By Paul Pickett, Assistant Chief Steward
Some employee members of WFSE have been discussing whether Ecology should have its own agency-based Local. We continue to explore this issue in a series of articles.
The previous two articles on this subject explored what a Local is and does, and some of the trade-offs between a geographic and agency-based local. To find out more about how an agency-based Local works, we invited two Presidents of state-wide Locals to Ecology for a conversation with Ecology members from Olympia, Bellevue, and Spokane.
Brian Yearout is President of Local 1466, which includes employees of the Parks and Recreation Commission. Local 1466 has about 500 members, including State Park Rangers, construction and maintenance staff, and support professionals such as clerical and environmental staff. Although many staff are based in Olympia, most are scattered around the state in over a hundred State Park job sites.
Doreen Merrill is President of Local 2753, which includes Fish Hatchery Specialist 1’s and 2’s in the State Department of Fish and Wildlife. There are about 100 staff in this local, who work in hatcheries scattered around the state. Other WDFW employees are represented by several other Locals, some of which are also state-wide.
We asked about how the Locals were organized. Brian said that his Local had a President, Vice-president, Secretary, Treasurer, 6 at-large Executive Board members, and 3 Trustees. The at-large positions are distributed 2 each to the Rangers, construction/maintenance workers, and professional support workers. Doreen’s Local has a President, Vice-president, Secretary/Treasurer, 3 at-large Executive Board members, and 3 Trustees. She noted that her VP position was vacant and that a small group of leaders were keeping the Local operating.
Both Presidents said they did not pay stipends to Local Board members. However much of their budget is spent providing travel reimbursement for Local meetings. Brian said that they rotated Local meetings around the state and paid travel for Board members, while Doreen said they offered travel for any member to attend the Local meetings. Both Locals hold four meetings per year.
Doreen said her Local had a budget of about $5,000 per year, while Brian said that his Local’s budget was about $24,000 per year. They estimated that if Ecology had its own Local its budget would probably be roughly double the budget of the Parks Local.
One of the biggest challenges of the Locals is bookkeeping of the Local’s finances. There are specific legal requirements that have to be followed to document spending and keep finances in order. The Council (WFSE) can provide help with this. This makes the Treasurer’s job very important, and a person who is good with accounting is best for this position. The job of the Local Trustees is to help the Treasurer and audit the books to keep finances in order. A third-party financial audit is also required.
Other than travel to Local meetings, the Locals spend money on: travel and per diem for union conventions and other events; food for meetings; and a Local newsletter. However, they also sometimes use funds to bring in speakers or to send members to special conferences.
Neither Brian’s nor Doreen’s Local has an office. Officers keep the records in their home, and they are passed on when new officers are elected. Brian said he had a “Presidential Briefcase” with information and records that was passed on with the position. Both emphasized the importance of keeping track of records and keeping them in order
We asked Brian and Doreen what they considered the biggest challenges of their statewide Locals. Both agreed that finding active members to be leaders, managing a group of widely-dispersed members, and keeping on top of finances were the big issues.
We discussed how they became their own Locals and what they liked about their situation. Both were formerly members of Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA), where they had their own “Chapter”. (Ecology members of WPEA used to have their own Chapter here as well.) When they switched to WFSE they were promised their own Local, and the Council helped them get the Locals organized. The Ecology members present noted that at the time when the Bargaining Unit was organized under WFSE, Ecology had been promised help to form their own Local as well.
Both Brian and Doreen seemed enthusiastic about their Locals. They appreciated the focus on their agency and the special needs of their members that an agency-based Local provided. They both offered to help Ecology organize its own Local should its members choose to go that direction.
As a result of this discussion, the Ecology members present were enthusiastic to continue exploring the possibility of an agency-based Local. An approach was developed to begin outreach to Local 443 in Olympia and to WFSE, while at the same time continuing the education and discussion among Ecology WFSE members.
If you are interested in being part of the workgroup to explore Ecology forming its own Local, contact Paul Pickett, Rebekah Padgett, or Jim Wavada for more information.■
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