Highline Professional Staff News

Your Pro-Staff Union Updates! PERC Progress and What the Heck is Happening on Campus

Hi everyone,

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for our union. Here’s the latest:

• You may have seen flyers around campus announcing a card count date, which included a list of about 70 names of eligible unit members. That list was inaccurate and has since been rescinded, and the card count delayed.
• Representatives from AFT Washington and Highline have been meeting to discuss the makeup of our union. Right now, the college is contesting a number of assistant directors it claims supervise other bargaining unit members. We are actively working to include as many exempt staff as possible in our union. If you are unclear about your status, please contact AFT Washington representative Kaitlin Gillespie with clarifying questions (206-604-8877 or kgillespie@aftwa.org).
• We have demanded voluntary recognition of our union. That’s what prompted Interim President Jamilyn Penn’s message last week. She has not answered explicit questions regarding voluntary recognition, leaving us in a frustrating limbo of non-answers.
• We are working with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) to reschedule a card count.

Though the bureaucratic process has been slow and frustrating, none of this should stop us from continuing to mobilize and organize toward first contract negotiations. Several of you have spoken out this month in support of our union. Thank you for your leadership and bravery!

While we work through this with PERC, we need more members willing to join our Bargaining and Mobilization Committees. We meet every other Tuesday from 1:00pm-2:00pm on Zoom, including tomorrow.

Hi-Pro Bargaining Committee Meeting

👉Tuesday, April 28th, 2026

🗓️ 1:00pm-2:00pm

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85775734034?pwd=iw1QzQtPxSYuJiDURWppVBRkyFZJRe.1

Meeting ID: 857 7573 4034

Passcode: 449003

Can’t make it to the next meeting? The next one is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12th. Mark your calendars!

Want to get involved?

Join the Hi-Pro Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ApN9Smmdtj 

Visit our website: Hi-Pro: Highline Professional Staff 

 It’s important that our bargaining committee is  a large, diverse, and representative group of Exempt Staff employees all across Highline. Please reply to this email with any questions you have, even if you are not ready to join the committee, your help and your voice are needed and wanted.  AFT offered bargaining training in January, if you would like to look at the slide information click on this link. In solidarity,
– Kirsten, on behalf of your Highline Professionals Union Organizing Committee

We Did It – 70% Voted YES for a Union!! 🎉

I am thrilled to share some incredible news—our union authorization vote has been counted, and

70%

Voted YES to form a union!!

The people have spoken, Highline Exempt Staff want a union!

This is a powerful and historic moment for all of us. Since we made our campaign public on Tuesday and started signing authorization cards, the vast majority (70%) of Exempt Staff have signed authorization cards in favor of forming a union and affiliating with AFT. Of those, 92% (65% overall) were collected within the first 24 hours! This is amazing!

This victory belongs to every person who had conversations with colleagues, showed up to meetings, asked questions, listened, stayed hopeful, and believed that we could build something better together. It took courage, time, and determination, and we should all be proud of what we’ve accomplished.

By winning this election, we’ve taken a major step toward:

• Having a real voice in decisions that affect our work and our lives
  
• Building a workplace rooted in fairness, transparency, and respect
  
• Making sure that the needs of professional staff are seen, heard, and acted on

Today, we celebrate!

What’s next? (Detailed overview)

TLDR: Submitting cards, review period and committee elections.

Filing our union authorization petition with the State Labor Board

1. 📩 We have teed up our petition to file at noon on Monday with the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC), the government agency which oversees collective bargaining in the state of Washington. Along with this petition, we will include the authorization cards we collected, which PERC will count and verify their authenticity.
2. 📃 Soon after this, an arbitrator from PERC will reach out to notify Highline’s management of our petition, along with the anonymized results of the vote. Highline’s HR will send employment lists and a PERC arbitrator will verify that they match our own.
3. 🧐 There will be a period of review, resolving any discrepancies in the composition of the bargaining unit. If you are someone in a Director position, or are not sure if your position will be included in the bargaining unit but you want to be part of the union, please notify highlineprofessionals@gmail.com – if possible, include a copy of your job description to ensure our project organizer can make the case to PERC for your inclusion in the union.

There may be issues with signatures or information mismatches on your card, so keep an eye out for any communications from this email to make sure your card is up to date.

4. ☑️ After this review period, an official card check will take place. PERC will call for a week-long period in which employees who signed cards will be notified that their authorization card counts as a vote in a union election. You will be notified that you are allowed to revoke your authorization prior to the card check, so watch for any emails from Highline and make sure to not revoke your authorization card during a card check to make sure your vote is counted YES in the final vote.

Demand to bargain for a fair contract

⏱️ Soon after we file our petition and during the review period (in about 1 week), we will call on Highline’s management to come to the table to bargain with us for a fair contract. We will hold bargaining committee elections and vote on initial demands and a contract draft.

We are very hopeful that Highline’s management will voluntarily recognize our bargaining unit and begin collective bargaining in good faith, and we will ask Highline to schedule bargaining dates for early January 2026.

✊ We want a fair contract by the end of the academic year, and we can do this if we’re organized and work together.

Bargaining

Soon, we will begin the important work of negotiating our first contract and turning this victory into meaningful improvements for everyone.

