WSLC Legislative Update -- January 6, 2006

WSLC Legislative Conference
is THURSDAY, FEB. 16

All union leaders and rank-and-file members are invited to attend the 2006 WSLC Legislative Conference Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Olympia Red Lion Hotel from 8:30 a.m. through lunch, with registration at 7:30 a.m. As always, the night before, Wednesday, Feb. 15, we'll host a Legislative Reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the hotel. The registration fee, including materials, lunch and one admission to the reception, is $30. Download a registration form or call 206-281-8901. Please register by Jan. 27 so we can make plans to accommodate every one.

The 2006 session begins at noon on Monday, and things will move very fast in the short 60-day session. With most legislators facing an election this fall, Democratic leaders vow to wrap things up on time. That translates to a Feb. 14 cutoff for bills to pass their houses of origin -- which promises a Valentine’s Day Massacre of legislation they didn’t have time to consider -- and everyone will go home March 9.

Given that reality, the Washington State Labor Council has a limited agenda for 2006, much of which involves issues that legislators have previously considered. What follows is a quick description of four priority issues, and a list of some other legislation we will support. These issues will be discussed in more detail in subsequent issues of your favorite legislative newsletter. (That would be this one.)

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE -- Last year, legislators took a strong stand to patch the safety net for laid-off workers. EHB 2255 "stopped the bleeding" on the most extreme and unfair of several unemployment insurance benefit cuts: four-quarter averaging in benefit calculation. By restoring two-quarter averaging, legislators ended the disproportionately severe cuts -- often hundreds of dollars per week -- suffered by construction, agriculture workers and others who work irregular schedules. But the patch is only temporary. EHB 2255 sunsets in 2007 and if the legislature fails to act, Washington will revert to four-quarter averaging.

The WSLC will support removing the sunset on EHB 2255. The Unemployment Insurance Task Force of legislative, business and labor leaders has received a fresh analysis of our system by the most respected UI funding expert in the nation, and he has recommended that the state retain two-quarter averaging permanently. Dr. Wayne Vroman of the Urban Institute says that the new 40-rate class system, which was sought by business interests and approved by the legislature in 2003, will remain solvent if the sunset is removed.

FAIR SHARE HEALTH CARE -- Last year, the legislature considered, but did not approve, the Health Care Responsibility Act. It would have required employers of 50 or more to take responsibility for funding basic, affordable employee health insurance. Employers who didn’t meet an 80 percent standard of the cost of basic coverage for employees would have paid a fee to help expand public insurance programs for the uninsured. But the HCRA's formula was complicated and it was considered too costly for agencies to administer.

So in 2006, the Fair Share Health Care Coalition comprised of labor, business, religious, community groups and health care organizations -- of which the WSLC is a member -- will introduce a much simpler bill. It will set a minimum standard for employers of 5,000 or more, requiring that those employers invest 9% of their labor costs into employee health benefits (7% for public employers and non-profits who can’t deduct health costs from their taxes). It is estimated that 85 to 90 percent of these largest employers already meet this standard. Those few that don’t would be required to pay the difference between what they pay and the 9% to the state, in the form of a fee that will be used to cover some of the uninsured working adults in our state.

In addition, the Fair Share Coalition is asking legislators to restore 10,000 slots for working people in the Basic Health Plan, continue to increase coverage for children, and create a program to assist workers who are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and work for small employers to purchase health care coverage.

FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT -- FMLA is a federal law adopted in 1993 that guarantees workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth, adoption or serious illness. Leave can also be taken for the serious illness of a spouse, child or parent. This standard applies to businesses with 50 or more employees.

But just as it did with overtime pay regulations, the Bush administration is threatening to bypass Congress and "reinterpret" the FMLA, making it much harder for workers to qualify. In the case of overtime pay, Washington state had statutes on the book that mirrored federal regulations before they were rewritten by the Bush administration. Those state statutes protected our state from Bush’s anti-worker power grab.

This session, the WSLC will urge passage of a state statute that will protect FMLA, an important job security standard that all Americans have come to rely upon, from the meddling of the Bush administration’s corporate cronies.

EMPLOYEE FREEDOM FROM INTIMIDATION BILL -- The WSLC will be supporting this legislation preventing employers from using their workplaces to force their political, religious and union organizing viewpoints on their employees. Employees should not be forced to attend closed-door meetings where they are subjected to indoctrination on issues unrelated to their job performance and should not have to fear retaliation for expressing opposing viewpoints.

In addition, the WSLC will seek a resolution in support of the Employee Free Choice Act before Congress. The EFCA -- co-sponsored by both U.S. Senators and every Democratic Representative from Washington state -- would restore the right of workers to choose unions free from employer intimidation and harassment. But it has been blocked from a vote by anti-union leadership in Congress and the White House. Until that changes, what can be done at a state level, must be done.

OTHER ISSUES -- Some other items on the WSLC agenda, which we will describe in more detail in future editions, are a number of workers’ compensation bills; strengthening laws dealing with farm labor contractors to better protect the workers; fiscal accountability legislation supported by the Washington Tax Fairness Coalition (tax expenditure reports, tax loophole transparency and accountability); moving up the state primary election; and various other legislation sought by WSLC-affiliated unions.

For the first time in several years, instead of facing a major revenue shortfall in state government, we begin 2006 with a projected surplus of $1.5 billion. The deficits of recent years required painful cuts in health care, education and other essential services, and some tax increases (although the biggies -- property, business and sales taxes -- were not raised). Surpluses require discipline.

And then there’s the Commitment to Washington™ plan, an 11-point agenda for the 2006 session adopted by the House and Senate Republican Caucuses. It includes a few election-year crowd-pleasers like "strengthening" sex-offender laws, but topping the Eleven Commitments are efforts to control government spending.

"We’re growing government too fast," Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) said this week. "One of the things we need to do is control spending."

One, government is "growing" largely to the extent that our public schools and our prison and judicial systems are growing. None of the GOP’s Commitments involve cutbacks in those areas. (In fact, a few of the tough-on-crime items will help them continue to grow.)

Two, the 4th Commitment involves repealing the state’s estate tax. Aside from the fact that the GOP talking points on this issue were flat-out untrue -- claiming family farms are jeopardized by this tax when the truth is that they are already exempted from the tax -- this effort reveals a disturbing lack of fiscal responsibility.

Republicans who support repeal of the state estate tax have learned nothing from the mistakes of their counterparts who run the federal government. Passing major new tax breaks targeted to the wealthy without regard to the long-term impact on the budget is exactly how their brethren have driven the U.S. government into a fiscal ditch.

The federal government continues to "grow," but thanks to irresponsible tax breaks -- which 99 percent of us don’t see -- pre-Bush budget surpluses have become record deficits. Now, our nation is saddled with a long-term drag on our economy and has racked up trillions of dollars in debt it will take our children decades to pay off.

Thankfully, Gov. Gregoire and Democratic legislative leaders oppose this. They say they want to bolster the public employee pension system and fund a few pressing priorities (which we hope include restoring the above-mentioned Basic Health Plan slots and other health care cuts), but they want to set aside much of the projected surplus to guard against future tax increases during the next economic downturn.