1999 Legislative Report
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO publishes an annual Legislative Report, which includes facts and analysis of the issues affecting working people that were addressed (or not addressed) during each legislative session. It also (normally) includes a House Voting Record and Senate Voting Record on labor issues for each state legislator. But not this year. Click here to find out why.
Here are the stories from the 1999 WSLC Legislative Report:
CO- MEANS NO! Divided House is Death
Valley for pro-worker bills (session summary)
Withholding judgment (a column by WSLC President Rick S.
Bender)
Business lobby blows it, but dislocated workers pay price
"Anger and Betrayal" State employee collective bargaining
dies AGAIN
Apprenticeship gets no respect
Teachers fight for better pay; Part-time instructors get raises
but not parity
Senate kills LEOFF reform
Significant workers' comp bills quashed by GOP
SEIU, OPEIU win raises for home care workers
BRIEFLY: Farm worker housing funded, but standards still at issue
for camps; and many other briefs
CO- MEANS NO! Divided House is Death Valley for pro-worker bills
(A 1999 Session Summary)
The 1998 election left Republican leaders, who had controlled both houses of the State Legislature, clinging by their fingernails to mere House "co-leadership." But they still managed to claw to death just about every pro-worker bill supported by organized labor.
And they are taking great pride in that accomplishment. A handout entitled "Bad business bills killed by HRC" was circulated by the House Republican Caucus shortly after the session ended. It is almost identical to the Washington State Labor Council’s legislative agenda circulated before the session started.
-- They expressed great satisfaction in "killing" civil service reform and basic collective bargaining rights for state employees.
-- They reveled in "killing" an effort to promote economic opportunities by requiring that 10 percent of the jobs at major public works projects be apprentices from state-certified programs.
-- They bragged about "killing" unemployment insurance benefits for workers forced out on strike by employer unfair labor practices.
-- They gushed over "killing" unemployment benefits for victims of domestic violence who are forced to flee and therefore quit their jobs.
-- They marveled over their good fortune in "killing" extended unemployment benefits for displaced workers who seek retraining.
-- And they happily "killed" the right of injured workers to continue to receive worker’s compensation benefits when their employer appeals a claim determined compensable.
But mean-spirited self-congratulatory statements from the House Republican caucus only tell one chapter of the story. At a certain point in the session, GOP Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard and his leadership team lost control of important members of their caucus. At that time, serious health problems of a couple of legislators and lack of fortitude on the part of a number of Democratic legislative leaders combined to leave this session a disappointment and incomplete.
CHAPTER 1: The Senate
Beginning the session, we knew the split House would be a problem for bills that helped working families. The rules required agreement by co-chairs of each committee before a bill could be heard or voted upon.
The Senate, with a 27-22 Democratic majority, was a friendlier place for working families. A number of excellent bills wound their way through committee and ultimately passed.
But the Democratic majority in the Senate is complicated. One Democrat, Sen. Tim Sheldon of Shelton, consistently speaks and votes against labor bills. (He even tried to amend anti-union "right-to-work" language to Civil Service Reform.) But there are a surprising number of other Democratic senators more loyal to business special interests than to working people’s issues.
On the other hand, most Democrats understand they would not be in the majority but for the work and contributions of organized labor. The heads and hearts of quite a few Senate Democrats are with labor and working families.
On the Republican side, there are anywhere from two to six senators sympathetic to working family issues. A couple of these senators will vote with labor with fair consistency, but are sometimes reticent to deliver the deciding vote in close issues.
Now, all that being said, the Senate did an admirable job in the regular session passing pro-worker bills:
-- Civil Service Reform/Collective Bargaining passed 29-19, with Tim Sheldon the only Democrat voting "No" and GOP Sens. Pam Roach, Dan Swecker, and Shirley Winsley voting "Yes."
-- Extended unemployment insurance benefits for displaced workers passed 33-16 with all Democrats and six Republicans voting "Yes." (In special session, Sen. Tim Sheldon switched to a "No" vote the second time around.)
