DWBoR's Coalition Debrief by CJ Garcia

Budget Deficit

2025-05-06 20:19:44 UTC

Extremely terrible budget year for the state. Legislators had no money and refused to consider/advance legislation that "cost too much". (Año presupuestario extremadamente terrible para el Estado. Los legisladores no tenían dinero y se negaron a considerar/avanzar legislación que «costaba demasiado»)

2025-05-06 20:19:46 UTC

The campaign launched publicly right after elections raising both the local/ state pressure for conditions for immigrant workers and a huge contrast on the federal front. La campaña se lanzó públicamente justo después de las elecciones, aumentando la presión local y estatal sobre las condiciones de los trabajadores inmigrantes y creando un enorme contraste en el frente federal.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:20:53 UTC

Asesorar las condiciones: Comparte tus reflexiones acerca de las condiciones que hemos tenido que navegar como coalicion para aprobar la Carta de Derechos

2025-05-06 20:21:15 UTC

The actions by Trump and our State's responses to them took up a lot of attention from legislators and the local media.

2025-05-06 20:22:13 UTC

Prime sponsor on Senate side was new to being Labor Committee chair. Prime sponsor on House side was Majority Floor Leader with very little bandwidth to parse through amendments. (El principal patrocinador en el Senado era un nuevo presidente del Comité de Trabajo. En la Cámara de Representantes, el principal patrocinador era el líder de la mayoría, con muy poco margen de maniobra para analizar las enmiendas.)

2025-05-06 20:22:22 UTC

confusion y desinformación de los legisladores y/o senadores sobre la Carta de Derechos/Confusion and misinformation of legislators/senators on the Bill of Rights.

2025-05-06 20:22:42 UTC

Pienso que fue dificil porque los legisladores nos negaron la propuesta

2025-05-06 20:23:03 UTC

We kicked off the legislative session with challenges on the budget initially thinking we didn't need to "spend" alot then having to move to a zero expenses. Empezamos la sesion legislativa con el entendimiento que deberiamos gastar poco debido al budget y termino siendo que no podiamos gastar nada.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:23:11 UTC

Timing- very difficult to get information from legislature in time to organize our base. Lack of communication from politicians, L&I, au pair lobby. Opposition- very unexpected and unusual opposition, only on paper- found out later about WA Defenders app and Republican priorities. Logistics- getting people from Seattle area to Olympia in time.

2025-05-06 20:23:46 UTC

WW/FWC had two new Comms staff join after the campaign was underway. The new staff had to develop work for a campaign that was underway while learning about it (including goals, organizing strategy, narrative strategy, key players, coalition partners, and more)

2025-05-06 20:24:34 UTC

Ended up being a rough year because of the fall out from the presidential election and the heavy emphasis on curtailing the budget at the state level.

2025-05-06 20:24:55 UTC

At the beginning of the campaign planning we had assumptions about how we passed the Seattle ordinance and it reflected in how we mapped out our engagement of the legislators. It was a big shift the amount of targets we had to engage at city levels vs state level.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:25:05 UTC

Al principio de la planificación de la campaña, teníamos previsiones sobre cómo aprobar la ordenanza de Seattle, lo cual se reflejó en cómo planificamos nuestra interacción con los legisladores. Supuso un cambio importante en la cantidad de objetivos que debíamos abordar a nivel municipal en comparación con el estatal.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:25:24 UTC

Public narrative- difficult to get media interest, employer/small business support of campaign didn't fully land.

2025-05-06 20:25:50 UTC

The disagreements between the Governor and Legislature about whether to address the deficit with budget cuts or progressive revenue was an enticing topic for local media to cover above almost all else.

