For the love of words….

Tess Gallagher born in Port Angeles Washington in 1943 found her voice through poems, essays, and short stories. She studied creative writing at the University of Washington. Gallagher wrote extensively throughout her life, encouraged by her husband Raymond Carver. Her honors include a fellowship at the Guggenheim Foundation, two National Endowment for the Arts awards,…

Another Successful Toiletries Drive for YWCA!

The 2017 Toiletry Drive is a wrap! The partnership between ICSEW and YWCA is stronger than ever and we’re thrilled that all of you made this a priority and donated what you could, it’s truly inspiring. We’re working on ways to increase our collaboration with the YWCA in the future, stay tuned!

Working Nine to Five…

Alice Lord arrived in Seattle in 1892, quickly taking a “pink collar” job, working 12-hour days for a weekly wage of between $5 and $6. In 1900, Alice became an instrumental figure in founding the Waitresses’ Union, Local 240, one of the few women’s unions with a national charter in the American Federation of Labor.…

Education for all…

Dorothy Hollingsworth played a critical role in Seattle’s education system.  She was born in South Carolina in 1920, and moved to Seattle in 1946. Hollingworth worked in Seattle’s Central District as a social worker in the 1950s and 1960s. Dorothy became the first director of Seattle’s Public Schools’ Head Start program in 1965 and served…

“Infants at Work” is Taking Off in State Government

The idea of bringing babies into the workplace has been explored by local jurisdictions and by the private and non-profit sectors, but it’s relatively new to Washington’s state agencies. The Department of Health was the first agency to create one; they officially implemented their Infants at Work (IAW) policy on July 1st, 2015. Today DOH,…

2017 ICSEW Membership Awards and Recipients

Everlasting Award This award recognizes a committee member who has never-ending dedication to ICSEW. Criteria: Served more than two terms as representative for their state agency. Enduring continual changes in leadership and always acting cool under pressure. Boundless source of historical information and willing to share and help at all times. Recipients: Lonna Hocker, Debbie…

Legislation Update

As many of you know the state legislature is currently in a gridlock of the Capitol Budget. Information on what the legislature is doing with this can be found here: http://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/CB/Pages/Reports.aspx Information about the budget itself can be found here: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/budget/ Always be sure to get information from trusted sources and not to share false…

Final Collection Day for our Annual Toiletries Drive

Today is the last day that we are collecting items for the YWCA Other Bank. Items will be dropped off on Monday. When: Monday, July 24th What time: 9am – 12pm Where: YWCA, 220 Union Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501 When do we take our picture? 10:30am at the YWCA Thank you for your generosity!

Fly me to the moon…

Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar was born the small eastern Washington city of in Sunnyside, but decided that the stars were the limit. Dunbar became a NASA astronaut in 1981. She spent 50 days in space. She flew on five space flights—on three of which she served as mission specialist and as Payload Commander on the other…

Collective Bargaining Agreement Highlights

Over the next three years covered employees will receive a 6 percent wage increase starting July 1, 2017. July 1, 2017         2 percent pay raise July 1, 2018         2 percent pay raise July 1, 2019         2 percent pay raise Also vacation leave accruals have increased: Years of Service Old Hours New Hours Change 1 96…