Posts tagged Washington Federation of State Employees
Political fights put spotlight on leader of Washington’s largest public employee union
June 13, 2025 // And he didn’t hold back with rhetorical slights against the new governor, calling Ferguson a “pseudo Democrat” at rallies and “Ratfink Robbie Ferguson” on Facebook. The swipes further brightened the exposure of the union’s demands. Yestramski said in a recent interview in the union’s Olympia headquarters that he prefers “adult conversations” to resolve differences, though he realizes what occurred in the legislative session “may have painted a slightly different impression.” But the gravity of the situation demanded a strong retort, he said.
Raises for one union not funded in WA budget, leading to finger-pointing
May 19, 2025 // Leaders for the WPEA say a failure to fund a new contract could impact thousands of state government employees such as food safety officers, commercial vehicle enforcement officers, and wildfire fighters. Some contracts for WPEA locals were funded, including for employees at the Yakima Valley College and for Senate and House Democratic legislative staff. But WPEA contracts for general government and higher education employees, which represent the bulk of the union, were not. Many state agencies employ a mix of those represented by WPEA or WFSE.
State workers blast Ferguson’s furlough plan, calling it a betrayal
March 20, 2025 // Front-line workers and educators feel betrayed and frustrated that the man they helped elect wants to reduce their income while declining to endorse new or higher taxes on the state’s wealthiest individuals and largest corporations. “They feel they were lied to. We have to stop being the ones having the budgets balanced on our backs,” said Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, following a rally Monday at the Capitol held by those pushing the Legislature to tax the wealthy and big businesses to erase the multi-billion dollar deficit. Yestramski called Ferguson a “pseudo Democrat” and added: “Budgets are moral documents. This is his moral test.
WASHINGTON: State worker tells peers, ‘WFSE isn’t worth it’
November 13, 2024 // His supervisor somehow found out about his disability and began treating him differently. To his shock, he learned his supervisor had divulged his private, HIPAA-protected medical information while he was out for surgery. He immediately turned to WFSE, asking for protection from this unfair treatment. His union representative assured him they would take care of it. But weeks passed, and the gossip and bullying continued.
Washington: Worker’s story illuminates unions’ dirty little secret
August 6, 2024 // It’s demonstrably unconstitutional to recognize the workers’ rights only when you feel like it, but so far the courts have let unions get away with it. The Freedom Foundation deals with such machinations daily, recognizing them as dirty tricks meant to discourage members from ending their dues. The organization’s mission is to navigate these obstacles and ensure workers can exercise their rights at the appropriate times. WFSE, Washington’s largest state worker union, saw its membership numbers drop precipitously last year, losing about 700 members — which equates to roughly $700,000 in lost annual revenue.
UNION PRESIDENT APOLOGIZES TO FREEDOM FOUNDATION CLIENT
April 23, 2024 // The Washington State Supreme Court, in Allen v. Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, made clear that the right to fair representation is not dependent on a worker’s membership status. Nor is it lawful for an exclusive bargaining representative to “restrain or coerce an employee” in the exercise of their right to not join a union.” “I needed something I would be able point to the next time I need representation,” Fix said. “This letter gives me security and lets others know the union can’t discriminate against them.” The irony is that Fix isn’t anti-union per se, and had even negotiated on behalf of WFSE in the past. Fix went out of his way to aid the union in its collective bargaining functions and was mistreated just because he exercised his First Amendment right to opt out. Mike Yestramski,
RECORDS CONFIRM RUMORS OF PERSONNEL TURMOIL AT WFSE
November 29, 2023 // As of August 2023, the number of state agency workers represented by WFSE—its pool of potential members—had increased to 38,872, but its dues-paying membership had still shrunk to 23,303, leaving it with a membership rate of only 58 percent. Unless WFSE embraces values like transparency and customer service instead of secrecy and partisan politics, it should expect more of the same no matter who sits atop the organization.
Workers at Tacoma Art Museum vote unanimously to unionize
November 21, 2023 // With the vote, the union will join the Washington Federation of State Employees, [AFSCME Council 28/WFSE] part of the nationwide American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents some 10,000 cultural institution workers nationwide. Significant about TAMWU’s bargaining unit is the inclusion of employees from multiple museum departments. Museum workers across the country have struggled to bargain as a whole and have been split into separate unions. Often, workers at museums are separated into unions based on positions, like the security guard union at the Seattle Art Museum and at the Frye Art Museum.
IF UNIONS DIDN’T HAVE DOUBLE STANDARDS, THEY’D HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL
October 17, 2023 // By any fair reading of the state’s public disclosure laws, the name, address, birthdate, etc., of every person drawing a salary from the taxpayers should be 100 percent disclosable to anyone who asks for it. And for anyone but the Freedom Foundation, it probably would be. But pretty much every time we file a legal public information request for an employee database, the agency in question caves to pressure from public-sector unions to decline it. They cite a variety of bogus reasons for their action, such as concerns we’ll sell the information to a third party — but the truth is even more terrifying to them. They know we’ll inform their members that, according to the First Amendment, they can’t be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union. The government officials who deny our information requests know they’re breaking the law, but it costs them nothing and forces us to spend months or years waiting for the courts to award us what we were entitled to all along.
FREEDOM FOUNDATION FILES PERC COMPLAINT AGAINST WFSE CITING DISCRIMINATION, INTERFERENCE WITH LABOR RIGHTS
October 11, 2023 // Additionally, it’s unlawful for exclusive bargaining representatives to “restrain or coerce an employee” in the exercise of their right to not join a union. Conditioning access to equitable representation on a worker joining a union coerces the employee to join the union. As for Fix, he was exclusively represented by WFSE for the purposes of collective bargaining. Therefore, WFSE owed him a duty of fair representation that was breached when Yestramski refused to communicate with him. Public employees like Todd Fix who have no desire to affiliate with unions are constantly bearing the price of exclusive representation regimes, the original sin of modern public-sector labor law principles. In exchange for their compliance with exclusive representation laws, workers have the right to be represented fairly by their exclusive representative. And they have a right to make their own choices about joining a union without fear of losing access to equitable representation.