Winter 2013-14
Don’t Outsource Thurston County! Whose Job is Next?
by County and City Employee staff on March 17, 2014On Monday, March 3rd, 2014 over 100 Union brothers and sisters gathered to protest Thurston County Commissioner Karen Valenzuela’s campaign kickoff event.
Valenzuela was targeted for this rally because she spearheaded the efforts to outsource. She is the onlycommissioner up for re-election this year. Several groups collaborated on the Rally...
Read More
New clinic helps Yakima slash health-care costs
by County and City Employee staff on March 1, 2014AS WAS the case in most of the country, last year’s employee health costs at the City of Yakima were soaring out of control.Yakima was self-insured but still spending $10 million on its...
Read More
Why planner fled right-to-work state
by County and City Employee staff on February 24, 2014URBAN PLANNER Colin Maycock was working at a regional development center in Georgia when it hit him.“I came to realize what working in a right-to-work state does to people,” he says. “You work for...
Read MoreContracting out destroys 12 Thurston County jobs
by County and City Employee staff on January 24, 2014COUNCIL 2 has strongly protested a move by Thurston County to contract out the jobs of 12 long-time custodians.
All the custodians are members of Council 2.
Outsourcing the work will save...
Read MoreAttorneys bargain first-time contract
by County and City Employee staff on January 12, 2014More than 20 Seattle City Attorneys have successfully bargained a first-time contract. It was overwhelmingly supported by the new Council 2 members and now awaits ratification by the City...
Read MoreEnumclaw workers awarded 'me-too' 2% pay increase
by anonymous on January 11, 2014AN ARBITRATOR has ordered the City of Enumclaw to grant a 2 percent pay increase to those of its employees who are members of Council 2.
The arbitrator, Howell L. Lankford, ruled that increases...
Read MoreFirst time contracts approach finish line
by County and City Employee staff on January 10, 2014THE FIRST STEP that local unions take when they join Council 2 is to negotiate a first-time contract.
Sometimes management attempts to place road blocks along the way to delay the process. But...
Read MoreSavoring sweet success in Spokane
by County and City Employee staff on January 9, 2014IT WAS an election victory to savor. In spite of a potentially strong force assembled against them, pro-labor forces won a clean sweep in the elections for the Spokane City Council in November....
Read More
Is no sacrifice too big for Boeing?
by Chris Dugovich, Council 2 President/Executive Director on January 6, 2014THERE HAVE BEEN many aspects of the recent Boeing machinists negotiations that have beenn expanded on in the Press. The most accurate headline read, "The Offer is a Piece of Crap." It was, and the...
Read More