TACOMA, Wash. — On Sunday, Dec. 31, the contract between Pierce County and unionized support staff expired.
The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), which represents support staff in the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said negotiations for a new contract have stalled after eight bargaining sessions and two mediations. According to the union, there are two reasons for this: employees pushing for a 40-hour workweek and a living wage.
Currently, legal assistants, legal interviewers, and victim advocates are limited to 35 hours a week. KING 5 spoke to three union members who said the work they do is hampered by that 35-hour cap.
"From the support staff, legal assistant perspective, we have so many people in Pierce County who have questions about how our office can best serve the county," Elyssa Stringfield, a union member, said. "Do our jobs day in and day out and put our best effort forward, getting as many cases screened, reviewed, opened and tried within a reasonable amount of time. We cannot do that without a 40-hour work week."
"Any opportunity where a victim can be heard and have an impact on their case we make space for it where we can. Every case has one victim. I work on cases where we deal with complex, financial crimes cases. There often many dozen victims of identity theft, forgery. They all need to notified. They all have rights and it is deeply time consuming to make sure that everybody is getting the same standard of care, everyone has the opportunity to have referrals. Thirty-five hours a weeks is not sufficient," Hayley Sherman, another union member, said
The union members argue the cap on their hours is adding to the case backlogs in Pierce County. By their count, it's currently sitting at 3,700.
"Having worked in this county, office for 27 years, I've worked in a lot of units. Cases don't get better as they sit. We lose witnesses. We lose lots of times victims, people move, cops retire. They do not become better with time. They become a lot harder to get outcomes that are needed for victims," Laura Deveraux, also a union member, said.
WFSE said support staff is also asking for a living wage. Some members at the bottom of the pay scale have told the union they rely on food pantries to make ends meet. WFSE argues the county has enough money in its General Fund to meet their demands.
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Through a spokesperson, Pierce County sent KING 5 the following statement about contract negotiations.
"We don't have a specific comment to provide except to say we continue to bargain at the table with out labor partners."