Our organizing committee has decided to make use of an open and transparent bargaining process, meaning we will request open bargaining as a ground rule for negotiations. This means anybody who is part of our union can come to the negotiations sessions, participate in group discussions with your elected bargaining committee, and weigh in on the bargaining contract proposals. This model is used in many unions, and we feel it is the best way to achieve success in bargaining and make sure everyone has a voice.

We will hold democratic elections for bargaining committee members, and thereby recruit a large, diverse, and representative group of Exempt Staff employees to serve on our elected bargaining committee. If you have some time and knowledge to devote, and want to help write contract proposals to negotiate with management, watch for communications and submit your name for nominations when nominations open!

Even if you’re not on the bargaining committee, there will be many ways to be involved and have a say in our future contract:

• Bargaining committee strategy meetings will be open to all union members, so you can observe discussions and weigh in on contract language
• you can attend open bargaining sessions and participate in group discussions
• you can be part of another committee such as Comms, Research, or Events
• or help by talking with your coworkers about bargaining.

When we say democracy in our workplace, we mean it. This is your union and your voice matters. When we come together, we can have a say in our working conditions and achieve amazing things for Highline.

Congratulations!

Thank you for your commitment, your advocacy, and your belief in each other.

This is just the beginning—and together, we’re going to build something extraordinary.

Join Highline College Exempt Staff as We Make History Together!

Hey There,

This is Kirsten, I’m a Running Start Advisor and part of your exempt professional staff union organizing committee! I am reaching out because what happens next week truly matters for all of us.

👉 Tuesday, November 18

• President’s Quarterly Exempt Staff Meeting: 2:00pm-3:30pm, Building 8, Mt. Constance — Show up strong, and sit together. Let’s make our voices heard!
  
• Afterward: Exempt Staff Community Gathering Debrief + Union Authorization Card Sign-on Party Signing
  📍 Mandarin Kitchen, 22612 7th Ave S, Des Moines, 5:30pm-7:30pm
  🍜 Join Highline College exempt staff for conversation, community, and a celebration of the moment we make history together! RSVP.

IF YOU CANNOT MAKE IT TO THIS EVENT – LET US KNOW! We will work with you to find a time to sign your card, there will be volunteers available that afternoon you can check in with. 

For the past nine months since we started this campaign to come together and for a democratic say in our working conditions, we’ve been listening. Our staff survey shows what so many of us already know: exempt staff all across campus are feeling exhausted and burned out; we’re overworked, struggling to get by, and running on empty. I’ve even heard from exempt staff who are considering leaving Highline, despite wishing and hoping they could be there for the students we serve and the place we call home. We want Highline to be sustainable for us and our students, who deserve nothing but the best in stability and support. But we’re noticing a growing need for change in the direction of equity and dignity at work.

On top of that, there are escalating warning signs of a statewide budget crisis. Other colleges have already seen mass layoffs. Here at Highline, the signs are worrying. HR has hired outside consultants to review our positions and pay, and there’s a sudden push to redo evaluations just months after we finished them. With no guarantees and no seat at the table for these major decisions, many Exempt Staff are worried about the future. Unlike faculty and classified staff, we have no union protections if cuts come.

Here’s the good news: over months of surveying the vast majority of the roughly 150 Exempt Staff at Highline, we know 65% of us already support forming a union! With the year soon drawing to a close, and after months of preparation and talking with our coworkers, it’s finally time to make our democratic vision a reality. On November 18th, we will officially be making our campaign public and our Organizing Committee will be asking every Exempt Staff employee at Highline to sign a union authorization card, affirming our majority intent to unionize to the state labor board. We will have a short timeframe to give everyone the chance to sign their auth card, and a supermajority of respondents will need to vote “Yes!” in order to form our union and begin collective bargaining for a fair contract, so this can only happen if everyone who supports a better, fairer workplace shows up and stands together now.

That’s why we are so excited to get all Exempt Staff together for a community gathering and sign-on party at the Mandarin Kitchen next Tuesday the 18th! If you’re exempt staff and you work at Highline, this is the place to be! We will be coming together for a banquet to share our stories, honor our hard working colleagues, and celebrate this wonderful moment together. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to RSVP: this ensures food and a place setting can be reserved, and we can count on seeing you there to sign your union authorization card.

This is our chance to take control of our working conditions, secure real protections, and ensure Highline remains a place where people want to stay. We’ve come too far to stop now — and we need every exempt staff member present. If you still have questions, check out our website and Highline FAQ, or reach out to highlineprofessionals@gmail.com! 

Please RSVP here and make a plan to attend both the President’s meeting and the community gathering. Together, we can make this happen. Next week, we are going to win our union and make history! Can’t wait to see you there!

In solidarity,

Kirsten, on behalf of your Highline Professionals Union Organizing Committee

Attention! Highline College Professional Staff Support Gathering

Join Us!

 Date: Tuesday, November 18th

 Time: 5:30pm – 7:00pm

 Location: Mandarin Kitchen, 22612 7th Ave S, Des Moines, WA 98198

RSVP HERE

We are encouraging all exempt staff to attend the upcoming Highline College President’s Quarterly Exempt Staff Meeting on the 18th. At this meeting we are planning on showing up in large numbers and asking tough questions. Following this meeting, we will be holding an exempt staff debrief and card signing at Mandarin Kitchen in Des Moines located at 22612 7th Ave S, Des Moines, WA 98198. By “card signing” I mean we will be officially signing onto becoming an employee union with the American Federation of Teachers. But again, this can only happen if we reach 70% support.