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Washington State
Labor Council, AFL-CIO
a weekly report on the 2003 session
(Previous
editions)
FRIDAY, MARCH 21 (download and print a PDF version)
Paying a price for neglectWednesday's cutoff for non-budget bills to pass their house of origin produced more evidence of the contrasting priorities of the House and Senate. Today's Update offers a summary of labor-related bills and their status, but first...
Home care contract stalled, threatened
We had hoped that by now the House would have moved HB 1777, implementing the contract between state home care workers and the Home Care Quality Authority. That has yet to happen, but House Speaker Frank Chopp is a strong supporter of the contract and promises a vote soon. It needs to happen SOON!
It's another story in the Senate, where the "shock-and-awe" campaign against working families continued Thursday at a Ways and Means work session on the contract. Home care workers attending the meeting expressed surprise at how hostile the tone was among Senators of both parties as they questioned the collective bargaining agreement.
Afterward Senate Republican leaders told reporters their minds are made up, and the state will freeze home care workers' pay at $7.68 an hour with no benefits.
"We’re going to have to send this back to the bargaining table," Senate Majority Leader Jim West (R-Spokane) told reporters on Thursday, although he admitted he hadn't even polled his caucus on the issue. West attempts an I-feel-their-pain routine with home care workers, but his a tap dance is belied by his own votes against modest home care wage increases in the 1990s when the state was flush with cash. He reveals the true nature of his opposition with his open contempt for the collective bargaining process approved by voters in 2001.
"The Legislature has to take it or leave it, and it’s got enough flaws in it that we can’t take it," West said.
His hostility for the collective bargaining process bodes ill for the future of all state employees and portends an era of increasing labor unrest — at least as long as lawmakers like him are at the wheel of state government.
Other Republican leaders blame budget woes.
"It’s $100 million we don’t have," said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish). By simplistically filing the contract in the Proposed New Expense budget column, Rossi ignores the costs associated with not approving the contract. As pointed out this week in an excellent (Spokane) Spokesman-Review editorial supporting the contract: "Many caregivers are paid less than half of what it would cost the state to put a person in an adult-care home."
In other words, this contract will save the state money.
Our elected officials need to understand that they and their predecessors stand guilty of extraordinary neglect in allowing the wages and working conditions of in-home health care workers to deteriorate to where they are today. That neglect has forced home care workers to leave the profession, so it is already costing Washington families and taxpayers more money to move people into adult care facilities.
And it is costing people their independence and dignity. Those costs may not appear anywhere on Rossi's budget, but they certainly do on ours.
When corporate lobbyists warn against the "costs" of not extending their tax breaks (or creating new ones), Rossi & Co. are able to pontificate at length about the long-term consequences of reclaiming tax dollars to help deal with our revenue shortfall. But somehow the people who provide critical state services are treated as budget line items to be stricken and dismissed without consequence as unnecessary costs.
Extraordinary neglect demands extraordinary action, even in difficult budget times — especially in difficult budget times. Call your State Senator today at 1-800-562-6000 and demand their support of the home-care contract.
Labor-related bills and where they stand
We know there are bills not listed here that are of interest to union organizations. We'll fit in as many as we can:
MINIMUM WAGE: SB 5768, the tip credit bill, died in a surprising vote in the Senate Rules Committee this week. Republican Sens. Don Benton and Shirley Winsley joined the committee's Democrats in killing the bill. That means SB 5697 is the sole survivor among 10 bills introduced this session to freeze or lower our lowest legal wage. It faces strong opposition from House Democratic leaders.
APPRENTICESHIP: HB 1065, the apprenticeship utilization bill, passed the House 52-45 on Wednesday with GOP Reps. Cairnes, Campbell and Hankins siding with majority Democrats voting Yes, and Democratic Reps. Hunter, Morris and Quall joining most Republicans in voting No.
AUDITING TAX BREAKS: HB 1869 requiring independent performance audits of tax exemptions passed the House on a 59-38 vote Tuesday, but was weakened by an amendment allowing the caucuses to determine candidates to serve on the audit commission. This change will make it less of a citizens' commission and more partisan.
