Attend the 2026 Council 2 Library Summit in Des Moines!

Jason Allen

After a resounding success last year, Council 2 is hosting its second Library Summit again in just a few weeks! This year’s event will be taking place at the Four Points by Sheraton Seattle Airport South down in beautiful Des Moines from November 13th through the 15th.

This summit is designed explicitly to put library workers from across the state in a room together, creating an invaluable space to collaborate, share strategies and explore issues that affect all of our libraries and library workers. We highly recommend membership take the opportunity to attend if you’re able!

The registration fee is $40 for local members, but the Local 1857 executive board voted in the last meeting to fund up to 15 people’s attendance. If you’d like to attend, email the eboard@kclsvoice.org before registering so we can confirm we still have a funded slot available!

Attendance is obviously on personal time, so make sure you’ve gotten your time off requests approved.

Any questions? Email the board! Or visit the Council 2 Library Summit page and scope out the agenda and additional details.

Benefits Bargaining Update Meeting on Monday, October 5

Jason Allen

The Benefits Bargaining Committee will be hosting a joint informational meeting THIS Monday evening at 7:30pm via Zoom!

The committee will be going over the benefits that were bargained and lay out the next steps in the process. Voting for approval or rejection will begin after this meeting, so this is your key opportunity to get your critical questions answered.

All members of 1857-M, 1857-P, 1857-F and 1857-S in good standing are welcome and encouraged to attend. Not a member? Now is your chance! Add your voice and make all our voices stronger. Join here.

For the meeting’s Zoom invitation, please check your KCLS email address for the message sent from C2everett@council2.com on Friday morning at 8:58am titled “[EXTERNAL] Message for 1857”

Support Our Union: The Leave Bank is Open for October!

Jason Allen

All the hours that our union puts into negotiating our contract, bringing concerns to management, and speaking up on our behalf are made possible by the Union Leave Bank — and October is one of only two months when it’s open for donations.

The leave bank is officially open today, and we can accept donations through October 31st using the form below:

Union Leave Bank Form [PDF]

You can either email the completed form or mail it to our Post Office box. Regardless of how you submit it, it must be postmarked or emailed before November 1st.

Via Email: local1857president@gmail.com

Via Post Office:
President, Local 1857
PO Box 3056
Issaquah, WA 98027

Why the Leave Bank is Important

The leave bank is a shared pool of hours that members contribute so union leadership can tap into it for negotiations, handling grievances, training, or other official union business. It keeps things fair, predictable, and transparent while preventing union leaders from having to use their own personal time to advocate for all of us.

This support is especially critical right now. With ongoing health insurance bargaining and preparations for our 2027 contract negotiations, the union needs the capacity to do work that can’t be done on KCLS time. Your donated hours directly strengthen that effort!

Local 1857 Executive Board Meeting: Tomorrow!

Jason Allen

First a quick reminder the registration deadline for the previously mentioned Council 2 Presidents Conference is TOMORROW Friday, September 18, 2026!

Second, the executive board of Local 1857 is also meeting tomorrow. Meeting starts at 7:15pm.

While attendance is only mandatory for members of the eBoard, the proceedings can be joined by any member in good standing. If you would like to attend, just send an email to eboard@kclsvoice.org requesting a Zoom invitation, and you’ll receive that in the minutes leading up to the meeting time.

Can’t make it? Not real interested in eBoard meetings? Be sure to check out the next Listening Session on Monday, October 26th at 7:15pm. Don’t forget to visit the full calendar to see other upcoming dates!

Not a dues paying member but suffering from a bad case of FOMO? Might be time for you to join your colleagues in Local 1857. ✊

Octopus with just four arms, but just as many tools.

20th Anniversary of Local 1857-F: A Milestone for KCLS Workers

Jason Allen

This year is a pretty major milestone for our union family over here in 1857, as we celebrate the TWENTIETH anniversary of Local 1857-F! But their historic impact on the organization goes back even further.

In the the early ‘90s, maintenance workers in Facilities became the very first group of employees at King County Library System to organize. Their courage established a new tradition of labor solidarity and advocacy within our system under the AFSCME / Council 2 banner of Local 1652-LM.

Then in 2006, recognizing that workers are stronger when standing together as one, the members of Local 1652-LM voted to disband and integrate into the much larger union of KCLS workers formed just a few years earlier as Local 1857. When the pages joined up with 1857-M and 1857-F just a year later, Local 1857 became one of the largest unions under Council 2.

After 20 years of 1857-F, we all owe a great debt of gratitude to the courage and effort of the workers in Facilities for bringing union representation to KCLS for the first time. Thank you for your continued hard work in keeping our system running, and for your enduring commitment to solidarity.

Happy 20th Anniversary, 1857-F!