Public Safety Employees Union 519

About Us

Address

220 W. Mercer Street,
Suite W-420
Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: (206) 448-1050

Mission Statement

TO PROVIDE our members with superior service in negotiating contracts. Ensuring ongoing improvement to their wages and working conditions by displaying professionalism in our actions characterized by the values of respect, equity and uncompromised integrity.

Core Values

History

Public Safety Employees Union 519 was chartered in April of 1962 and it was the direct result of the efforts of a handful of employees of the King County Sheriff’s Office in Seattle, Washington. In 1962 the Department was primarily serving the rural community of King County and was directed by an elected Sheriff. Partisan politics was a definite factor in not only the size of the Department but an individual employee’s progression within the Department. Civil Service was created to correct that problem and was enacted by the voters in 1959. However, the effects of a well entrenched political patronage system was not eradicated immediately and there was an urgent need for collective bargaining and a group effort to improve the working conditions.

At that time the Sheriff’s Department was very small and a group of Sheriff’s Deputies approached an existing International Union, titled Building Service Employees, and requested a Charter. The Charter was granted and the King County Sheriff’s Deputies Local Union 519 was officially born. Shortly after Local 519’s Charter, the International changed its name to Service Employees International Union.

There have been many changes in Local 519 since 1962 culminating in our separation from SEIU in January, 2008. We are now an independent Labor Union.

PSEU 519 has a current membership of approximately 500 people, most of whom work in jobs directly related to law enforcement. We represent the following bargaining units: