WSLC 2009 Legislative Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Worker Privacy Act killed

Big unemployment tax breaks for business
For benefits, a temporary boost only

Labor disrespected, taken for granted
President Rick Bender's column

Boeing threats hit paydirt -- again

A new long-term strategy
New evaluations, PAC to strategically target WSLC political support

Bargaining bills killed in 2009
Child care workers, performing artists, UW extension lecturers are all denied

Democrats move to privatize child welfare services

Public works put public to work
Transportation, capital construction, green jobs programs

Injured workers gain protection
PLUS: Ain't no sunshine when it's Retro, and several building trades bills pass

Health coverage for all?
SB 5945 sets 2014 goal, mitigates cuts' damage

Paid family leave will have to wait
OTHER BRIEFS: "Essential worker" bill smoked, agricultural contractors avoid oversight

This is an abbreviated version of the 2009 WSLC Legislative Report. Members of affiliated unions can request a free printed copy, which includes in-depth reports on many more working family issues.

Citing their concerns about harming Washington’s "business climate" amid a recession, Democratic legislative leaders in Olympia killed most of organized labor’s priority policy bills in 2009, adding insult to an injurious all-cuts budget that targeted the state’s public employees and low-income workers.

IMPACT ON STATE EMPLOYEES: After refusing to fund state employees’ negotiated contracts, lawmakers had free reign to cut and then renegotiate contracts after the fact, similar to what was done before state employees gained collective bargaining rights.

IMPACT ON EDUCATION: Public schools and teachers will lose more than $1.1 billion. Thousands of teachers’ and classified staff jobs will be eliminated. Even before these cuts, our state’s education spending was already near the bottom compared to other states: 45th in the nation in per-pupil spending and 46th in class size.

IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE: About $1 billion was cut out of Washington’s health care, public health, and long term care systems.

State worker contracts negotiated, tossed

When Gov. Chris Gregoire unveiled a task force to retain jobs at Boeing and other aerospace companies in Washington, she reminded everyone that we all have an interest in the issue because good-paying Boeing jobs support many other jobs. Sen. Mike Hewitt (R-Walla Walla) echoed that sentiment: "Even though you don’t work at Boeing, you might work at a sandwich shop or grocery store where Boeing employees spend their paychecks. If those jobs go, yours could too."

Our lawmakers should be just as concerned about ripple effects in the private sector from disappearing public jobs.

Recession-related job cuts are happening at state agencies, school districts, universities, prisons, and county and city governments. Unions and other advocates for these workers tend to talk about the negative effects those job cuts will have on children, safety, economic development, workforce training, and vulnerable citizens who rely on the public services to survive. But certain legislators who weigh each decision by how it affects private-sector businesses should note that public employees also buy sandwiches and groceries—and homes and cars and lots of other things at the same community businesses where Boeing and Microsoft workers shop.

The House and Senate’s original all-cuts budget proposals included the closure of some prison institutions—including the McNeil Island Corrections Center—and juvenile rehabilitation facilities. But after a tremendous outcry from public safety advocates, including the Teamsters Joint Council 28 and other public employee unions that represent the public safety workers targeted for layoff, the final budget closed no specific institutions. Instead, a closure committee is being formed to evaluate which institutions should be closed.

However, lawmakers did cut supervision for thousands of criminals with the passage of SB 5288. As originally proposed, the bill would have eliminated 300, or about half, of all parole officers to save an estimated $33 million. It was opposed by the WSLC and the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28—alongside other advocates for public safety and victims’ rights. Eventually, it was pared back to eliminate less than 100 officers but shifted some job cuts to other areas, including juvenile offender supervision, and it passed into law.

Students and faculty literally took to the streets this year to demonstrate against proposed budget cuts to the community and technical college system (See budget story, "Impact on Education," at right.) But other efforts supported by AFT Washington to improve working conditions, compensation and retention of college faculty were stymied in 2009.

HB 1340 would have changed the law to allow community and technical college faculty to bargain for compensation beyond what is provided by the legislature. Giving colleges the option of supplementing faculty pay to address chronic salary underfunding -- and to retain the best instructors -- wouldn’t have cost the state a dime.

SB 5538 sought to convert part-time faculty to full-time positions. Increasing the reliance on part-time faculty was meant to be a short-term solution to the fiscal crisis of the 1980s, but has become ongoing policy. This not only makes it hard for faculty to earn a living, it makes it hard for students to have access to teachers with multiple commitments.

Both bills passed their respective policy committees but died without a vote in the Ways and Means Committees.

For all the talk both about making our state competitive and about stimulating the economy, the Legislature dropped the ball on both counts on attracting conventions to our state.

The Washington State Convention and Trade Center isn’t big enough. It ranks 65th in the country in terms of its size and ability to accommodate large conventions. Groups have continually reported they wanted to come to Seattle, but they had to choose a larger convention facility in some other city. This has cost our state an estimated $1.2 billion in business.

Efforts to expand the convention center are supported by both business and labor, and a feasibility study on the project has recommended expansion. But the State Legislature, led by Senate Democrats, decided not to move forward and instead has required yet another feasibility study.

If the Legislature had moved forward with the expansion, the project could have broken ground in 2010, putting 3,000 construction workers to work, and adding up to 3,500 permanent jobs to operate the expanded center. Now, we’re looking at a delay of at least two more years. This was a lost opportunity to stimulate the state economy by putting people to work and to attract tourism -- and tax revenue -- to the state.

There are countless publicly funded institutions in Washington whose mission is to train the next generation of business managers and executives. The Evergreen State College’s Labor Center is the only statewide higher education outreach program providing direct educational and research services to labor unions and worker-centered organizations.

In 2009, early budget drafts eliminated funding entirely for the Labor Center. In the end, the college got just $200,000, cutting its budget by more than two-thirds.

"Cutting the Labor Center’s budget by 68% was a clear signal that the Legislature doesn’t hold labor education as a very high priority," said WSLC Secretary-Treasurer Al Link. "The Legislature’s actions are unacceptable and we will work hard to win back funding in next year’s supplemental budget."

In the meantime, the WSLC has asked affiliated unions to make contributions to mitigate the cuts and help avoid the layoff of labor educators. Contributions can be sent to the Labor Education and Research Center, TESC, c/o Peter Kardas, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia, WA , 98505.