WEA Vice President Janie White breaks barriers in her union

February 6, 2025

MLK Labor sat down with Janie White to learn about her story and vision for the future.

Raised on strong union values

Janie White remembers the exact moment when she realized the power of a union. When she was a young girl, teachers at her school went on strike. She thought this meant she had a day off to play with friends. To her surprise, this wasn’t the case. Her father, a Teamster garbage truck driver, told her to help prepare coffee and snacks for the picket line.

The union values instilled by her parents continue guiding her to this day as Vice President of the Washington Education Association (WEA), representing nearly 90,000 educators across the state.

From a volunteer to a proud union member

Ms. White’s journey to public education began as a caring parent who wanted to do anything she could to ensure her children’s success. “I started as a volunteer with PTA and soon helped out in the classroom reading and helping care for students,” she explains. “I immediately fell in love. I didn’t just want to help my kids, but I wanted to see every student have the opportunity to thrive.”

This soon led her to become a substitute and, shortly after, a full-time office manager at Black River Alternative High School in Renton. Despite this being her first union job, she recalled her parents’ union values and proudly joined Renton Education Support Professionals (RESP) on her first day.

An advocate for Education Support Professionals

Education Support Professionals (ESPs) are the school staff, other than certified teachers, who work to ensure students receive a quality education. ESPs include bus drivers, paraeducators, clerical staff, custodians, cafeteria workers, substitutes, nurses, security workers, and more.

Soon after starting at Black River, Ms. White became the building representative for RESP because she saw it as a way to advocate for the ESPs at her school and give them the voice they deserve.

“ESPs are often the first face a student sees in the morning and the last before they go home,” she says. “We see kids in their moments of need and it’s our job to ensure they have the support they need to learn.”

One day, Ms. White learned that a student wore a hood to hide her hair because she was unable to wash it and was ashamed. After learning this, she brought shampoo and let the student use the school bathroom. Soon she started bringing in other items for students who lacked access to them and developed a reputation for going above and beyond to take care of those in need.

Breaking down barriers in her union

After Black River closed, Ms. White moved to Nelson Middle School in Renton. At Nelson, she continued to grow as an advocate within her union, eventually becoming the President of RESP. As she attended WEA events, she saw the lack of People of Color in leadership roles and sought to change this. In 2019, she was elected WEA Vice President, becoming the first Black woman (and ESP) to be elected to one of WEA’s statewide positions.

She credits her mother and the many other powerful Black women in her life for giving her the bravery to be a changemaker. She also hopes to inspire more educators of color to seek leadership roles in their local unions.

“The battles we fight in our streets are often no different than the battles we fight in our workplaces and even our unions,” she notes. “My vision is to center racial and social justice in our union and schools because we must give every student an equal opportunity to thrive.”

She is also a fierce believer in the union’s role in training members on addressing microaggressions and other ways the public education system hurts students of color.

A hopeful vision for the future

As she looks to the future, Vice President White’s intrinsic sense of optimism is hard to ignore. She understands the challenges and unsustainable workloads have pushed many to leave education. But she also understands the passion for helping children that brings people into this job in the first place.

She is helping lead WEA’s crusade in Olympia to boost state education funding, hire more special education staff, and increase wages for ESPs. Doing so will free educators up to focus on building individualized relationships with students and tailor learning to what they need.

She recalls one of her favorite quotes by the author Angela Davis: “I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I’m changing the things I cannot accept.”

From teachers to ESPs, she believes everyone who works in a school does this because they have a passion for helping students. “I believe in fighting for public education and the respect educators that work hard every day to educate and support our students deserve.”