2025-05-06 20:26:13 UTC

Media environment (focusing on federal policy impacts, budget deficit, publicly controversial policy, etc.) made it very hard to win coverage of the DWBOR - very few outlets were willing to report on it despite constant communication/pitching. | El ambiente de los medios de comunicación (centrado en las repercusiones de la política federal, el déficit presupuestario, la política controvertida públicamente, etc.) dificultó mucho la cobertura del DWBOR

2025-05-06 20:26:36 UTC

Tiempo: Fue muy difícil obtener información de la legislatura a tiempo para organizar nuestra base. La falta de comunicación de los políticos, L & I, au pair lobby. Oposición: oposición muy inesperada e inusual, sólo sobre el papel; más tarde nos enteramos de la aplicación WA Defenders y de las prioridades republicanas. Logística: llevar a la gente de Seattle a Olympia a tiempo.

2025-05-06 20:26:43 UTC

lack of time to educate, ask for support from legislators/ senators / people/ workers were more aware , fear of what is happening with trump; not giving much hope to the campaign

2025-05-06 20:26:57 UTC

On the policy front, identify the recurring issues that have posed a barrier in advancing the bill. Develop an offensive strategy to respond with sound legal and policy analysis. We can not not address these before a reintroduction.

2025-05-06 20:26:57 UTC

Yo creo que hemos como coalicion tenido que navegar con mucha incertidumbre y miedo por parte de los trabajadores del hogar, auque al final la esperanza nunca murio.

2025-05-06 20:27:37 UTC

Unexpected opposition related to discrimination protections from lawyer coalition (WELA)

2025-05-06 20:27:48 UTC

Narración pública: difícil despertar el interés de los medios; no se comprendió bien el apoyo de los empleadores y las pequeñas empresas a la campaña.

2025-05-06 20:28:21 UTC

El presupuesto, Identificar los aliados con que podemos trabajar fuertemente.

2025-05-06 20:29:02 UTC

Hola, de acuerdo con Rocio.Identificar con mas tiempo las preocupaciones de los legisladores. Cuales eran/son sus dudas?

2025-05-06 20:29:04 UTC

The conditions were inconsistent. Navigating changes made to the bill were often quick. It seemed the bill was easy to use as a manipulation tactic to advance other agendas in legislative passage. Comms team in collab w/ Edy did good identifying what stories to uplift/which workers to front face. Our target wasn’t clear. It wasn’t until the end that those lawmakers came to light. They claim they weren’t informed enough so there’s a possibility an opportunity was missed.

2025-05-06 20:29:32 UTC

Nos falto preparacion anticipada a nuestros lideres sobre la carta,quizas entrenamientos o talleres de llamadas a la accion como sign pro,cartas,testimonios con por lo menos 3-6 meses antes de la sesion legislativaWe lacked advance preparation for our leaders on the charter, perhaps trainings or workshops on calls to action such as sign pro, letters, testimonies at least 3-6 months before the legislative session.

2025-05-06 20:29:33 UTC

the coalition was new to working together at the legislative level & we had a mix of experience levels working on legislation / La coalición era nueva en el trabajo conjunto a nivel legislativo y teníamos una mezcla de niveles de experiencia trabajando en legislación.

2025-05-06 20:33:01 UTC

Educar a los legisladores para que conocieran, y entendieran la nesesidad que tenemos las trabajadores del hogar

2025-05-06 20:33:15 UTC

al final de la campana, nos falto mas trabajadores. la capacidad para traer trabajadores a Olimpia fue muy limitada y rapida, las ultimas 3 semanas fueron muy frajiles, y dificil de traer trabajadores rapidamente a Olimpia

2025-05-06 20:33:45 UTC

loss of consistent organizing director level support within WW/FWC - Pérdida de apoyo consistente a nivel de director de organización dentro de WW/FWC

2025-05-06 20:35:05 UTC

Los trabajadores aprendieron mucho, algunos no sabian de como compartir sus historias y ahora ya lo saben, pero tambien bue dificil organizar a los trabajadores porque era todo muy rapido.

2025-05-06 20:37:38 UTC

Para involucar a los trabajadores por parte de casa latina para que fueran a Olympia necesitabamos mas tiempo para avisarles, aunque sabemos que estas reuniones son de un dia para otro.

2025-05-06 20:38:35 UTC

Prior to the campaign even being launched, we should create a rough content calendar with anticipated campaign milestones and maybe, if we have capacity, even have drafts of anticipated messaging (social media graphics, social media captions, blog posts) that can be modified as needed. Delineating which org Comms department will develop this and by when would be a big plus!

