The Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees

The Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees

by the members for the members

Officer Elections to be held Dec 9, 2024

The membership meeting will be held in person only on Tuesday, Dec 10, 2024 at 6;30pm. This is to facilitate officer elections for the following offices: President, Secretary and Sergeant at Arms. The location is to be announced as it has not been confirmed yet. Check your personal email address for the location as we … Read more

Contract Passes

Voting was held over two days (Sept 11 & 12). Local 1937 members ratified the contract with 90% voting to accept. The next step is for the City Council to ratify the contract at their Sept 16 meeting.

We have a proposal to vote on.

We have reached a tentative agreement with the city. Our members will vote on whether to accept the city proposal on Sept 11 & 12. The union bargaining team urges a YES vote.

Contract Disparities

Did you know City workers in Local 1937 currently receive less compensation than their colleagues at every point in the employee lifecycle? Even in death our families receive half as much life insurance as the loved ones of other city workers. AND we’ve been working without a current contract since December 31, 2023. Please let city leaders know that you … Read more

COB: Settle This Contract!

It is mid-July and we STILL do not have an approved contract. City of Bellingham elected leaders: MAKE CONTRACT SETTLEMENT A PRIORITY! The increases that the city has paid in the past and is proposing for 2024-2025 do not keep up with the Cost of Living (COLA).

Many of our members do not make a living wage. How can the city expect us to work in and for a city we can’t even afford to live in? This creates additional climate impacts in addition to the social impacts to our members.

The city of Bellingham annually adjusts utility rate increases based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CPI-U. This is spelled out in the Bellingham Municipal Code for water, sewer, surface and stormwater charges.

For labor negotiations, Human Resources uses a custom calculation that they came up with more than 40 years ago. Instead of using the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CPI-U to determine inflation rates, like they do when determining how much to raise utility rates, they use a combination of four different indexes and then take the average.  The indices they use are: Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CPI-U, Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CPI-W, US City Average CPI-U, and US City Average CPI-W. By using this system, we believe the city tries to justify to themselves that they can pay employees less.

Local 1937 is the city’s largest bargaining unit with over 400 members. Our workers are some of the lowest paid city employees. Some Local 1937 members don’t even have medical benefits. We are the workers that bring you clean water, get rid of your wastewater and generally make Bellingham such a great place to live. We deserve fair treatment and livable and equitable wages!

Here are some of the things we do for the citizens of Bellingham:

Park Operations & Maintenance Street Sweeping Police Evidence & ID Sewer & Water Main emergency repair
We process your invoices for payment! Traffic Sign & Signal maintenance Wastewater Treatment Facility Security
Aquatics Center Stormwater Education Construction Inspection Utility Billing
Water conservation Cemetery Services Warrant Officers Permit Review & Issuance
We make sure you have clean drinking water! Police Support Services Boat Inspections Electricians
Municipal Court Clerks Community Service Officers Museum Exhibits Engineering Support
Library Services Custodial Services Facility Maintenance City Historian
Property Acquisition & Leasing Rental Registration Fleet Mechanics Housing Rehabilitation
IT/Internet Support CityIQ, SeeClickFix, BTV10 Warehouse/Purchasing We answer the phone when you call the city!

Our contract expired December 31, 2023.

Questions?
pnweguild@gmail.com

Contract Rejected

The membership voted on the city of Bellingham’s two-year contract proposal on May 29 & 30, 2024. It was overwhelmingly rejected with 297 voting NO and 6 voting YES. Thank you everyone for your participation in the voting process. Next steps: your bargaining team with return to the table and continue to negotiate.

Welcome Friday Harbor – Local 1909

Friday Harbor employees vote to oust AFSCME Council 2 – will join the Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees as Local 1909 Executive Board Offers to Help Last summer the Guild of Pacific Northwest Employees, Local 1937 was approached by our union friends in Friday Harbor asking for help in leaving AFSCME Council 2 and forming … Read more

We Support our Local Starbucks!

We are thrilled to hear that a local Starbucks store in our hometown of Bellingham, WA (the store that many city of Bellingham employees drive by or patronize often at King & Iowa) are trying to unionize! We support their efforts 100% and wish them much success. Keep educating your coworkers about the benefits of having a seat at the table. As workers, you have power. This can be a foreign concept to workers who have never been part of a Union before. It is real and it is life changing!  Click here to read the article in the Cascadia Daily News and the Western Front.

2022-2023 Contract Ratified

Congratulations on a ratified contract! Click here to see the contract as soon as the City of Bellingham uploads it. For our labor friends in other parts of the state and beyond, email us if you would like to see it before its posted. Here is a brief summary: 2022 – 7% wage increase 2023 … Read more