On the same day in late September that City of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced his 2025 budget, PROTEC17 and other Coalition of City Unions members received a notification from the City Budget Office that several dozen union members were slated to be laid off at the beginning of 2025. PROTEC17 takes any announcement of layoffs extraordinarily seriously. Staff have already engaged with both impacted members and the City to mitigate and address the impacts of the announced layoffs.
As of early October, we have already submitted information requests to the City to determine if there are any non-represented positions that could be eliminated instead of union positions. We have also requested specific budget information about the alleged cost savings of the proposed layoffs. In addition, we have submitted a demand-to-bargain to try and find other positions within the City for impacted members, and to extend our recall list, among other things to benefit our members.
Because of recent revenue-generating measures passed by the Seattle City Council over the past couple of years, the number of layoffs was reduced from hundreds to dozens. Still, as we have conversations with the Mayor’s office and City Council, we will continue to push for additional revenue sources to save critical City services, as well as alternatives to proposed layoffs to balance the City budget.
Under the PROTEC17 collective bargaining agreement, layoffs are seniority based, with length of seniority determined by amount of time in a classification in each department. Seattle members should check their personal email for the latest updates. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Union Representatives, found at: protec17.org/member/seattle.