Statewide radio ads remind all that ‘Public Service Matters’

(May 11, 2015) — As the special overtime session of the Washington State Legislature continues, lawmakers are still deliberating whether to fund state employees’ contracts, which would grant public workers their first general pay increases in seven years. For weeks, as these operating budget negotiations have continued, state employees and their supporters in communities around the state have been engaged in a campaign to remind lawmakers that Public Service Matters!

Today, a radio advertising campaign begins to do the same in targeted legislative districts around the state. It urges listeners to call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and tell their State Senator that “we want a budget that supports state employees.” Here is the ad:

The ad is paid for by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO and “the unions reminding us that Public Service Matters,” which includes the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28; Professional & Technical Employees (PTE) Local 17; SEIU Local 925, SEIU HealthCare 1199NW; Teamsters Local 117; Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA)/UFCW Local 365; and AFT Washington.

Members of some of those unions participated in the recording of the ad, including Dave Roberts, an officer at the Monroe Correctional Complex (pictured at right): “We keep your community safe.”

In recent weeks, events have been held in cities across the state to honor the people who, like Dave, keep our communities safe, those who care for the elderly and disabled, those who teach and protect our children, those who maintain our roads, and those who provide other essential services. These “Public Service Matters” events celebrate the contributions of our friends, neighbors, family members, and customers who are state employees, and call on the Legislature to fund their negotiated contracts.

Check out #PublicServiceMatters for the latest.

Last week, more than 6,000 petitions were handed over to Sen. Karen Fraser (D-Olympia) for delivery to Senate leadership that support funding the contracts. Sen. Fraser told state employees to keep up the pressure on the Senate to do the right thing by funding the contracts.

ALSO at The Stand —Sen. Hill’s collective bargaining chips — A majority of state senators agrees with Gov. Jay Inslee and the House of Representatives that state employees deserve to get their first general wage increases in seven years by fully funding the negotiated collective bargaining agreements… The livelihoods of people who provide public services — people who’ve made considerable sacrifices in recent years — should not be used as a bargaining chip to extract policy “concessions.” If legislators want to make changes to the collective bargaining process, let those proposals pass on their own merits, not because Senate Republican leaders are holding state contracts hostage to force such changes.