Thousands of state government and community college employees in Washington want Gov. Bob Ferguson to ensure they receive a pay raise in July like the rest of the state workforce.

They are asking the first-term Democrat not to sign a new state budget unless it pays for their contract, which lawmakers said was ratified too late to be put in the spending plan awaiting Ferguson’s signature. 

This request from the nearly 5,300-member Washington Public Employees Association, which represents Columbia Basin College employees, is a long shot and could require the governor calling lawmakers back to Olympia for a special session.

In the meantime, the much larger Washington Federation of State Employees is pressing Ferguson to sign the budget, which would pay for raises for its members and does not include furlough plans that the union fought against.

The Washington Public Employees Association delivered a letter to Ferguson this week, asserting that inaction by negotiators in his budget office prevented contract talks from being completed faster so the collective bargaining agreement could get funded.

“I recognize that the position you find yourself in is not an easy one,” union president Amanda Hacker writes in the letter. “Please recognize that signing a budget that harms over 5,000 of your employees for asserting their legal right to participate in their union is not the correct way out of this situation.”

Hacker sought to drop the letter off at the governor’s office on Wednesday but was told no one was there to accept it. 

A Ferguson spokeswoman emailed the Standard late Wednesday, indicating the letter had been received.

“Governor Ferguson looks forward to reviewing it,” communications director Brionna Aho wrote. 

Also Wednesday, about 100 association members rallied at a public service recognition event held across the street from the state Capitol. 

Throngs of state workers attended the annual celebration that featured food, music and dozens of information booths representing agencies, community organizations, and service providers. 

Ferguson did not attend the event, choosing instead to schedule a midday bill signing in Seattle.

Delayed agreement

The Washington Federation of State Employees represents 50,000 state government, higher education and public service workers. It has more than a dozen contracts funded in the budget approved by the Legislature on April 27, the last day of session.

“We want him to sign it,” Ashley Fueston, the federation vice president, said. “It’s definitely a tough situation for all of us. We worked very hard to get our contracts funded. We hope they find a way into the budget.”

Those contracts contain general pay hikes of 3% on July 1, 2025 and 2% a year later. These agreements also raise the starting wage for state workers to $18 an hour.

Members of the Washington Public Employees Association are not receiving those increases. They work at 14 community colleges and nine state agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue, the Liquor and Cannabis Board and Department of Agriculture.

By law, public sector unions in Washington must approve a new contract by Oct. 1 to be considered by a governor for funding in the ensuing two-year budget.

But association members overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement with the pay hikes by that deadline. Union leaders told employees then that rejecting the accord would put them in “uncharted territory.”

Hacker said they sought to keep bargaining. But the Office of Financial Management, which represents the state, wouldn’t, she said. The union sued to try to force a resumption of talks. Negotiations restarted in December. Hacker lays out the timeline in her letter.

The two sides reached a tentative agreement in March and union members ratified it April 3. It is essentially the same contract they turned down, and has 3% and 2% increases, the same as the other contracts.

“As you know, Governor Ferguson was not in office when most of this occurred,” Aho, the communications director, emailed. “We would defer to OFM for more details.”

On March 19, the Office of Financial Management told legislative budget writers that separate tentative agreements had been reached with Washington Public Employees Association general government workers and higher education employees. OFM staff estimated those two contracts would cost $55.8 million for the 2025-27 biennium.

In the same letter, OFM director K.D. Chapman-See said the agency supported a “one-time non-precedent setting suspension” of the Oct. 1 statutory deadline “to enable these tentative agreements to be considered for funding.”

She also included potential language that could be put in the budget bill, making clear the funding would be solely for the upcoming budget cycle.

This story is republished from the Washington State Standard, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet that provides original reporting, analysis and commentary on Washington state government and politics.