-- The 10 percent set aside for apprentices on public works projects passed 25-23. Shirley Winsley was the lone Republican "Yes" vote. Democrats voting "No" were Tim Sheldon and Jim Hargrove, with Sen. Julia Patterson absent (but supportive).
-- Continuing worker’s comp benefits during employer appeal passed 28-21. Again, Tim Sheldon was the only Democrat voting "No." Republicans Shirley Winsley and Pam Roach voted "Yes."
-- A study of chemically related injuries and how those workers fare in the worker’s comp system passed 30-17. Democrats voting "No" were Tim Sheldon, Mary Margaret Haugen and Valoria Loveland, with Marilyn Rasmussen absent. A number of Republicans were moved by the debate on this issue and voted "Yes." They were Sens. Don Benton, Jeanine Long, Bob Oke, Pam Roach, Val Stevens, Shirley Winsley and Joe Zarelli.
There were other good bills that passed but there were also several that did not get out of the Senate.
Perhaps the most shocking experience at this stage of the session was the failure of the Senate Democratic caucus to pass the bill that provided unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence who are forced to quit their jobs. THIS BILL COULD HAVE SAVED LIVES and its fiscal impact on the $1.7 billion U.I. Trust Fund was negligible. But business opposed the bill and persuaded Democratic Sens. Mary Margaret Haugen, Rosemary McAuliffe, Betti Sheldon, Marilyn Rasmussen and Tim Sheldon to oppose it.
CHAPTER II: House "Killers"
Despite the resounding election rebuke of their anti-worker agenda, Republican leaders in the House threw every obstruction they could in front of the working family bills that had passed the Senate. They refused even to hold public hearings on all of the above-mentioned bills except the apprenticeship bill, which they would not allow a vote upon.
Their budget was significantly below the state spending limit, and they refused to act on the Children’s Health Initiative, a Patients’ Bill of Rights and other bills important to the lives of Washington residents. Calls were coming to their offices, rallies were held, but the destructive, pointless obstinacy continued.
CHAPTER III: The 50th Vote
Unless there was a brave Republican prepared to vote with 49 Democrats to pull a bill from committee to the floor for a vote, the destructive strategy of the House GOP leadership was destined to succeed.
Republican Rep. Tom Campbell, a chiropractor, had a record of support for labor on bread-and-butter issues. He strongly supported all of the pro-worker bills that came out of the Senate, and was deeply troubled by the obstructionist politics of his caucus leadership. In particular, he felt strongly about the need for a Patients’ Bill of Rights and Children’s Health Initiative.
Supporting bills is one thing, but many consider it political suicide to vote with the opposition party on a "procedural" vote to pull a bill to the floor for a vote.
Yet after long and agonizing consideration, Rep. Campbell decided he could not stand by and allow the Republican leadership to "kill" important working family legislation. Also, he was very concerned about a bill important to his constituents that would halt the building of a dump over a sole source aquifer in his district.
Tom became the 50th vote! Now some good things could happen for working families!
CHAPTER IV: The Human Factor
In Olympia, word began to spread that Rep. Campbell would be the 50th vote and then Rep. Don Carlson announced he would be the 50th vote on the budget. But Carlson was not about to be the 50th vote on working families’ bills. But as long as the 49 House Democrats held together, they could still pass the Patients’ Bill of Rights, the Children’s Health Initiative, and some priority bills for working families.
Then the other shoe dropped. Democratic Reps. Dave Quall and Pat Scott had serious health problems that prevented them from attending during the session’s final weeks. The Democratic budget passed as Reps. Campbell, Don Carlson, and Shirley Hankins voting "yes." But the political obstinacy of House Republican leaders had held together just long enough to defeat labor’s bills.
CHAPTER V: The Special Session
A special session, ostensibly necessitated by the failure to pass a transportation budget, renewed hope that some important working family bills might again be considered. Labor met with Democratic leaders and asked them again to pass these priority bills, but a number of Democratic senators showed great impatience to be done with the special session.
