A lot has been going on in Olympia over the last few weeks. There have been late nights, long negotiations, and a breakneck passing of bills out of both chambers. Now there’s a bit of a lull. Nothing too relaxing, of course, but still, it’s a little break before the next flurry of insanity. While they’re in a lull, we’ll be ramping up.
This weekend is our first big action in our plan to escalate, potentially up to a walkout. We’ll be swarming Speaker Chopp’s town hall at Seattle First Baptist Church and ask a very simple question. Will you properly fund the CTCs, or will you keep starving the colleges for money? It’s hard to look at a sea of blue and say that the CTCs aren’t a priority.
We’re working to make them uncomfortable. We want them to know that there will be consequences if they don’t support and enact increased funding for our colleges. We’re not talking about something paltry like funding 60% of a mandated COLA. We want the COLA fully funded, we want them to close the 12.4% gap in wages, we want them to pay our classified staff a living wage! Until they do, we’ll make their lives a little less relaxing, and a little more difficult.
Our next big action after the town hall will be an informational picket at the sundial at the Capitol in Olympia. We’ll show up in blue, with signs explaining exactly what it means when they say they can’t fund the CTCs. The number of jobs we work, the number of roommates we have to live with, the amount we lose in wages by working in state education, how many times we have to eat ramen to make it through the month. We’ll show them all those things and dare them to say no to our faces.
Here’s some information you should have:
[Re]Invest in Our Colleges (ROC): http://reinvestinourcolleges.org/
List of in-district town halls: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kLwBr0Ti-zmfmbgUfa0jfH3XDr3ayayvnCe4I8YLaGk/edit#gid=0
Don’t forget to reach out to your leadership, Union Organizing Representative, or me, your Political Organizer, Sandra Toussaint, if you need information or want to get more involved.
Key Town Halls
While every town hall is important in its own way, some town halls are crucial for our legislative agenda. If you can’t make Frank Chopp’s Town Hall this weekend, there are other senators and representatives that we need to be heard by in order to secure funding for education.
If you attend a town hall, questions to ask are:
- What is the state legislature doing to fund higher education salaries?
- What is the state legislature doing to increase our revenue and balance our tax code?