By Bill Lucia | Editor
Welcome back to the Daily Standard's weekend edition, where we recap some of the week's top stories.
Quote of the week: “We’re negotiating. I don’t have anything else to add.”
That’s Gov. Bob Ferguson responding to questions about state workers who turned out to protest during an event yesterday at Western State Hospital.
The governor and others celebrated placement of a final beam on a new psychiatric facility. But nearby, separated by a chain-link fence, a handful of public employees voiced frustration about contract negotiations. With another budget shortfall on the horizon, the talks over salary and other issues are strained between Ferguson’s administration and the unions.
“No contract! No peace!” the workers shouted.
The flicker of labor unrest was a prelude to a broader walkout the Washington Federation of State Employees has planned for noon on Monday at dozens of state government workplaces around Washington. The union represents about 54,000 state government, higher education and public service workers.
Mark Camacho, a union member, uses a megaphone to lead chanting workers at Friday’s ceremony. (Photo by Aspen Ford/Washington State Standard)
The last round of contract talks resulted in agreements with general wage increases of 5% — 3% in July 2025 and 2% last month. The total cost of the contracts was about $1.7 billion. The current two-year state operating budget is around $80 billion.
Negotiations between the state and public worker unions are happening behind closed doors. But talks for about 80,000 caregivers paid with public dollars are unfolding in open meetings and illuminate the competing priorities. In those discussions, the state is pressing for a wage freeze, while the Service Employees International Union 775 has sought increases in the 8-12% range over two years.
Unions for public employees and caregivers are a powerful force in Washington politics, directing money and support toward Democratic candidates and, this year, the campaign against the ballot initiative to overturn the new income tax on higher earners.
Among those on hand Friday was Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees and a social worker at the hospital. Yestramski helped lead protests at the Capitol in 2025 as Ferguson and lawmakers weighed the possibility of furloughs, and he drew attention for calling the governor a “pseudo Democrat” and a “ratfink.” The furlough plan was dropped. This round of contract talks is becoming the most public display of tension since then between the governor and public sector unions.
Washington Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson speaks at the ceremony for the new 350-bed facility on the Western State Hospital campus. (Photo by Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard)
“We figured if we could come to this, maybe (the governor) would talk to workers,” Yestramski said of the event. Ferguson did not visibly acknowledge or speak with the workers who turned out to protest Friday, but surely knew they were there.
READ MORE: WA governor met with state worker protest at hospital construction ceremony | by Jerry Cornfield and Aspen Ford
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Where’s the governor?
His office last sent out a public calendar on Aug. 13. It ran through Aug. 20.
This week, he spent time in eastern Washington. During an appearance in Spokane on Monday to discuss wildfire response efforts, he became emotional when asked about arson as the cause of the Old Trails Fire and how it would feel to lose a home under those circumstances. “The idea that somebody set a damn fire … I’d be pretty pissed off,” he said.
Wednesday, Ferguson was at a Pasco high school to talk up his plans for forthcoming legislation to ban K-12 student cellphone use statewide during the school day. And he swung through Walla Walla and declared a state of emergency there over the Paradise Fire threatening to contaminate the city’s water supply with ash and sediment.
Schedule information obtained through a records request shows that on Aug. 20, Ferguson had a briefing on data centers, likely a hot-button topic during the next session. It's unclear from the schedule who attended that Zoom meeting.
Last weekend, Ferguson was in the Olympia area attending a backyard fundraiser for his expected 2028 reelection campaign. The governor, known as a collector of political memorabilia, had some campaign buttons available at the event.
(Photo via Facebook)
We reached out to veteran Washington political consultant Sandeep Kaushik to get his take on the design. “I think the glasses are interesting,” he said. “Bob has an image as a bit of a brain in a vat, an intellectual. So they're leaning in on that image, that he's a smart, intellectual, chessmaster wonk type.” It’s a contrast to the more jock-like political demeanor of Ferguson’s predecessor, Jay Inslee.
As for the button’s emphasis on “US,” Kaushik interpreted it as an appeal to Democratic solidarity in an era when politics has become increasingly tribal and divisive. In other words, “supporting Bob is part of what it is to be a Democrat in Washington.”
Mail-in ballot battle
Legal wrangling continues over President Donald Trump’s executive order to impose new conditions on mail-in ballots. The Trump administration is appealing a federal judge’s temporary pause on U.S. Postal Service regulations to implement the order, according to a Friday court filing.
The administration is headed to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to try to halt U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s temporary restraining order issued late Thursday that froze for two weeks an administration plan to carry out the effort.
Trump’s executive order, issued in March, would require state election officials to share with the Postal Service a list of mail-in voters. The Postal Service, an independent federal agency, wouldn’t send ballots to voters not included on the lists. It also sets new conditions for states to send ballots via mail, including envelope design.
READ MORE: Trump administration appeals latest order freezing rule on mail-in voting | by Shauneen Miranda
Washington was among a group of Democrat-led states and voting rights groups that refiled lawsuits earlier this week to try to stop the administration from implementing a final rule that executes the executive order.
Here, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said county election officials would need to replace five million ballot envelopes to comply with the pending rules. States would bear the cost. Hobbs said this would be impossible for return envelopes, forcing voters to use drop boxes instead of mailing ballots the Postal Service may not deliver.
Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat, said the proposed federal rules accompanying the executive order “will totally upend how our elections are administered.”
Election Day is a little more than nine weeks away.
READ MORE: WA sues again to stop Trump administration mail-in voting requirements | by Jake Goldstein-Street
IN OTHER NEWS
Washington state is settling for $180,000 with the former head of its youth prison system after she alleged she was fired for raising concerns about crowding.
A citizen activist challenging language that appears with ballot measures affecting the state budget is suing Washington State Republican Party Chairman Jim Walsh for defamation.
Washington will get at least $237 million and up to nearly $339 million over the next decade under a child safety settlement with social media giant Meta.
With roughly 20 state lawmakers vacating seats in the Washington Legislature, many new faces will soon arrive in Olympia.
COMMENTARY: A dying Fish and Wildlife commissioner’s parting letter to WA’s governor | by Victor Garcia
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