Civil Service Reform, which passed easily during the regular session, passed the Senate in the final hours of the special session as members were literally walking out the door -- too late to do any good. And incredibly, a last-minute effort to pass the Patients’ Bill of Rights failed in the Democrat-controlled Senate because members simply wanted to go home.
The House failed to pass an amendment to the transportation budget on the 10 percent apprenticeship set aside after three Democrats -- Ruth Fisher, Debbie Regala and Bill Grant -- voted against it. Republican Rep. Tom Campbell voted for the amendment.
FINAL CHAPTER: "Incomplete"
Labor left the combined sessions disappointed. Given our work in the successful 1998 elections and our diligent negotiation and compromise aimed at getting priority pro-worker bills passed in 1999, the lack of commitment on the part of the Democratic leadership and a number of members was remarkable.
Yes, the budget passed was a responsible one that made progress on some important fiscal issues, and yes, this new legislature kept the handful of anti-worker bills resurrected from sessions past from reaching the governor’s desk.
But in the final analysis, the work of the 1999 Washington State Legislature is incomplete. And there is just one last opportunity before the 2000 election to get the job done right.
A column by WSLC President Rick S. Bender
"What a difference a year makes!"
That was the first line of the Washington State Labor Council’s first legislative newsletter back in January. At the time, there were promises of cooperation and extraordinary optimism in wake of an election that swept Democrats into control of the State Senate and a 49-49 tie in the House.
Well... what a difference a session makes.
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, for the first time in its 42-year history, is unable to justify a legislative voting record given the disappointing performance of the legislature in 1999. Virtually every priority issue for labor and working families was left unresolved, often without votes. This despite the diligent work and negotiations of labor representatives that presented many opportunities to overcome the hurdles erected by House Republicans.
All that hard work and compromise went to waste in the session’s final days, and throughout the special session, because of a combination of unavoidable circumstances and an inexcusable lack of resolve among Democratic leaders.
Yes, quite a few labor-supported bills initially passed the State Senate, and perhaps credit is due to the many Democrats and a number of principled Republicans who voted to support working families on those measures.
But the Senate Democratic leadership’s inexplicable reluctance to re-approve those measures during the special session, when a real opportunity to pass them existed, called into question all previous actions. We were left to wonder whether Senate Democrats would support working families legislation that actually had a chance of becoming law.
Collective bargaining for state employees. Unemployment insurance for displaced workers seeking retraining. Encouraging and promoting apprenticeship opportunities. These are not radical ideas. These are fundamental worker rights and proven common-sense policies for promoting high-skill, high-wage employment in Washington state.
After being left this year to wonder who our friends are, we have no choice but to withhold judgment -- for now. But if similar legislative inaction continues in 2000, it will have serious and long-term implications for future legislative and political action by the Washington State Labor Council and organized labor throughout the state.
Labor may simply decide to pursue proactive legislation through the initiative process, as we did so successfully with the minimum wage in 1998. Would the 1999 Legislature have passed Initiative 688, which won by a 2-to-1 margin?
I think you know the answer.
Business lobby blows it, but dislocated workers pay price
Five years of open warfare, backstabbing and generally offensive behavior within the business community proved to be the undoing of efforts to reach agreement on unemployment insurance financing and benefits for dislocated workers.
Labor developed a proposal which would have provided the business community with more than $500 million in tax savings over the next six years, would have significantly increased equity in the tax system (an 8-10 percent change is, as history bears out, tantamount to a sea change), and would have mitigated tax increases for businesses in construction and other industries that have been heavily subsidized over the years. In return, labor sought the continuation of the timber retraining program with the short-term inclusion of aerospace workers and a one-year income support program for other dislocated workers who are in qualified retraining programs.
Most of the business community said "No!" In a display of loyalty that defies logic, wisdom and the interests of many of the businesses that these lobbyists are supposed to represent, the business community refused to seriously consider the generous package, and instead spent their time making spurious arguments about definitions of dislocated workers and whether a half billion dollars in tax cuts was really a tax cut.
Three industry groups did work honorably with organized labor on this issue: the Washington Food Processors Association, the Washington Growers’ League and the Fishing Industry.
