The stakes have never been higher for union members as wealthy extremists are funding legislation and taking radical legal action to weaken labor unions, exacerbate income inequality, and make it harder for working people to pay the bills and support their families.

Several area labor unions joined members of Teamsters Local 117 on Saturday to discuss these issues and to put together a plan to preserve our wages and benefits and build a stronger union and a better future for ourselves and our communities. 

"Unions fight for the middle class," said Vicki Moore, a Local 117 Shop Steward at King County Elections, who participated in the event. "I noticed that in my lifetime, it's getting harder and harder to stay middle class and unions bolster up families and people like me."

Check out photos from our first-ever Public Sector Labor Summit here.

The most recent update from our King County Coalition of Unions outlines our priorities as a union with respect to a number of important issues. These include:

• Economic stability
• Equity
• Recognition and Appreciation
• Health

You can view the document in PDF form here. If you have any questions, please contact me for more information. Thank you!

Open enrollment for Teamsters at King County is November 1-15.

When you enroll, you will see that (at a time when most private and public sector employers are eroding health and welfare plan benefits as a way of shifting the cost to employees), King County plans will expand and improve benefits!

Effective January 1, 2016, your plan will provide 100% coverage for an extensive list of preventative care benefits and 100% coverage for contraceptives.

The Affordable Care Act did not require these improvements because King County’s plans have grandfathered status. Despite that, and the significant cost associated with providing these benefits (approximately $500,000 per year), the JLMIC was convinced that this was money well spent.

This is because preventative care is widely viewed by experts as a best practice from a plan design perspective.

We will be starting total compensation bargaining for all Teamsters at King County this fall and it's important that your voice is heard. 

Please complete the following survey by Friday, September 18th at 5:00 pm: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2MZ5PGY

Your completed survey will help your Union bargaining team develop meaningful proposals that reflect your concerns.  

The first meeting of the bargaining team is on Thursday, September 10th from 12-1:30 p.m. in Chinook Room 123.  We will be providing regular updates throughout the bargaining process.

Upcoming Coalition of Unions Negotiations for represented members at King County.

Who is the Coalition?

The Coalition of Unions at King County is made up of over 5,000 Union members at King County.  You and your Union are a part of this organization.  Through solidarity, the Coalition increases our bargaining power to improve wages, benefits and job security.  The Coalition of Unions will be the organization through which we bargain Total Compensation.

What is Total Compensation?

Teamsters Local 117 members voted and approved the Coalition Agreement last year, which obligates Local 117 to negotiate all compensable items through Coalition negotiations.  The agreement expires at the end of 2016.  We are now gearing up to negotiate the next agreement, called Total Compensation.

More Good News for Teamsters at King County!

The Protected Fund Reserve is officially at $34.2 million as of the end of 2014, up over $9 million from the original seed of $25 million.

The experts are predicting that the Protected Fund Reserve will be just shy of $38 million at the end of this year, and over $39 million by December 31, 2016 which is the last day of the current JLMIC agreement. We will be negotiating a new agreement for 2017 and beyond next year as part of a total compensation bargaining process.

Through 2016, this means: no premium share, and no changes to the important plan provisions such as co-payments, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.

At King County, members of Teamsters 117 have always prioritized the smooth functioning of the County.  However, in recent years this has become increasingly difficult. 

Due to budget cuts and the County’s mandate not to limit the hire of new full-time employees following the recession, the use of temporary employees has become a more common practice.  King County has gone beyond the scope of the initial term-limited temporary (TLT) employee program, both in numbers of TLT employees and the means in which they are used.  

Over the last several months, we have been testing a new method to increase membership involvement at King County through our Member Advisory Committees.

So far, we have formed working advisory committees, consisting of several Local 117 members, in the KC Department of Information Technology as well as the Solid Waste Division

WOW! In my last report, I had predicted that the Protected Fund Reserve would end 2014 with close to $30 million (up from its original $25 million in funding in 2012).  While that would have been an excellent outcome, I am pleased to report that the results are even better than expected.

• In 2014, the Protected Fund Reserve increased by $9 million to over $35 million. This represents a 34% increase in our safety net to protect against rising health and welfare costs.

• The new projections show that the Protected Fund Reserve will increase another $3 million this year, and at the end of 2016, the reserve is projected to close in on $40 million.   Therefore, the experts at Mercer are now projecting that the Fund for the JLMIC unions will be stable through 2018!