Many of you have been inquiring about the status of our 2021-2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement. We are currently waiting on a signature from the Governor. Once we receive the Governor’s signature, John Scearcy, your Secretary-Treasurer, will sign the contract as well. At that time, we will be able to provide the final document to you.

Additionally, we have three important updates to share with you about how our Union is working to defend your rights at DOC.

1. GRIEVANCE OVER CURRENT 2021-2023 CBA

Our Union's legal team will be filing a grievance over the DOC's refusal to accept specific economic provisions in our current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Specifically, the State is refusing to implement portions of Article 16 and 32 per the terms the parties agreed to. These involve pay for security screening, the McNeil Island premium, and the ability to offer straight time pay to overtime exempt employees who have maxed out their exchange time accruals.

The State is taking the position that these economic improvements will not take effect until July 1, 2022. Our position is that impacted employees should receive payment retroactive to July 1, 2021. As this grievance moves through the grievance and arbitration process, we will keep you posted.

It is important to understand that this grievance will not impact your 4% general wage increase, one-time $1500 bonus, and targeted range increases on July 1, 2022.

2. NEGOTIATIONS OVER MANDATORY OVERTIME

We are aggressively pursuing an agreement with the State to limit the amount of mandatory overtime per week the DOC can assign. A team of shop stewards and Union staff offered a proposal last Friday, and we are waiting for a response. We are hopeful we can reach an agreement that will provide some much-needed relief to members soon. Any agreement we reach with the State will require a vote of the membership. Stay tuned for more information.  

Thank you to all who signed the Safety Petition that we presented to the DOC leadership team in March and sending emails to the DOC Executive Team. By speaking out, you are helping pressure DOC to concede to our demands for safer, more humane working conditions.

3. ADDITIONAL TARGETED RANGE INCREASES

As you may recall, the Governor requested funding in his budget for range increases for a handful of classifications that were not included in our Interest Arbitration Award. As a follow-up, OFM was tasked with evaluating those classifications and others at the DOC, with consideration paid to those most severely impacted by recruitment and retention issues. We have provided OFM with feedback that advocates for those classifications that the Arbitrator overlooked in our Interest Arbitration Award.

It's important to understand that a limited amount of funding has been appropriated for these purposes and must be split between other state agencies. Any additional range increases at the DOC, should they occur, will be available to only a small number of classifications. As soon as we know who will be impacted, we will let you know.

For questions, please reach out to your Union Representative. Thank you for your dedicated service and commitment to keeping communities safe across Washington State.