After a summer of tense meetings, classified staff and Highline College have reached a collective bargaining agreement. A joint response from stewards, the bargaining team, and the union, said, “The Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA) Classified Staff have ratified their 2026-2027 contract with an overwhelming 96.6 approval vote.
“This marks a significant milestone for our members at Highline College after a challenging bargaining journey. This contract represents the third round of negotiations for the 2025-2027 agreement and includes backpay for the 2025 fiscal year,” said the joint response.
President John Mosby sent an email out to faculty and staff Thursday afternoon, stating, “I am pleased to announce that Highline College and the [WPEA], representing our classified staff, have reached an agreement on the 2026-2027 contract. THe classified staff members ratified the contract last week, on September 25th, and the Board of Trustees voted to approve it in their special meeting on September 29, 2025.
“It must be noted the WPEA contract is still subject to final legislative approval as was also the case last year. The contract has been submitted to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) for financial feasibility assessment and legislative funding. Once approved and funded by the Washington Legislature, the new HC-WPEA contract will be effective July 1, 2026.”
The next step is Highline notifying the Office of Financial Management (OFM) with the complete cost of the agreements. Washington Legislation begins their sessions in January, so the focus now is ensuring lawmakers approve and fund the contract.
“While not every proposal we advanced was realized, the agreement includes meaningful gains and moves our members and Highline College in the right direction,” the joint statement read.
The Higher Education and General Government coalition also ratified their contracts, including a 3% and 2% wage increase for 2025 and 2026. It’s unclear where the Highline College contracts stood on wage increases.
“The first round of negotiations were voted down by members” because of lack of cost of living adjustments (COLAs). After the initial contract was rejected, OFM offered a 3% (the first year) and a 2% (the second year) COLA.
The second draft of the contract was approved at the local level in April, but the legislative budget released later that month from the governor’s office did not fund any WPEA contracts.
Amid this news, Highline offered to pay a $1,200 contract incentive from local funds. OFM denied Highline’s authority to grant a $1,200 stipend from local funds, classified staff picketed, and questioned the integrity of Highline College while OFM denied the legality of paying out the stipend.
Contention centered around a specific statute. An email from the President of Highline College stated, “RCW 28B.50.140(3), which outlines the powers and duties of the Board of Trustees for community colleges and clarifies the limits on compensation for classified employees, does not allow Highline to utilize local funds to provide compensation for classified staff.
“Highline College conducts collective bargaining under RCW 41.80. RCW 41.80.010(4)(c)(i) states that, if appropriations are necessary for compensation or fringe benefits for classified employees, those requests must be included in the governor’s request for funds and submitted to the legislature. This statute requires us to follow specific procedures to secure funding, which we were unfortunately unable to meet due to the legislature not approving the funding.”
WPEA fired back, stating that legal precedent in PERC Decision 10608-A allowed Highline to use local funds, the OFM was using their authority to undermine classified staff, and the Executive Cabinet had “the moral and legal authority to honor its agreement to pay the one-time bonus.”
Highline persisted citing that their Attorney General (AG) advised against paying out the stipend, and a tense meeting took place at the end of summer quarter in which Dr. John Mosby shared they were exploring returning Highline contracts back into the Higher Education coalition.
This possibility has always been highly unpopular among classified staff at Highline, and risks the benefits of local bargaining.
At a special meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday, HC-WPEA steward Richard Cannefax delivered a statement urging the Board to keep contract negotiations local; “Through local bargaining, we’ve made casual progress… these gains were possible because we were in direct communication with Highline’s Leadership. Those conversations built trust. They allowed both sides to understand the real challenges and possibilities. Moving into a coalition system risks replacing that relationship with distance, delay, and decisions made by people who don’t know Highline the way we do.”
In the end, contracts stayed local, and were ratified by the local bargaining team on Sept. 29.
Classified staff, union representatives, and community members will be making sure legislators know the importance of getting the contracts approved and funded by the governor’s office. Classified staff are still drastically below the inflation rate when it comes to wage increases, so this contract would be one step further in the fight for equal pay.
**Mavrie has been serving as editor for the ThunderWord since 2024. She is also the founding president of Highline’s Non-fiction Writers Circle.**