Donald Trump is determined to harm working and poor people’s living standards. With 13 billionaires in his cabinet, including Elon Musk, he has slashed over 14,000 federal union jobs and gutted social programs. His party’s threats to Medicaid come as they push more tax cuts for the rich.
Democrats in Congress have failed to fight back, despite calling Trump an “existential threat.” This is no surprise, as they also serve elite interests. The party recently accepted $2.5 million from a top lobbyist for SpaceX and Palantir, companies set to profit from Trump’s cuts to unions and social programs.
Failing to fight Trump in D.C. is bad enough, but in Washington state, Governor Bob Ferguson is preparing to slash $7 billion from the budget, targeting over 50,000 unionized workers in the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE). These workers provide essential services, from child safety to infrastructure, clean waterways, and public education.
Ferguson plans mandatory monthly furloughs for two years, along with deep cuts to healthcare for low-income residents and firefighting services. This will lead to hospital ward closures, reduced juvenile rehabilitation, and fewer housing options for adults with developmental disabilities.
Republicans in DC have majorities in the house and senate, giving federal Democrats some leeway to claim powerlessness against Trump’s anti-worker attacks. But in Washington, state Democrats control both legislative houses—and yet they still plan to undermine working and poor people’s livelihoods. This comes as the state’s wealth grows, with 13 billionaires and a growing millionaire class. Adding to the hypocrisy, state politicians pushing furloughs on public workers recently gave themselves a 14% salary hike, with Ferguson’s pay rising from $204,205 to $234,275. Meanwhile, public-sector workers face a meager 5% raise over two years, effectively canceled out by furlough days and inflation.
Washington remains a haven for the wealthy while becoming unaffordable for the rest of us. The state’s tax system is the second most regressive in the nation. Democrats have controlled the governor’s office for 30 years, the Senate for 20, and the House for 23—yet they continue serving the elite.
WFSE leadership rightly opposes the cuts and furloughs, demanding taxes on the rich instead. But a real fightback requires mass protests and a coordinated statewide strike, demanding zero cuts to workers and social programs and full funding through taxation on the rich. This would send a powerful message of working-class resistance against attacks from both Trump and the Democrats.
Without a mass movement, Ferguson and his party will not change course.
Why should we play by their rules? Waiting until after the budget is finalized to bargain again would be disastrous, locking in cuts and demoralizing workers. We’re told we must choose between rejecting furloughs or providing essential services—an outright lie. We must fight for both or risk losing everything.
Statewide union leadership has failed to act, so we, the rank-and-file, are taking it upon ourselves to do so.
On Monday, the members of WFSE Local 889 unanimously passed a resolution calling for a mass statewide Day of Action on Wednesday, April 9, involving thousands of WFSE members, and solidarity from other unions and working people, before the budget deadline on April 27. The local also passed a resolution calling on WFSE statewide to rescind the endorsement of Governor Ferguson.
WFSE President Mike Yestramski and labor leaders should be organizing mass protests, solidarity actions, and a one-day strike against Democratic austerity and Trump’s attacks. Workers—not billionaires or their political allies—keep the state running, and shutting it down is the necessary first step to defeating these cuts. Next, WFSE should lead a ballot initiative to end Washington’s regressive tax system, securing funding for housing, healthcare, education, and protecting unions.
We urge WFSE members and working people to join Workers Strike Back at a March 15th town hall to expose Democratic betrayals and organize against both parties of the bosses.
Seattle’s working people showed how to win under Kshama Sawant’s leadership, securing the nation’s highest minimum wage, at the time, through an engaged worker-led movement of everyday people. We must follow this example and fight back with everything we’ve got.
We built mass meetings, rallies, marches, neighborhood action groups, and a ballot initiative to pressure big business and Democrats: pass $15 or face the voters. Despite their attempts to block or weaken it, we won—turning $15 from a slogan into a nationwide movement. In 2020, Sawant and the Tax Amazon movement secured a historic tax on Seattle’s richest corporations, raising over $400 million last year alone for affordable housing. Sawant’s office won these victories alongside workers and union leaders, including WFSE’s Paula Lukaszek.
Now, Workers Strike Back is carrying this strategy forward nationwide. Our Fight the Rich campaign is building a movement to take down Trump, the billionaires, and both their parties. Defeating Trump means confronting the Democrats, whose betrayals let him pose as a friend of workers. Both parties serve the ruling class—we must fight both to win real change.
Capitalism is rule by and for the rich, built on stealing the wealth workers create. But we have the power to shut it down and force real change. Millions would stand with us if we did.
Jozi Uebelhoer is a social worker and a rank-and-file member of WFSE Local 889. Grey Martin is a hospital staff member and a rank-and-file member of WFSE Local 3488. Both are members of Workers Strike Back in Seattle and write in a personal capacity.