2025-05-06 20:39:12 UTC

Organizar a mas trabajadores para prepararlos para compartir su historia eso sera para el futuro.

2025-05-06 20:39:49 UTC

We should have internal alignment and documentation about what internal and external conditions would trigger a pivot in strategy and what those strategies may be.

2025-05-06 20:39:54 UTC

Questions to try to address: Which internal decision-making or campaign management processes slowed us up or conversely were too rushed? How can we improve clarity around roles and responsibilities?

2025-05-06 20:41:00 UTC

We needed a stronger relationship with Stonier to be able to engage her with more rigor and clarity to champion the bill

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:41:37 UTC

Engaging workers were challenging due to the nature of the work, the quick turn around of the legislative session made it difficult

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:43:21 UTC

I wonder if there was sufficient line-of-sight regarding the staffing and time commitment that the different orgs in the coalition were able to provide throughout the campaign. Did we have the right organizational capacities at the table at the start of the campaign and in the middle and toward the end? Or were we understaffed or under-resourced at various times?

2025-05-06 20:44:16 UTC

This includes: organizers, legislative liaisons, communications staff

we knew this was going to be a challenge when we set up the campaign. from my point of view, we did not reach enough new workers and build a big enough statewide base to really push legislators to making this a priority. // Sabíamos que esto iba a ser un desafío cuando montamos la campaña. Desde mi punto de vista, no llegamos a suficientes trabajadores nuevos ni construimos una base estatal lo suficientemente grande como para realmente presionar a los legisladores a hacer de esto una prioridad.

2025-05-06 20:44:54 UTC

Nos falto mas el organizar y tener mas tiempo para preparar a los trabajadores y tener a una lider de campana que conosca el trabajo de las trabajadores del hogar.

2025-05-06 20:45:12 UTC

Prime sponsor - things to consider - what is the availability of the prime sponsor to engage at the last stretch when it was critical. Preguntas Patrocinador principal: aspectos a tener en cuenta: ¿Cuál es la disponibilidad del patrocinador principal para participar en el último tramo cuando era crítico?

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 20:48:22 UTC

Al final de la carta. los trabajadores queiran ayudar, pero habian muchas modificaciones a la carta. en dias de trabajo para ellos. fue muy dificil movilizar trabajadores del hogar en los ultimas 3 semanas. sus historias. Olympia.

2025-05-06 20:50:51 UTC

happy I could help bring in Karen & Francisco from Popular Democracy at the beginning to help establish the coalition and our strategy // Me alegro de haber podido ayudar a traer a Karen y Francisco de Democracia Popular al principio para ayudar a establecer la coalición y nuestra estrategia.

2025-05-06 20:58:12 UTC

mejor equilibrio en la capacidad de los organizadores que trabajan en la campaña. como organizadora fue difícil trabajar con el trabajo interno en la organización y la campaña al mismo tiempo. que hizo difícil trabajar en una campaña volátil por lo que tal vez el aumento de la capacidad de organizador para la campaña.

2025-05-06 21:09:40 UTC

Adding 2 new folks to the WW/FWC comms team ultimately expanded capacity, but also required an initial restriction of my own capacity while onboarding both to this campaign and also the broader work of the org // La incorporación de dos nuevas personas al equipo de comunicación de WW/FWC ha ampliado mi capacidad, pero también ha supuesto una restricción inicial de mi propia capacidad mientras me incorporaba tanto a esta campaña como al trabajo más amplio de la organización.

2025-05-06 21:14:51 UTC

I was able to bring at least 1 employer to testify at almost every hearing, able to support with employer stories and quotes as needed, and providing opposition research as was available.

