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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2007)
Labor sees partial gains, modest disappointments at Olympia OLYMPIA — When the Washing- ton State Legislature wrapped up its 2007 session last month, the state la- bor movement looked back on a sea- son of partial gains and modest disap- pointments. Democrats controlled both chambers and the governor’s of- fice for the third year in a row, and yet many of the union-supported bills tracked by the Washington State La- bor Council (WSLC) died in one leg- islative committee or another. Several proposals that didn’t make it through the Washington Legislature may end up being passed by the Ore- gon Legislature this year, even though Democrats hold a slimmer majority in Salem than in Olympia. Democrats have a 32 to 17 majority in the Wash- ington Senate, and 62 to 36 in the House. The Washington State Legislature meets annually starting each January, with five-month sessions in odd-num- bered years and three-month sessions in even-numbered years. The highlight for labor in this year’s session was the creation of a family leave insurance program, a proposal WSLC has been pushing for years. Beginning in 2009, all Wash- ington workers will be able to leave work for up to five weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child into their families — and collect a stipend of $250 a week (pro-rated for part-time workers.) California is the only other state that offers such a benefit. As originally proposed, the insurance would also have included family leave for a child’s serious illness and would have been funded by a 2-cent-per-hour payroll tax. As passed, it will cover just maternity/paternity leave, and a legislative task force will come back next year with a proposal for how to pay for it. Building trades unions chalked up several victories this session, includ- ing requirements that sprinkler fitters and crane operators be state-certified. The crane operator certification was clinched among legislators after a crane collapsed in Bellevue, killing a man who was in his home watching TV. The trades also won passage of a law setting minimum standards for ap- prenticeship utilization in school dis- trict public works projects; most gov- ernment-funded construction projects in Washington now require that at least 15 percent of construction work- ers be apprentices — to open up op- portunities for new workers to get on- the-job training. Another new law sets up “responsi- ble bidder criteria” for public-works contracts; in other words, contractors that break state laws, such as the re- quirement to pay the prevailing wage, won’t be able bid on further govern- ment construction work. Building trades unions also sup- ported forming a new joint legislative PAGE 10 task force to study the underground economy in the construction industry, in response to concerns about compe- tition from unscrupulous employers. Public employees had successes too. The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), a 40,000- member affiliate of the American Fed- eration of State, County and Munici- pal Employees (AFSCME), negotiat- ed an improved pay and benefits pack- age last fall with the governor; the Legislature agreed to fully fund the deal. Washington state workers have only had collective bargaining rights since 2002, and this is their second union contract. WFSE also won the right to repre- sent two new groups — foster parents and adult home care providers. Wash- ington will be the first state in the na- tion to recognize a foster parents union. While the state’s roughly 6,000 foster parents aren’t government em- ployees, and the new law doesn’t give them full collective bargaining rights, it does direct a state agency to “meet and confer” with WFSE over reim- bursement rates and licensing and screening rules. Meanwhile, the 2,500 or so adult family home care providers will be able to unionize with WFSE, as soon as it can be worked out how to com- bine large and small providers into a single organization. The way the pro- gram works, state-licensed facilities get $55 a day to care for elderly or dis- abled individuals who are unable to live alone. Some providers are indi- viduals who open up their own homes; others are businesses that em- ploy others. When union-backed bills got a vote, most lawmakers voted along partisan lines, Democrats siding with labor and Republicans voting against. There were exceptions. WSLC is still tabulating its official Committee On Political Education (COPE) ratings of lawmakers, but draft results showed Don Benton, (R-Vancouver) voting in accord with labor on the majority of issues this year, in contrast to his pre- vious lifetime voting record of 24 per- cent. Benton was one of only two Re- publicans to vote for the family leave insurance bill in its original version. But many important union-backed proposals didn’t get a vote, because they didn’t have the support of a com- mittee chair. The way the Legislature works, each bill is assigned to a com- mittee to look at. Each committee has a chair who controls the agenda. Only if a bill is passed by a committee does it generally get a vote of the House or Senate. And in order to become law, bills must pass both chambers and get the signature of the governor. “The Legislature is set up to kill legislation, not pass it," said WFSE lobbyist Tim Welch. One bill would have allowed public employees to unionize by “card check.” Another would have prohib- ited aerospace employers that received state tax incentives from forcing em- ployees to attend anti-union meetings. Another would have required a list of all state tax exemptions to be included with the governor’s biennial budget proposal. Proposals to stop fraud in the initia- tive system got nowhere. One would have provided more campaign finance disclosure during the signature-gather- ing phase of initiative campaigns. An- other would have required the licens- ing of paid signature gathering firms, and training and permitting of paid signature-gatherers. A third would have required signature gatherers to sign a declaration on the back of the petition, attesting that the signatures on the petition are those of registered voters. For the second year in a row, unions pushed a bill that would have required employers with more than 1,000 workers to reimburse the state if their employees are uninsured — and poor enough to be enrolled in tax-sub- sidized health plans. Wal-Mart, in other words. Last year House speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) drew the ire of John Sweeney, the president of the national AFL-CIO, for killing a simi- lar bill, which was supported by the majority of legislators. This year, said WSLC spokesperson David Groves, most lawmakers were spooked by a federal court decision that overturned a similar law in Maryland. “Often bills take a number of years to pass,” Groves said. “This is the start of educating the Legislature. 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