A small and lengthy hotel strike is offering information about a new Washington state policy that allows striking workers to collect unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. A Boeing strike could stress-test it.
This year, benefits paid for by employers and traditionally meant for workers who lose work through no fault of their own became available to people who are employed but who choose not to work, too. And the Washington state Employment Security Department told me that as of Sept. 14, 174 striking workers have been paid benefits so far in 2026, accounting for 814 paid weeks and $604,491 from the Unemployment Trust Fund.
That is up surprisingly little from Aug. 5, when ESD reported 151 paid claimants, 741 paid weeks and $565,714. (I say “little” recognizing that even a dollar given to a person choosing not to work takes away from a fund that has been relied on as a safety net for workers who lose their jobs.)
I expected a larger increase because more than 100 workers at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Seattle Pioneer Square were on strike for 85 days, with sources saying they’d be applying for UI benefits. Eligible strikers are allowed to take up to six weeks of UI benefits.
I have follow-up questions pending with ESD about how many striking workers actually applied, how many were approved or denied and how many claims remain pending. The agency did tell me that about 57% of all the striking claimants so far have collected the full six weeks.
The Embassy Suites experience could be a useful warning against assuming every striker will apply for unemployment benefits or qualify for them.
But that still doesn’t comfort me for unemployed workers and this employer-provided safety net. Any future Boeing strike, for example, would present a dramatically different scale, even if not every worker is covered by Washington’s UI system. And workers in the roughly 17,000-member Boeing bargaining units represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) voted overwhelmingly to authorize a potential strike Aug. 21.
There is good reason to think a strike will not happen.
The offer rejected in August was already generous and had the support of the SPEEA bargaining team. HeraldNet reports, “Boeing’s August offer included aggregate wage pool increases of 29.4% over four years, the largest wage-pool increase for union members since 1983. The company also proposed three extra days of paid leave per year, lower limits on mandatory overtime and more virtual work opportunities.” The September offer has the bargaining team’s support again and is even more generous regarding pay and some contract language. Voting runs from Sept. 24 through Oct. 1.
If these workers do end up rejecting the latest offer and go on strike, it seems likely to me that many of them would seek UI benefits. Why? SPEEA sent this answer out in a Sept. 1 Q&A: “In 2025, SPEEA members helped lead a coalition of Washington state labor unions that successfully expanded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to workers on strike. Shortly after, unions in Oregon helped enact a similar law, meaning eligible striking workers in both states can now access limited UI benefits during a strike. California and Utah have not yet passed similar legislation.” Adding, “SPEEA is preparing additional UI resources for members in the event of a strike, including UI Rapid Response workshops and an explainer on Unemployment Insurance for striking workers, including when and how to apply and what members need to do to remain eligible.”
SPEEA members are being counseled to use what unions asked the state’s Legislature for, and this potential Unemployment Trust Fund exposure illustrates why lawmakers should have said “no” to the favor.
Scaling the impact
Not all the SPEEA workers covered by these bargaining agreements work in Washington state, but the majority do. That means Washington's potential exposure would be lower than simply multiplying all 17,000 workers by the state's benefit maximum. For perspective, however, if all 17,000 workers were Washington claimants and received six weeks at the current $1,208 maximum weekly benefit, the theoretical UI fund payout would exceed $123 million.
Again, not all SPEEA workers are working in Washington state, so that number should be viewed only as illustrating the scale of the bargaining unit. But also know that even larger strikes of Boeing workers have happened in our state. Boeing is home to aerospace manufacturing and large, long strikes. SPEEA’s Q&A recalls strike gains of its own in 2000. Remember, “No Nerds, No Birds”?
Washington Policy Center has been calling the new law what it is — a favor to unions. Organized labor sought and planned for the law, and it harms businesses and most workers in the state. It also annoys or offends many workers in the state who show up for their jobs and hope they never need UI benefits.
The Unemployment Trust Fund held about $3.6 billion at the end of the second quarter, according to ESD. The agency also projects billions of dollars in ordinary unemployment payments this year and has already forecast that the fund will fall below the statutory solvency threshold that triggers an additional employer tax.
Strike benefits are therefore entering a system that already has substantial obligations. And while the new law says employers whose workers receive benefits during a strike are charged 100% of those benefits and cannot receive relief from those charges, the Unemployment Trust Fund is still the account from which benefits are paid, and large strike claims can affect cash flow and ultimately employer tax calculations.
Hopefully SPEEA members accept Boeing's new offer and the hypothetical stays hypothetical. And when lawmakers return to Olympia in 2027, they should get rid of the law that turned the Unemployment Trust Fund into a source of income during strikes before payouts go higher. (WPC’s Take Action page includes an easy way to tell state lawmakers to repeal the law.)
By trying to help a minority of workers, or their unions, lawmakers are hurting the majority of workers and businesses in the state.
