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Legislative Staff in Washington State Approve Contract in First Collective Bargaining

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Legislative Staff in Washington State Approve Contract in First Collective Bargaining


It took Democratic staff in Washington’s Legislature a little longer but they have joined their Republican colleagues in approving two-year contracts, concluding the first-ever round of collective bargaining for legislative employees.

Legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff in the House Democratic Caucus and legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus unanimously ratified agreements in separate votes in late December. The decisions came nearly three months after workers overwhelmingly rejected proposed contracts with their employers, which are the chief clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate.

“We’re pretty excited. It’s not everything we wanted. But it’s a reasonable first contract,” Josie Ellison, a communications specialist and member of the House Democratic Caucus bargaining team, said Thursday night. “For now, everybody seems pretty enthusiastic about it.”


The Washington Public Employees Association represented both Democratic staff bargaining units.

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“This historic agreement marks a new chapter for our members, providing the protections and support they deserve,” Amanda Hacker, association president said in a statement.

Legislative assistants in the House and Senate Republican caucuses approved their respective two-year agreements in September.

Each contract contains pay hikes of 3 percent on July 1, 2025 and 2 percent a year later, the same amount offered to other state employee unions. State lawmakers and the next governor, Bob Ferguson, will now decide whether to fund them in the next two-year budget.

Under the collective bargaining law, state employee unions — including legislative staff units — needed to submit a ratified contract by Oct. 1 to be considered for funding. Because Democratic staff did not meet the deadline, they will need to make a separate case to Ferguson and lawmakers to fund their deals.

Jeremy Knapp, an executive legislative assistant with the Senate Democratic Caucus and member of the bargaining team, said Thursday that administration of the Senate and House are supportive.

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“It’s in the Legislature’s hands now,” he said.

A 2022 law cleared the way for partisan legislative staff to unionize and negotiate terms and conditions for the workplace.

Employees of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber had to be in separate units unless a majority of each caucus voted to be in the same unit. All four units negotiated collectively on economic issues, like wages and benefits, and separately on workplace-related issues.

“The collective bargaining agreements represent several months of hard work by the negotiating teams and we are pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with both the Legislative Professionals Association and the [Washington Public Employees Association],” Chief Clerk of the House Bernard Dean wrote in an email.

The contracts with Democratic staff call for a third-party arbiter in the grievance process. That means if a dispute arises on a contract provision, the two sides will have access to arbitration through the American Arbitration Association, to resolve it. This had been a sticking point as employers resisted involvement of an outside party, employees said.

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“It gave us what we think is a very fair grievance process,” Knapp said.

Secretary of the Senate Sarah Bannister called the agreement “a significant milestone” that “brings a sense of relief and allows us to focus fully on the work ahead.”

She said the decision to add a panel with an arbitrator “was made collaboratively, reflecting a commitment from everyone to ensure fairness, transparency, and efficiency in resolving disputes.”

The contracts also outline new ways to resolve conflicts between elected officials and legislative staff. And there are provisions to create a “transition” pool for union members facing the loss of a job because the lawmaker they work for retires, loses re-election or leaves office for another reason.

Knapp said the Senate contract lays out how a person facing the loss of work could get a job as a session aide to avoid unemployment. There’s also language ensuring the employer provides workers, who are at-will employees, with two weeks notice before being let go or two weeks pay if fired.

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This story was first published in the Washington State Standard. Read the original here.





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Widespread Verizon outage prompts emergency alerts in Washington, New York City

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Widespread Verizon outage prompts emergency alerts in Washington, New York City


Verizon said on Wednesday that its wireless service was suffering an outage impacting cellular data and voice services.

The nation’s largest wireless carrier said that its “engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”

Verizon’s statement came after a swath of social media comments directed at Verizon, with users saying that their mobile devices were showing no bars of service or “SOS,” indicating a lack of connection.

Verizon, which has more than 146 million customers, appears to have started experiencing services issues around 12:00 p.m. ET, according to comments on social media site X.

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Two hours later, Verizon posted an update on social media, saying that its engineers were “continuing to address today’s service interruptions,” but did not say if a specific reason for the outage had been identified or when it could be resolved.

“We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” the company said.

Despite those efforts, shortly after 4:00 p.m. ET, Verizon issued a third statement that contained little new information. The company said teams were “on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue.”

Users had initially reported problems with Verizon’s competitors, T-Mobile and AT&T, as well. But both companies said they were not experiencing any service problems.

“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected,” a spokesperson told NBC News. “However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.”

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A spokeswoman for AT&T also said the company’s network was “operating normally.”

A Verizon store in New York City on Jan. 12, 2024.Angus Mordant / Bloomberg via Getty Images

In Washington, D.C., the District’s official emergency notification system sent out a message to residents saying that the Verizon outage was “nationwide.”

“If you have an emergency and can not connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police district or fire station to report the emergency,” the AlertDC system told recipients.

New York City’s Office of Emergency Management also said it was aware of the outage without mentioning Verizon by name. The city said it was “working closely with our partners” to review the outage and “assess any potential effects on city agencies & essential services.”



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Vance to meet Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday

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Vance to meet Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday


People walk along a street in downtown of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP


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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

NUUK, Greenland — Along the narrow, snow-covered main street in Greenland’s capital, international journalists and camera crews stop passersby every few meters (feet) asking them for their thoughts on a crisis which Denmark’s prime minister has warned could potentially trigger the end of NATO.

Greenland is at the center of a geopolitical storm as U.S. President Donald Trump is insisting he wants to own the island — and the residents of its capital Nuuk say it is not for sale. Trump said he wants to control Greenland at any cost and the White House has not ruled out taking the island by force.

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance will meet Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Arctic island, which is a semiautonomous territory of the United States’ NATO ally Denmark.

Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press in Nuuk that she hoped American officials would get the message to “back off.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Tuesday that, “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

Greenland is strategically important because as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals which are needed for computers and phones.

Trump also said he wants the island to expand America’s security and has cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it.

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But both experts and Greenlanders question that claim.

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told AP. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.

His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.”

Denmark has said the U.S. — which already has a military presence — can boost its bases on Greenland. For that reason, “security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.

Nørgaard told AP he filed a police complaint in Nuuk against Trump’s “aggressive” behavior because, he said, American officials are threatening the people of Greenland and NATO. He suggested Trump was using the ships as a pretext to further American expansion.

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“Donald Trump would like to have Greenland, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would like Ukraine and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping would like to have Taiwan,” Nørgaard said.

Mikaelsen, the student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark which provides free health care, education and payments during study.

“I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us,” she said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources said it’s “unfathomable” that the United States is discussing taking over a NATO ally and urged the Trump administration to listen to voices from the Arctic island’s people.



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HIGHLIGHT | Lawrence Dots a Pass to Washington for a 6-Yard TD

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HIGHLIGHT | Lawrence Dots a Pass to Washington for a 6-Yard TD


DE Dawuane Smoot, LB Foyesade Oluokun, TE Brenton Strange, S Eric Murray, and S Antonio Johnson  speak with the media after practice on Thursday ahead of the Wild Card Matchup vs. Bills.

0:00 – 2:28 – DE Dawuane Smoot

2:29 – 6:24 – LB Foyesade Oluokun

6:25 – 9:25 – TE Brenton Strange

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9:26 – 11:32 – S Eric Murray

11:33 – 13:46 – S Antonio Johnson



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