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Union leaders tell council OLRCB and PERB delay grievance resolution and block worker remedies
Summary
Union presidents testified that the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining and the Public Employee Relations Board are under-resourced and structurally imbalanced, leading to prolonged grievance backlogs, costly arbitrations and erosion of worker protections.
Union leaders urged the Council to press for concrete oversight after several public witnesses described years-long delays and what they called a structurally biased dispute system. "The Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining is fundamentally broken," Laura Fuchs, president of the Washington Teachers Union, told the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor. She said an arbitration award affecting more than 150 educators and over $2,000,000 was followed by "payments with 0 documentation" that left members confused and forced the union to seek PERB mediation.
Dr. Kofi Onuma, 1st Vice President of AFGE Local 2725, testified that constrained staffing and limited PERB capacity create bottlenecks: "cases languish for months or years, delaying justice," he said, and estimated a single arbitration can cost between $15,000 and $50,000 in legal and administrative expenses. Ayesha Williams, president of AFGE Local 2978, described examples where grievances remained unresolved for seven to eight years, while Joseph Alexander of the FOP said a PERB decision to revoke a certification left roughly 1,000 correctional officers without a working-conditions contract.
Committee Chair Anita Barnes acknowledged the concerns and pressed agency leaders for explanations and data. "We need to take a look at the delays in the grievance process and the issue of employees feeling management controls the entire deck of cards," she said. PERB and OLRCB leaders told the committee they recognize the timeliness problems and are pursuing staffing and process improvements, while noting legal and logistical factors—such as arbitrator availability and statutory appeals—also lengthen case timelines.