Though castigated and chastised by the rest of the business community they held fast and worked with the labor community in an attempt to bring closure to this five-year war in the business community.
Through this experience we have relearned something important -- you should never bargain with idealogues because they don’t know how to compromise. We will continue to try to help resolve this issue but our proposals in the future will be less generous.
Saving lives not a priorityOne early tragedy of the legislative session was the refusal of the Democrat-controlled Senate to bring SB5136 up for vote on the floor. This bill would have allowed victims of domestic violence and stalking the ability to quit their employment for "good cause" -- recognizing that their resulting unemployment was through no fault of their own, which is the cornerstone of eligibility in our unemployment system.
SB5136 would have made us the fourth state to allow victims of domestic violence and stalking who are forced to flee their employment and home because it is no longer safe for themselves or their children to receive unemployment insurance benefits while they restructure their lives in a new locale.
The bill would have allowed work search to be suspended for up to 12 weeks.
A handful of Democratic senators stopped this bill from receiving a vote on the floor. The irony here is that our law allows a spouse to quit their job for good cause if they are following a spouse who is relocating, but not to quit their job for good cause if that same spouse is beating them and preventing them from going to work.
Go figure.
"Anger and Betrayal" State employee collective bargaining dies AGAIN
The latest battle by state employees to gain the same collective bargaining rights as private workers came to a disappointing end during the legislative special session.
"There’s a strong feeling of anger and betrayal for the Senate Democratic Caucus leadership," Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender told a group of state employees when it became clear the bill would not move. "We all worked very hard to put them into the majority and this is the thanks we’re getting. All I can tell you, and I’ve said this to the leadership, it will be difficult going back to our members asking them to support Democrats when they can’t deliver for working people."
The frustration was echoed by Greg Devereux, Executive Director of the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28: "They’ve walked away from labor in a big way."
The Senate Democratic leadership first balked, then reluctantly allowed a vote on the Civil Service Reform Act, SSB5363, only after it became clear the special session would adjourn before the House could take it up. The re-passage vote, which should have been routine in the Senate where the measure had already passed easily, turned out to be an empty gesture.
In the House, Republican Rep. Tom Campbell had assured labor representatives that he would join the 49 Democrats and provide the 50th vote needed to pass SSB5363.
This bill was a top priority for the Washington State Labor Council in 1999. Governor Gary Locke requested the legislation, and he repeatedly asked legislators to support the bill. SSB5363 would have:
-- Streamlined the state civil service system, consolidating hundreds of rules.
-- Given state employees the ability to negotiate wages, benefits and other issues, while strengthening the legis-lature’s final say on the economics of master contracts.
-- Allowed a change in current contracting-out provisions, but protected state employees by requiring agencies, colleges and universities to demonstrate that contracting out would result in savings or efficiencies, but not simply from private contractors paying lower wages and benefits.
Legislative inaction on civil service reform could have serious and long-term implications on future legislative and political action by the Washington Federation of State Employees and the Washington State Labor Council. Failure to vote on the measure by the Legislature is one of the main reasons the WSLC decided not to compile a voting record for the 1999 session.
Meanwhile, the Washington State Council of County and City Employees, AFSCME Council 2 tried to win passage of a simple measure giving deputy prosecutors a consistent bargaining status as other public employees. Seven counties, including Spokane, Whatcom, King and Pierce, have bargaining units of deputy prosecutors, but without the language of SB5152, their status is uncertain. The bill passed the Senate, but died in House Rules after it became linked with the state employee collective bargaining bill.
Apprenticeship gets no respect
SB5491, a major priority for the Washington State Labor Council in 1999, would have promoted economic opportunities and responded to the shortage of skilled construction craftpersons by setting aside 10 percent of all jobs on public works projects costing more than $1 million for state-registered apprentices.
The bill passed the Senate, and unlike most other labor-supported bills, actually received a public hearing in the House State Government Committee. Apprentices and other supporters packed the hearing, spilling out into the hallways and overflow room, but all to no avail. No committee vote was held.