2025-05-06 21:16:00 UTC

I needed more initial clarity on each org's comms capacity from the jump, and want to provide more coordination/leadership/streams of communication between comms staff of each org next time // Necesitaba más claridad inicial sobre la capacidad de comunicación de cada organización desde el principio, y espero poder ofrecer más coordinación/liderazgo/flujos de comunicación entre el personal de comunicación de cada organización la próxima vez

2025-05-06 21:17:22 UTC

While DWBOR was a priority it definitely took up a lot of my space in terms of acclimating to a new organization and a new role. While I was able to produce a lot of work it could have been achieved with more efficient goals set by coalition. Time management and finding the best ways to support the bill could be improved as I often took orders and not lead.

2025-05-06 21:17:58 UTC

There was not sufficient clarity and visibility on the employers support for the bill with legislators.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 21:18:01 UTC

K- We made assumptions about the trainings and skills needed to engage the base and membership.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 21:19:07 UTC

Edy - The assumption was about the delays the bills were facing was that they bill would be voted on next day- we didn't really know that it was at that level of risk of not passing

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 21:21:35 UTC

The communication intel we had as a coalition about the status of the bill - ahead of the caucus conversations we didn't have as many of the questions that were raised during caucus

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-06 21:28:50 UTC

I always think member leadership should be the baseline. Our organization could develop more members to lead meetings, trainings, and also assist with earned media.

2025-05-06 21:29:09 UTC

We were able to start gathering employers stories before the campaign started, which was very helpful.

2025-05-06 21:29:20 UTC

We learned that employers are much more likely to be able to do virtual hearings, and needed to be able to plan further in advance to reliably show up to campaign actions.

2025-05-06 21:29:30 UTC

We started a rapid action text and email group toward the end of the campaign for our most engaged members that was very helpful and successful in sending out information that could be modeled in the campaign as a whole next year. Moving forward, we are hoping to get employer feedback about what roles they are interested in taking and how we can better support them in engaging with the campaign.

2025-05-06 21:29:32 UTC

I think we need to anticipate the negative outcome more and how we can immediately respond to it. Our coalition strategy was only to make history, but not if we didn’t. This makes this grieving process more challenging to navigate.

2025-05-06 21:30:25 UTC

Where is the au pair lobby, and why did they show up more rurally than expected (Schmidt's district)? What education can we provide to challenge their narrative?

2025-05-06 21:30:38 UTC

How can we plan campaign events given the uncertainty of the legislative calendar to make sure our base has as much time as possible?

2025-05-06 21:31:11 UTC

It would streamline comms collab across orgs if we had a clear delegation + decision-making structure, clear commitments on comms capacity, a regular meeting-space and method of internal communication // La colaboración en materia de comunicación entre organizaciones se agilizaría si tuviéramos una estructura clara de delegación y toma de decisiones, compromisos claros sobre la capacidad de comunicación, un espacio de reunión regular y un método de comunicación interna

2025-05-06 21:31:44 UTC

How early can we start educating politicians? Can we organize groups to go to townhalls throughout the year to help reach and actually connect with politicians to build understanding of bill's impact and purpose?

2025-05-06 21:32:10 UTC

The coalition could benefit from a board of trustees (workers), more than one person to take lead on campaign initiatives and an overall supervision of a collection from different organizations. It’s too much to task with one person and could have resulted to some opportunities missed.

2025-05-06 21:32:12 UTC

We had 1 person handling employer stories who was able to work ~ 12 hours a week on the campaign- needed more bandwidth with employers, also needed partner support in amplifying employer voices to emphasize support

2025-05-06 21:33:42 UTC

Worker trainings (for media, testimony, legislator meetings) throughout the summer and fall, so people feel completely equipped before the campaign launch // Formación de los trabajadores (para medios de comunicación, testimonios, reuniones con legisladores) a lo largo del verano y el otoño, para que la gente se sienta completamente equipada antes del lanzamiento de la campaña

2025-05-06 21:34:05 UTC

Maybe create a set of 1 or 2 pagers that we hand to/share with legislatures (and their staffers?) so they have something to refer to? Some of these could be 'recycled' from materials Rocio referenced, and perhaps some from the Seattle campaign?

2025-05-06 21:35:36 UTC

We were trusting too much that we were going to win, and did not prepare for steps in case of not passing the bill. // We assumed that democrats that were clear with the bill, and they started asking question on the last weeks. // We were assumed our bases were strong, but at the end, with short notice to act, we did not have much workers going to Olympia.

