Members of the DOC Bargaining Committee together with Secretary-Treasurer Scearcy in Olympia on May 24

On May 23 and 24, our Union bargaining team met with the State in Olympia to bargain over our 2017-2019 contract for Teamsters at the Department of Corrections. These meetings were the second and third times we have negotiated with the State over the terms and conditions of our DOC contract for the coming biennium. We also met with the State on April 26.

So far we have discussed language issues in our DOC contract. We have made progress and reached tentative agreement on some issues. We have not yet discussed economic issues in bargaining.

I am serving as the lead negotiator for the Union. You are also represented in bargaining by all DOC Business Representatives as well as 20 rank-and-file members, who work at locations across the state, in a wide variety of custody and non-custody job classifications.

In these last negotiation sessions, we passed five proposals to the State, including a new section we are calling our “Correctional Employee’s Bill of Rights.” The idea behind this proposal is that all correctional employees must be afforded basic rights, especially during investigations.

The State responded to a few of our proposals and asked questions, but they have not made substantive proposals themselves. We do, however, anticipate that the State will focus in coming bargaining sessions on several of the leave articles in our contract, including sick leave, miscellaneous leave, and leave without pay.

Our bargaining committee has been working on tightening up language in several areas of the contract. We developed these and other proposals from your feedback in contract surveys and at our statewide demands meetings.

The schedule for upcoming DOC contract negotiations is as follows: June 9-10 (Teamster Headquarters), June 20-21 (Olympia), July 7-8 (THQ). We have also agreed to two additional dates: July 19 and 20 (Location – TBD). If needed, mediation is scheduled for August 2, and we have tentatively scheduled an interest arbitration hearing for August 29-Sept. 2.

We will keep you informed throughout the bargaining process. If you have questions, talk to your bargaining committee members or your Business Rep or check in at our website at www.Teamsters117.org for more information. Thank you for your service – please stay safe!