Later, during the special session, an attempt was made to amend the 10 percent apprenticeship set aside onto the transportation budget, so at least those projects would be covered. The amendment failed after three Democrats, Ruth Fisher, Debbie Regala and Bill Grant, voted no. Rep. Tom Campbell was the lone GOP yes vote.
The Department of Employment Security recently did a study in Washington state and found that apprenticeship is the most effective method of training and the most underutilized. Apprenticeship set asides have worked very successfully in the City of Seattle and in King County, providing access and opportunity to many workers, especially women and minorities.
Legislators often talk about family wages and job training, but the failure of SB5491 was an opportunity lost -- for them and for workers.
Teachers fight for better pay; Part-time instructors get raises but not parity
The demand for better teacher salaries was the focus of much attention and effort during the 1999 session largely due to an activist campaign by the Washington Education Association, which successfully mobilized thousands of K-12 public school teachers to call, write, rally and attend town meetings.
Although the teachers didn’t get everything they wanted, the final budget was a vast improvement over the first proposals. Wage increases pushed beginning teachers’ annual salaries from $22,900 to more than $25,000 and veteran teachers added a seniority step, in addition to the 3 percent a year salary increase every teacher received.
All state employees received those 3 percent raises, and many have suggested that if not for the inspired campaign by the teachers, other public employees would have gotten less. But the fact remains that all state employees, not just teachers, have suffered significant wage devaluation in recent years.
For these substantive (but overdue) pay hikes and other positive elements of the budget, special thanks go to Democrats in both houses, plus three Republican representatives, Tom Campbell, Don Carlson and Shirley Hankins, who stood up to their party leadership and voted for a responsible budget. (GOP Rep. Jerome Delvin voted "Yes," but later insisted he "hit the wrong button.")
Importantly, the budget also included maintenance of benefits for state workers, which was never a certainty given rising health care costs that some Republicans wanted to pass on to employees and their families.
Part-time instructors get raises, but not parityAlmost half of the classes taught at our state’s community and technical colleges are taught by part-time instructors. At some colleges, part-timers make up a majority of the faculty. To make matters worse, a part-time instructor teaching the same class load as a full-time instructor earns only $17,000 a year versus the full-timer’s pay of $40,000.
That is unacceptable.
Part-time instructors are one of the most exploited groups of workers in our state today. And ironically, they are the ones implementing our state’s work-force development policy, based on a high-skill, high-wage strategy.
An effort to establish equal pay for equal work in 1999 was led by the Washington Federation of Teachers. Parity bills were sponsored in the House by Rep. Phyllis Kenney and in the Senate by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles.
Though both bills died, kudos go to Sen. Kohl-Welles, Sen. Valoria Loveland, Rep. Kenney and Co-Speaker Frank Chopp for funding $10 million of the pay differential in the budget and requiring the colleges to match up to an additional $10 million. While this is but a fraction of what is needed, it is the largest sum yet allocated to this problem.
Fire fighters were frustrated by the refusal of Senate leadership to support their top legislative priority -- reform of the pension system that covers law enforcement and firefighters. LEOFF II severely penalizes early retirements, 8% per year for every year a police officer or firefighter retires before age 55. This is an especially sensitive issue because it is well-documented that these workers suffer disproportionately from early deaths.
The State Council of the International Association of Fire Fighters was especially active in helping Senate candidates regain the Democratic majority last year. That made the opposition of the Senate leadership especially hard to understand. The IAFF negotiated and compromised on a proposal that had a relatively small budget impact. Their proposal passed the House, 96-1, near the end of the regular session, but the Senate remained unmoved.
When the special session convened, the IAFF once again tried to make progress, working with several supportive Senate Democrats. Ten courageous senators stood up to their leadership in support of the firefighters: Kohl-Welles, Goings, Heavey, Costa, Eide, Gardner, Patterson, Kline, Roach and Benton.
But unfortunately, Senate leadership prevailed and the bill died. Said IAFF State Council President Kelly Fox: "We feel extremely disappointed and betrayed that so many legislators who have long enjoyed our support helped engineer this defeat."
