In the face of all the bad news about the economy and potential state budget cuts, it’s important that Western’s faculty stay as informed as possible. President Shepard’s regular updates have provided us with a very solid understanding of the situation. I would like to add a few things here from the perspective of the United Faculty of Western Washington and the United Faculty of Washington State.
Belt Tightening. There has been a lot of discussion recently about the “belt-tightening” bill that was recently signed into law by Governor Gregoire. This law is wide-ranging and covers a variety of operations across many state agencies. As Vice President Pierce pointed out in his recent memo, it will take a while to sort out all the details and how they apply to Western. But one thing is certain. Nothing in the new law abrogates any part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the UFWW and Western’s Trustees. Such agreements are protected under the Washington State Constitution. Thus, all aspects of our contract, things such as promotion raises and professional development funds, are not subject to the freeze. Any changes to the contract would have to be negotiated solely by the UFWW and Western’s administration.
Federal Stimulus. The other thing that has received a lot of attention lately is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal stimulus package that was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Obama. This is also very complicated legislation, the nuances and details of which will continue to unfold for a while. But there is some clarity about the money that will come to Washington to support education. The state stabilization fund includes $819.9 million that must be devoted to education. In order for the state to receive this money, the legislature cannot cut K-12 and higher education below 2006 funding levels. After the legislature has done its budget the governor will use the stabilization money to try to restore education funding to 2008 levels. If this is not enough to restore K-12 and higher education, the federal legislation dictates that the Governor shall allocate the funds in proportion to the relative shortfalls in each sector. Thus, K-12 and higher ed cannot be pitted against each other to compete for funding.
There will, of course, be a lot of ups and downs, arguing about numbers and parameters, and noisy representative democracy before our 2009-2011 budget is final. But this is what we generally know about the freeze and the stimulus right now.
Western’s Voices. Western has been extraordinarily well-represented in Olympia during this legislative session. The UFWW and Western’s administration, along with our classified staff unions and our representatives to the Council of Faculty Representatives, have worked smoothly together and delivered a single unified message to our representatives. Our statewide union affiliates, WEA and AFT-Washington have worked tirelessly on our behalf, bringing the strength of close to 90,000 statewide members to our cause.
Bill Lyne
UFWW President