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Season 5, Episode 195

Walkout for Washington brings WFSE members a tentative agreement

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America's Work Force Union Podcast AWF AFSCME

WFSE Gray

 

Guest Name:

Ashley Fueston

Guest Website:

AFSCME Council 28 | WFSE 

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Ashley Fueston, Vice President of the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) — American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Council 28— joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Walkout for Washington and their tentative agreement for the 2025-2027 General Government contract.

WFSE, or AFSCME Council 28, represents over 50,000 state and public service workers in Washington. Fueston said the council’s purpose has been advocating for public workers, their families and communities across the state since 1943. Fueston has received the Steward of the Year Award from Local 443 and, in 2019, the Rising Star Steward Award from the WFSE. She won the awards as part of her work on the Strategies for Success life skills training program for individuals receiving government benefits struggling to make ends meet.

The negotiation process for the General Government contract began in April this year. Fueston discussed the purpose of starting negotiations almost five months before the end of the current agreement. Following the contract demands from WFSE being submitted, management offered a 1 percent raise in the next year, followed by no increases for the remainder of the contract. Fueston discussed the reaction from members and their efforts to get a better offer from management.

On Sept. 10, WFSE members at more than 130 work sites across the site walked off the job to draw attention to the need for a fair contract. The walkout, now known as the Walkout for Washington, resulted in a new 2025-2027 General Government tentative agreement two days later. Fueston discussed the benefits of the tentative agreement and the upcoming ratification vote.

For more from Fueston, please listen to the show above.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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