April 28, 2017

Teamsters Local 174 is proud to welcome the Washington State Patrol Communications Managers to our membership. Prior to joining the Teamsters, the nine workers in the group – who oversee all the 911 operations for the entire Washington State Patrol – were members of their own Guild called the Washington State Patrol Communications Managers Association. However, they decided in March of 2017 to join Teamsters Local 174 after realizing that they would have far more say on the job with the power of the Teamsters at their backs.

“There is a tremendous amount of value in having professional negotiators on your side,” said Jo Baumgartner, former President of the group’s Guild. “It’s hard when you’re arguing directly with your boss. With help from the Teamsters, we hope to secure better contracts with stronger language to protect us and better wage increases than we would have gotten on our own.”

The Communications Managers will be included in the Teamsters Public Services Division. They will join our other Washington State Patrol group, the CVE04 Commercial Vehicle Enforcement workers.

“We always say that Local 174 has the best contracts, which these employees saw firsthand during their last round of negotiations,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “Now they will get to benefit from the strength that comes from being part of a group of nearly 8,000 people, rather than a group of just nine.”

“There’s strength in numbers, but even more than that, there’s strength in being a Teamster,” Baumgartner said. “We are so excited to be a part of that.”