NWLP-03-18-11:NWLP
3/15/11
10:16 AM
Page 4
In Washington Legislature
Bills banning collective bargaining are buried
OLYMPIA — If working people
have a voice in the Washington Legis-
lature, it’s in no small part through the
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-
CIO. WSLC coordinates labor union
lobbying efforts in Olympia, and tracks
dozens of bills that could help or harm
union members and working people.
So far this year, WSLC has had
some successes pushing bills toward
passage, and has helped kill a number
of objectionable bills, but also has seen
a number of proposals that it backed
die for lack of support. Bills were de-
clared “dead” if they failed to pass at
least one committee by Feb. 25, or to
pass in either the House or the Senate
by March 7. However, WSLC publica-
tions director David Groves cautions
that every “death” is relative in
Olympia, since bills necessary to im-
plement the budget can be passed until
the final day.
Democrats in Washington control
the governor’s office, the state House
55 to 43, and the state Senate 27 to 22.
PAGE 4
One top priority for WSLC is de-
fending the state’s workers’ compensa-
tion system — yet again — from “re-
forms” that would deprive injured
workers of benefits. Four months after
voters rejected a ballot measure that
would have privatized the state’s pub-
licly-run workers’ compensation sys-
tem, WSLC is contending with Senate
Bill 5566, which would allow employ-
ers to settle workers’ compensation
claims with lump-sum buyouts of in-
jured workers. The buyouts would
amount to benefit cuts, WSLC says, be-
cause disabled workers — desperate
for having lost their income — would
settle for less in the short-term than
they’d be entitled to in the long term.
The bill passed the Senate March 5 by
34-15 (with the support of all state sen-
ators representing Southwest Washing-
ton) and now is in the House.
House Bill 2002, on the other hand,
would allow the workers’ comp system
to provide wage subsidies for light duty
or transitional work, to help injured
workers return to work. WSLC sup-
ports it. It passed the House 54-43 and
now is in the Senate Labor Committee.
Several other WSLC-backed bills
are still in the running:
• House Bill 1832 would give em-
ployees of airport service contractors
— such as cafeteria workers — some
security: If their employer loses a con-
tract, workers are assumed to continue
their jobs at the same wages and bene-
fits with the new contractor. It passed
the House 52-44, and now awaits ac-
tion by Senate Labor, Commerce and
Consumer Protection Committee.
• House Bill 1701 and Senate Bill
5599 would increase penalties on con-
struction contractors that misclassify
employees as “independent contrac-
tors.” WSLC and the Washington State
Building Trades Council have cam-
paigned in previous legislative sessions
against this abuse, in which unscrupu-
lous employees undercut competitors
by shirking their responsibility to pay
unemployment and workers’ compen-
sation insurance. The bill passed the
House 54 to 43, and is now in the Sen-
ate Labor committee.
But several proposals deemed wor-
thy by the WSLC died when they failed
to move by the Legislature’s deadlines:
• House Bill 1320, sponsored by
Seattle State Rep. (and Teamsters
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
leader) Bob Hasegawa, would have
created a state bank, along the lines of a
similar proposal in Oregon, to invest
state government bank accounts in
Washington businesses instead of plac-
ing those deposits in big out-of-state
banks.
• House Bill 1889, also by Hase-
gawa, would have required the state
budget to itemize the estimated impact
of tax breaks.
WSLC publishes daily updates on
the bills it’s tracking at www.wslc.org/
legis/tracker11.htm. The Legislature’s
2011 session began Jan. 10. It’s sched-
uled to end April 24, but could go into
overtime.
WSLC also helped bury bills that
would have harmed workers’ interests:
• Several bills would have restricted
collective bargaining rights for Wash-
ington State Ferries workers, cut their
wages and benefits, and privatized parts
of the system.
• Other bills would have banned
state employee collective bargaining;
made Washington a so-called “right-to-
work” state by banning contracts from
having union-security clauses; or
banned public employee unions from
bargaining over the contracting out of
state services.
• House Bill 1824 would have taken
away the right of armored car employ-
ees to have rest and meal breaks.
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Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon
as a voice of the labor movement.
4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150,
Portland, Ore. 97213
Telephone: (503) 288-3311
Editor: Michael Gutwig
Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice
Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of
each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-
profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the
Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore-
gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union
members.
Group rates available to trade union organizations.
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MARCH 18, 2011