Interpreters United

05/01/2025

Welcome to the AFSCME family!

01/07/2024

Congratulations and best wishes to Quân Trần!
He has been re-elected as the President of Interpreters United for the term of January 6th, 2024 to December 31st, 2025.

01/06/2024

Interpreters United is Inviting You to its Winter 2024 STATEWIDE MEETING & WORKSHOP

906 Columbia Street SW, Olympia, WA 98501 5th Floor

Saturday, January 27, 2024

9:30 am to 3:30 pm

Time:End Time:Location:Details:Only union members can attend this meeting.Winter 2024 STATEWIDE MEETING & WORKSHOP906 Columbia Street SW, Olympia, WA 98501 5th FloorSaturday, January 27, 20249:30 am to 3:30 pmDue to the fire code applied to the facility, the number of participants for the workshop i...

12/24/2023

Happy Winter Holidays to All Interpreters.
Best Wishes for 2024

10/23/2023

Call for Nominations and Elections for Local 1671 Executive Board and Trustee positions

The Local 1671 nominations will be held virtually.
All nominations should be sent to [email protected] by 5pm November 17, 2023. Nominations must include the nominator's full name, phone, email as well as the nominee's full name and position for which the nomination is being made. Members can nominate themselves or others.
District chairs can only be nominated by members residing in that district.
All other positions can be nominated by members regardless of where they reside.
For any uncontested position, the sole nominee will become the office holder for that position.
For any contested positions, an election will be held via mail ballot following the announcement of nominees.
The complete Election Timeline and Procedure can be found on InterpretersUnited.wfse.org under the under the About Us tag.
To update your contact information, please contact WFSE at [email protected].

https://interpretersunited.wfse.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&HomeID=830568&page=About20Us

Fill rates, per language and per county, for appointments covered under our union contract are now viewable by the public through an interactive dashboard (page #3) hosted on the HCA Interpreter Services website.

10/20/2023

District 1 Meeting
Oct/19/23

03/31/2023

District 1 Meeting in Vancouver. Thank you All for joining us. Union Strong

03/03/2023

Interpreter Alert! Action Needed!

Call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and tell them to PASS SB 5304!

DSHS is attempting to get rid of the affordable medical interpreter testing program that interpreters, Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients, and healthcare providers have been relying on since 1995.

Senate Bill 5304 would keep this essential program in-house, but we need you to contact your senator to demand a vote!

The Hotline accepts calls from 8am to 7pm, M-F. All you need to do is tell them your address, and they will deliver your message.

If SB 5304 does not pass, it would be:

-Disastrous for the quality of the interpreting services

-Potentially life-threatening for LEP patients

-Expose healthcare providers to malpractice lawsuits stemming from poor interpretation services.

01/15/2023

Interpreters: DSHS Attempting to Gut Interpreter Certification Process

DSHS has provided public language testing services for interpreters since 1993 for social services and since 1995 for medical services.

But on July 22, 2022, DSHS announced that as of August 1, 2022, the DSHS Language Testing and Certification Program would now accept tests only from three different third-party providers to certify and authorize DSHS medical interpreters.

By DSHS eliminating its own tests, the State attempted to unilaterally terminate its affordable, publicly provided testing program that interpreters have relied upon for nearly 30 years.

It would put countless patients at risk and water down the professional standards that we all uphold.

We immediately filed a grievance to stop the implementation, but that only delayed the change.

That's why we knew we had to take legislative action.

The result is SB 5304, which Senator Saldaña just introduced in the Senate.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5304&Year=2023&Initiative=false&link_id=14&can_id=4cbfaad267d13bfcd042ee950df1c747&source=email-legislative-update-180&email_referrer=email_1786440&email_subject=legislative-update-1

This is going to be a fight!

We will provide more information soon, but for now you can:

Register for the Interpreter Lobby Day on 1/27: https://actionnetwork.org/events/language-access-providers-lobby-day-12723

Read our Position Paper on DSHS Testing Changes for Spoken Language Interpreters
https://interpretersunited.wfse.org/docs/Position%20paper%20on%20DSHS%20Testing%20Changes%20-%20Jan%202023.pdf

10/22/2022

Thank you Laila and fellow L&I interpreters for providing an update at the AFSCME Council 28 WFSE Policy Committee Meeting on what has happened since our LANDSLIDE election win. Check your email for details.

09/28/2022

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Language interpreters in Washington state chose to form a union through AFSCME – rejecting the Freedom Foundation’s attempt to block it.

09/02/2022

Interpreters United wins representation for Washington interpreters.