Significant workers' comp bills quashed by GOP
There were a number of worker’s compensation bills introduced in 1999 and several passed, including:
-- HB1894 allows injured workers to make claims for underpaid industrial insurance benefits within one year.
-- SB5122 raises the time for recouping payments resulting from worker fraud from one to three years.
-- HB1261 allows L&I to increase by up to $4,000, the amount paid for modifying motor vehicles of injured workers who are amputees or are paralyzed.
-- HB1845 increases from $3,000 to $4,000 the maximum amount that may be paid in a year for vocational rehabilitation services.
-- SB5867 puts into statute the retro program, a high priority bill for the Association of Washington Business and the National Federation of Independent Business, whose retro programs were in jeopardy. We hope L&I will promulgate reasonable rules that bring a halt to the present abuses of the system.
All of the more far-reaching workers’ compensation bills that were pro-worker died:
-- SB5580 would have continued benefits to injured workers during employer protests or appeals. It passed the Senate, but was killed by House Republicans.
-- HB1927 is an injured workers’ bill of rights which has a number of provisions including privacy protections, the right to have a representative at independent medical examinations, and reopening protections. It did not get a hearing.
-- SB5581 would have given L&I discretion to reopen claims after seven years when circumstances warrant. It failed to receive a Senate vote after five Democrats refused to respond to inquiries from labor representatives as to whether they would support it.
SEIU, OPEIU win raises for home care workers
Thousands of home care workers will get 50-cents-an- hour raises in 1999 and again in 2000 in the budget passed this year. The inclusion of home care worker wage increases was achieved after months of hard work by members of the Service Employees International Union and Office and Professional Employees Local 8 who came to Olympia and urged lawmakers to deal with the terribly low wages of the folks who care for our disabled and senior citizens in their homes.
Their work actually saves the state thousands of dollars that would otherwise be spent on higher cost care in nursing homes and adult family homes.
HB1546, supported by the SEIU and OPEIU, included the home care wage package and also addressed state oversight by the Department of Social and Health Services of the system of independent providers. The IP system had been subject of a critical report from a joint committee. HB1546 passed the legislature unanimously and was signed into law by Governor Locke on May 5.
Farm worker housing funded, but standards still at issue for camps
The governor put forth a comprehensive farm worker housing package that included a budget request for $8 million for permanent community-based housing and joint rulemaking ability between the departments of Health and Labor and Industries on standards for on-farm temporary labor camps.
The WSLC worked with the United Farm Workers of America and other worker advocates, and while we supported the housing funding, we had reservations about the standards for labor camps. We have always said that if the state is going to license on-farm camps they must meet the minimum health and safety standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Working with the Governor’s Office, Rep. Phyllis Kenney, Sen. Margarita Prentice and the Growers’ League, the bill was changed to restrict these camps to only the cherry harvest and to emphasize that standards had to be at least as effective as OSHA standards.
The temporary labor camp bill ultimately passed and $6 million was set aside in the capital budget for community-based farm worker housing and $2 million for land acquisition for housing.
Since the session ended OSHA has found the Department of Health’s standards for temporary labor camps for this cherry harvest season out of compliance with their standards.
Building trades have some success in 1999The 1999 session was a mixed bag for bills of specific concern to the building and construction trades:
-- HB1224 would have required installation of permanent anchors for tying off at all new construction where a fall hazard is present. It was ultimately converted into a "study bill" and passed. Said Bob Dilger, Executive Secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, "It’s not everything we wanted, but it’s a start."
-- HB1438, which died in House committee, would have brought more competitive bidding and contractor accountability. It would have held subcontractors to higher standards and disallowed the practice of substitution of subcontractors not on the original bid.
Workforce development takes backseat to politics SB5533 and HB1632 would have significantly enhanced our state’s workforce development system, but both were stymied by partisan politics.-- HB2232 passed, accessing $5 million in grants annually for business and labor groups to establish programs to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. A WISHA advisory subcommittee will form and establish criteria for applicants, and awards will begin in 2000.
