning Title I and IDEA to “no-strings-attached” block grants—which could allow the funds to flow directly to parents in the form of private school vouchers—before phasing it out over the next decade.
• Eliminating Head Start, which serves over 1 million children annually, forcing the closure of thousands of preschools and severely restricting access to child care in rural America (page 482).
• Removing accountability and transparency requirements for charter schools (page 331).
• Censoring curriculum and removing content related to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), gender identity, race and anything deemed “anti-American” or “woke” (page 344).
  • Removing protections for LGBTQIA+ students in schools, including the Biden administration’s recent Title IX guidance, and legalizing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people (pages 332-334).
• Scaling back the federal government’s ability to enforce civil rights laws like Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, and Title VI, which prohibits race-based discrimination.
• Allowing states to opt out of federal education programs and devoting their share of federal education funds “toward any lawful education purpose under state law” (page 351).
• Passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to those passed in a number of Republican-led states (page 344).
• Reducing eligibility for free school meals (page 303).

Update On Our Legislative Work

By AFT Washington Staff

The Legislative Session starts on January 13^th, and we are getting ready! So far this year we’ve held 38 virtual lobby meetings on our legislative agenda with legislators, involving 54 members. In addition, we have held two worksite legislative visits, at Hazen High School and Kentlake High School, with the goal of showing legislators the challenges that School-Related Personnel meet every day. We have two more on the calendar, and are hoping to schedule several more.

We will be delivering our CTC petition to Governor Inslee next week, and expect to have our SRP letter campaign calling on the Governor to fully fund PreK-12 education up soon. The Governor's budget is expected in mid-December.  

Overall, the messaging from legislators regarding our budget priorities has been slightly improved. The purpose of the legislator meetings and site visits is to build support for our budget priorities and policy proposals. While legislators we talk with continue to caution us about the less-than-projected revenue coming to the state coffers in the next biennium, they are also frequently accompanying this with acknowledgement that we need to raise revenues. That’s a nice change from the more usual message that cutting expenditures is the “solution” to revenue concerns.

The bottom line is that we must remain active in this pre-session period and prepare to be a consistent and vocal presence throughout the 2025 session beginning on January 13th.

Real Solutions For Higher Education Materials Added To Digital Handbook

By Cortney Marabetta, Communications Specialist

AFT has released new Real Solutions For Higher Education materials that include a palm card, a toolkit on tools available to AFT locals, and a Google drive with a very wide variety of materials drafted by AFT and other locals. You can find it in the digital handbook for leaders.

Due to security concerns, we have chosen to link the digital handbook only on the AFT Washington website, under the Resources > For Local Leaders tab. That page is now locked down to prevent hostile entities such as the Freedom Foundation from getting access to it. You will need a StateWeb login to access the page. If you do not have a StateWeb account and need assistance getting one set up, please contact Cortney Marabetta at cmarabetta@aftwa.org. You will need your member number, which we can find if you do not yet have a digital membership card.

If you have questions or suggestions of things to add to the handbook, please contact us at aftwashington@aftwa.org.

Nominations and Elections Committee Needs Members

With the AFT Washington Biennial Convention coming up next year, it’s time to form the Nominations and Elections committee! We are looking for 3 members to form this committee, which is tasked with verifying nominations for roles on the AFT Washington Executive Board, and with handling the election itself during the convention.

To serve on this committee, members must be planning to attend the convention and commit to, typically, three meetings in the 6 months before the convention. Members of the committee must not be running for election to the AFT Washington board, though they may be members of their local’s board.

If you’re interested in serving on this committee, please contact us at aftwashington@aftwa.org for next steps!

Union Tips & Reminders

Adjuncts Building Community Conference – Registration is Open!

November 15th, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

This Conference is hosted by AFT Washington, AFL-CIO and co-sponsored by the Washington Education Association (WEA).

Attendees will choose from several professional development and retirement workshops, and learn about adjunct organizing across the state for better pay and job security. The professional development topics include Keeping Up With AI, Our Students Are Workers Too, and Changing Student Expectations and Needs, all of which will give attendees the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and strengthen their classes. There will also be a cookie social and the opportunity to connect with other attendees at this in-person event!

Register here.

From the AFT and AAUP: Title IX: What Faculty Should Know

Wednesday, November 13th, 11:00 AM

RSVP for a Nov. 13 webinar to discuss new regulations to Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. While your administration may provide training on what the regulations say, this session will focus on what faculty and staff can do, through shared governance and collective bargaining, to develop and implement Title IX policies that build on the baseline provided by the new regulations to prohibit sexual harassment while also protecting academic freedom and due process for all workers.

Register here.

The AFT Washington Retiree Chapter Needs You!

At the 2023 AFT Washington convention, delegates unanimously adopted Resolution 2023-04, “Organized Retirees For Action”. The AFT Washington Retiree Chapter, local 8045R, has been working on developing a strategic plan and establishing an organizing team to carry out the goals established in the resolution. This is where you come in!

The Retiree Chapter is calling on local leaders to do two things to support this resolution.

1. Appoint a retiree from your local to serve as a representative and advisor to the Retiree Chapter.
2. Work with AFT Washington and AFT National to grant authorization to move identified retired members in your local’s Connect database account to the Retiree Chapter’s Connect account.

A flyer about this is available here. An organized retiree chapter is a powerful force, but it’s too easy to lose track of our retired members. Help us grow the chapter and build our retiree power!

If you have questions about the project, please contact Richard Burton at rburton@aftwa.org or at 206-225-0621.

Take Our Survey On AI!

AFT Washington is seeking your input! We have created a survey, using questions from WaTech, Washington state's Technology Solutions Division, and UC Berkeley, to assess how you and your college are using AI. The survey is intended to help inform the state's emerging AI policies and is part of a multistate collaboration.

You can take the survey 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.