2025-05-06 21:42:07 UTC

Perhaps 1 or 2 pagers for each group in the Coalition (one for cleaners, one for nannies, one for employers??). Or an internal doc that can be added to over time?

2025-05-06 21:43:57 UTC

We may have assumed that this legislative campaign would feel like the 2019/2020 one, or like the Seattle campaign. We learned that the legislature is really impacted by broader political/economic conditions and that affects our campaign // Es posible que hayamos asumido que esta campaña legislativa se sentiría como la de 2019/2020, o como la campaña de Seattle. Aprendimos que la legislatura está realmente impactada por condiciones políticas/económicas más amplias y eso afecta a nuestra campaña

2025-05-06 21:50:43 UTC

CJ- Keeping us motivated and focused on the big picture!! Hannah + Abi- constantly pushing out as much info/media as we could!

2025-05-06 22:01:24 UTC

Lilly- for tracking down politicians and making them actually give us answers as much as possible

2025-05-06 22:01:50 UTC

All the worker organizers for constantly bringing a crowd ready to fight!

2025-05-06 22:02:32 UTC

Organizers like Edy, Silvia, Elvia, Ezra, Estefana, Patty for working so hard alongside workers to champion the legislation! CJ's incredible leadership and coordination of a massive amount of changing needs and challenges. Danielle's tireless negotiation with lawmakers and communication with coalition members.

2025-05-06 22:05:00 UTC

Organizing works! Never forget. Major props to organizers! We are all here supporting your work. Flowers to my team Hannah and Emmanuel. The whole garden to Edy!

2025-05-06 22:10:19 UTC

Organizing: We need to build a larger base of workers who can take ownership of the success of the campaign. This includes workers who can participate in campaign activities but also who can be consistently doing outreach to identify new workers and new supporters to grow our ability to create public pressure for elected officials about their positioning towards passing a DWBORs.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:35:50 UTC

Policy & Legislative: We had some surprise opposition: Berg, Leavitt Bronosk. Surprise allies: Suzanne Schmidt (ranking Republican member of House Labor) – would’ve brought on Sam Lowe, Alex Ybarra

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:37:41 UTC

Policy and Legislature: We weren't a "widely known policy" we weren't able to make a large splash within the caucus outside of the committees. This created a sense of lack of priority to pass the bill but also when key players weren't strong supporters it signaled it was a risky or not worth enough priority to fall out of the line of key labor dems. We will need consistent and ongoing contact with the Dem caucus at large if we want to create the awareness that will be needed to pass the bill.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:40:02 UTC

Organizing: We will face a 60 days legislative session instead of the 105 days that we had this time around which means the challenges to turn out members and workers to participate in the legislative session will double... that means that we only grow our ability to make that engagement possible when we have a larger base of workers to turn out and if we create conditions were workers have an existing relationship with their representative year round.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:43:01 UTC

Legislative and Policy : There will need to be shifts in ongoing organizing to engage members outside of the legislative session to build those relationships ahead of time. Identifying in district activities to engage workers over the summer and ahead of peak campaign opportunities will be key to shift into accountability and relationship.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:44:10 UTC

Communications: We will need a broader narrative(s) of why passing this bill is good for everyone not just for domestic workers... creating concentric circles of the positive impact for workers, employers and the public... this will enable us to have a larger public engagement as we move our bill and campaign forward. How are we telling the stories of why taking care of DW is taking care of WA

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:46:08 UTC

Organizing: Priority areas to focus on to build base and public engagement for the campaign will be Whatcom, Yakima, Spokane,Tacoma, Bellingham, Everett. Without being active and engage in these areas it will be difficult to move key decision makers to prioritize a statewide bill.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:49:53 UTC

Policy and Legislative: There is still pending debrief to be had with both House and Senate champions about what would be best planning for the next legislative session. If we start from scratch on a new bill or if moving to amend and change the one that was already voted on makes the most sense.

cgarcia654 — 2025-05-15 15:53:33 UTC