Teamster Jessica Poston, a counselor at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, joined several other state employees who spoke at a rally the Western State Hospital in Lakewood today.

A government shutdown is becoming a very real possibility. If the legislature does not pass a budget by June 30, thousands of corrections employees could get laid off.

The Mayor of Kahlotus is Dave Wooten. He is a long time Teamster, an officer at the nearby Coyote Ridge correctional facility.

We are already a week into the second special session of the legislature and no budget deal is in sight.

Our Teamster nurses, at the Department of Corrections and the Washington State Nurses Association, perform incredibly challenging work, and it's time to thank them.

I want to update you on where things stand with the budget in Olympia. We had some good news during the regular legislative session when both the House and Senate included funding for our DOC contract in their budget proposals. The Governor had released his budget earlier, which also proposed funding our contract.

We are currently recruiting for a Union Representative position for the Department of Corrections.

Every year at this time, we honor the men and women who work in critical public safety roles through a series of events and activities across the country.

Today, the House Democrats released their 2017-2019 Operating Budget proposal, and I am pleased to report it fully funds our collective bargaining agreement for Teamsters at the Department of Corrections.

Late Tuesday night, Michelle Woodrow, our President and Director of Corrections and Law Enforcement, testified before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on how the Senate's recent operating budget proposal would impact members of Teamsters Local 117.