More hearings and briefings were held on these bills than perhaps any other bill this session. Literally, hundreds of hours were spent by interest groups last fall to build these bills. The WSLC, the Governor’s Office and the Association of Washington Business testified jointly on the bills numerous times.
But some legislators decided to hold them hostage to a totally unrelated bill dealing with unemployment insurance. And therefore, both died in the House.
These bills would have raised our current Workforce, Education and Training Committee to a cabinet level agency and maintained its tri-partite nature, ensuring that business and labor, the customers of the system, remain in key decision-making positions.
This new board would have been responsible for developing rigorous performance and accountability measures. For the first time in our state’s history, we could have finally put into motion our state’s high-wage, high-skill strategy by linking our workforce development and economic development systems.
Though the legislature was not up to this task, Governor Locke is expected to issue an Executive Order that will accomplish much of what business and labor sought through this legislation.
Temporary setback for contingent worker study Even as the federal courts were establishing important precedents to protect temporary and contingent workers from exploitation, the legislature rejected SB8402, a proposal to simply study temporary work issues.The rapid expansion of the temporary/contingent workforce is a priority issue for organized labor. WashTech, an organization of technology workers affiliated with the CWA, led a valiant effort to raise awareness on this issue among lawmakers, but to no avail. The bill passed the Senate 27-19, but was allowed to die in House committee.
GOP, business ignore chemically injured workersA bill to study the fate of the thousands of workers injured by chemical exposure, how they are being treated by the worker’s compensation system and what improvements can be made fell to the opposition of the business community and their Republican allies.
After moving and compelling testimony in the Senate by victims of chemical injuries, SB5470 passed the Senate 30-17 with bipartisan support. But the business community did not want to study this problem and Rep. Jim Clements, the Republican co-chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee refused to allow a vote on the bill.
Needlestick proposal dies, but anti-violence bill OK’d As many as 43,000 needlestick injuries occur in this state each year. A contaminated needle can transmit deadly diseases like Hepatitis or HIV, a frightening experience for any worker who must wait six months or more to find out if they have been infected. Although safer needles have been on the market for years, they cost more and employers have avoided them.California passed a law last year requiring all health care facilities in the state to use the safer needles. In this state, Rep. Eileen Cody, an 1199NW SEIU member, introduced a similar bill, but Republicans blocked action in the Health Care Committee she co-chaired. A companion bill, passed the Senate unanimously but met the same fate.
But another bill -- supported by the SEIU and UFCW -- to help protect health care workers passed. SSB5312 provides violence prevention training for workers at all health care facilities. On-the-job violence is a serious issue for many health care workers, especially those who work in emergency rooms. The new law requires that worker protection plans be in place by July 1, 2000.
Economic development efforts silent on wages The key economic development effort of the 1999 session was aimed at our distressed rural communities left behind by the booming economy of the Western Washington I-5 corridor.HB2260 and SSB5594 expanded the authority of the Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) to lend and grant funds for building roads, bridges, water lines and telecommunications projects in rural areas. The measures also provide tax credits for businesses in distressed rural counties, but unfortunately, doesn’t require businesses that benefit to create or maintain living wage jobs. In fact, none of the efforts to help rural areas directly address the need to help workers obtain family wage jobs.
Retail crime prevention training killed in House Workers in many retail stores are threatened by robbery and assault, but under current law, store owners must provide crime prevention and safety training to their employees only if they are open from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The United Food and Commercial Workers union’s top legislative priority for 1999 was to expand the hours covered under this requirement that the UFCW fought to establish 10 years ago. But despite compromise between the UFCW and the Retail Association on the extension of hours (ultimately to 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., respectively), SB5779 was killed in the House Appropriations Committee. Payment within 24 hours for last paycheck fails Current state law requires final wage payments be made at the next regularly scheduled pay period. But pay periods are not uniform, and low-paid workers often suffer great financial burdens waiting on that last check, especially those who journey between jobs, like construction or farm workers.SB5562, patterned after Oregon and California laws, would have required payment within 24 hours in case of discharge or layoff, and payment within 48 hours of an employees’ notice of a quit. The bill died in Senate Ways and Means.