Email Blast

Donald Trump, his 13-billionaire cabinet, and the Republican Party, have launched a naked attack on working people, having fired over 14,000 federal unionized workers (many of them disabled veterans) and threatening to slash Medicaid. At the same time, Democratic Party politicians who control cities and states across the nation are also attacking working people’s living standards, including through austerity budgets, while the rich get richer. All of this shows why, at the recent, historic inaugural national convention, Workers Strike Back members democratically voted to include “No More Sellouts! We Need a New Mass Party!” as part of our program.

Washington state’s Governor, Bob Ferguson, is a Democrat. Democrats in the state have decisive control of both houses of the State Legislature — 59–39 in the House of Representatives and 30–19 in the Senate. Yet, Ferguson and his fellow Democrats are shamefully getting ready to slash a shocking $7 billion from the state budget on the backs of public-sector union members and by further undermining the already precarious living standards of working and poor people.

This would include brazen attacks on the 50,000+ workers unionized with the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE). These are workers who run programs for the basic needs of the poor, ensure child safety, build bridges and maintain safe infrastructure, enable safe and clean waterways, and provide quality education in community colleges and state universities. They are healthcare workers, electricians, plumbers, cafeteria workers, and custodians on the UW campus and at UW Medicine.

Governor Ferguson wants these workers to take a mandatory one-day furlough (unpaid day off) every month for two years. On top of this, he plans to carry out sweeping cuts to healthcare for low-income residents and fire-fighting services. This will mean continued and worsened budget cuts, and closures of local hospital wards, juvenile rehabilitation centers, and residential habilitation centers that provide services and housing to adults with developmental disabilities.

Sign the petition from WFSE union rank-and-file!
Tell State Democrats: No Budget Cuts! No Furloughs! Tax the Rich to Fund Our Needs!

And join us at the Democratic Party Town Hall to expose the betrayals by the Democrats and to embolden workers to get organized against both parties of the bosses!

Saturday, March 15, 2025
12:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Bloedel Hall at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral
1245 10th Avenue East, Seattle, WA, 98102

Sign the petition and RSVP now!

Democrats and the Rich

What’s even more disgraceful is that the same state politicians attempting to force mandatory furloughs on public-sector workers recently gave themselves a handsome 14 percent salary hike, and Ferguson’s annual governor’s salary jumped from $204,205 to $234,275. In stark and outrageous contrast, statewide public-sector workers will get a meager 5 percent raise over the next two years, which will be nullified by the furlough days, aside from being thoroughly inadequate to keep up with inflation.

Washington state is richer than ever, with 13 billionaires and a steady growth of millionaires. Democrats and Republicans together have ensured that Washington state has remained a haven for the wealthy, while becoming increasingly unaffordable for the rest of us. The state’s tax system is ranked the second most regressive in the nation, after Florida’s.

The state budget crisis can only be solved by taxing the rich, but Ferguson and the Democrats will not do that. Democrats have controlled the state Governor’s mansion for 30 out of the last 30 years, the Senate for 20 years, the House for 23 years. They have simultaneously controlled all three for 15 of those 30 years. It would be utopian to believe that Ferguson and the other Democrats will do anything other than continue to serve the wealthy elite in the absence of a fighting, mass movement. This should not surprise working people, since despite their disagreements with Trump and having deemed him an “existential threat” during the election, the Democrats also represent the interests of the elite.

Public Sector Unions and Working People Have to Fight Back: Sick-Outs, Strikes, Mass Protests Needed!

The leadership of WFSE, the union of many statewide public-sector workers, is correctly opposing the budget cuts and the furloughs, and is demanding that Ferguson and state Democrats tax the rich instead.

But the union leadership has proposed little in terms of concrete action, other than writing to or otherwise making individual appeals to the state Democrats. History shows that this will simply not be enough to defeat the cuts. Workers Strike Back believes it is urgent and vital that the WFSE leadership adopt a fighting strategy and call for mass protests and a coordinated statewide one-day sick-out and strike action demanding zero cuts to workers and social programs, and taxes on the rich to fully fund our needs.

This could set a powerful example of working-class power in action against the attacks on us by both Trump and the Democrats.

Sign the petition from WFSE union rank-and-file!
Tell State Democrats: No Budget Cuts! No Furloughs! Tax the Rich to Fund Our Needs!

And join us at the Democratic Party Town Hall to demand that they tax the rich!

Saturday, March 15, 2025
12:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Bloedel Hall at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral
1245 10th Avenue East, Seattle, WA, 98102

We cannot say that nobody is doing anything.

Talking is nice but doing is better.