CREATING MORE TAX BREAKS: HB 2030 is designed to create B&O tax "uniformity and fairness," but allows businesses to avoid sales tax obligations in many cities and counties that don't have B&O taxes. This bill, which passed the House 73-25 and now heads to the business-friendly Senate, kicks cash-strapped local governments while they are down.
CONTRACTOR ACCOUNTABILITY: HB 1987 allowing the state to temporarily debar contractors that violate fair-bidding, wage and other rules died without a floor vote.
DISCRIMINATION: HB 1809 prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation passed the House 59-39 last Friday.
EDUCATION: HJR 4204, amending the Constitution to require simple majorities for school levies, has passed the House 73-25. Labor strongly supports this measure.
ERGONOMICS: SB 5161 repealing the ergo rule passed the Senate and sits in House Commerce and Labor. Meanwhile, the worker-safety activists at the Building Industry Association of Washington are already buying signatures for Initiative 841 to put ergo repeal on this fall's ballot.
FARM WORKERS: SB 5696 lowering temporary farmworker housing standards for sheepherders passed the Senate 34-14 on Wednesday. Another labor-opposed bill, SB 5890, sets up a pilot project to study whether the Supreme Court was right when it ruled it is both necessary and feasible for WISHA to mandate medical monitoring for farm workers who mix, load and spray the most toxic pesticides. It passed the Senate 32-17 on Tuesday.
FIRCREST SCHOOL: SB 5971 to close this facility for the developmentally disabled passed the Senate, and ominously was referred directly to the House Appropriations Committee (bypassing Children and Family Services). This may portend quick action on this labor-opposed bill.
HEALTH CARE: HB 1830 died in the House. It would have made large employers like Wal-Mart that don’t offer affordable health benefits reimburse the state for Basic Health Plan coverage utilized by their employees.
LAYOFF NOTIFICATION: HB 1944 requiring employers with 75 or more workers, including part-timers, to provide advance notice of mass layoffs died without a vote.
LIQUOR STORE PRIVATIZATION: SB 5522, a pilot project to privatize some state liquor stores sponsored by Sen. Tim "The Mav-inator" Sheldon ("D"-Potlatch), passed 29-20 on Wednesday.
MANDATORY OVERTIME: HB 1604 increasing the number of health care facilities prohibited from requiring employees to work overtime passed the House 93-0.
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: HB 1214 creating a money-saving drug purchasing pool passed the House long ago. But SB 5904, the pharmaceutical industry "placebo" bill that is significantly weaker, passed the Senate, setting the stage for negotiations between the House and Senate.
REGULATORY REFORM & WORKPLACE SAFETY: SB 5053 prohibiting state agency rules that exceed federal standards passed the Senate 25-24 Tuesday on a party-line vote except Republican Sen. Shirley Winsley who voted No and Sen. Tim "Mav" Sheldon who voted Yes. Thankfully, SB 5108 removing statutory authority for state safety, wage and environmental inspectors to access private property died without a floor vote.
UNION RIGHTS: HB 2016 prohibiting the use of public funds to discourage unionization died in the House. SB 5155 prohibiting strikes by educational employees died in the Senate.
WAGE-AND-HOUR STANDARDS: SB 5462 requiring the adoption of federal wage-and-hour standards when no specific state statute exists passed the Senate 25-24 (Sen. Shirley Winsley voted No and Tim "M" Sheldon voted Yes).
WORKER BLACKLISTING: SB 5728, the omnibus tort reform bill, passed the Senate with language granting employers legal immunity for knowingly providing false negative employee references.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION: SB 5378 slashing benefits by requiring four-quarter averaging and SB 5271 restricting claims for hearing loss both passed the Senate; HB 1611 requiring benefit payment during employer appeals died in the House.
Attend town hall meetings this weekend
A large number of state legislators are holding town hall meetings in their districts this weekend. Check your local newspaper or call your legislators' offices for information, and attend these meetings. Our elected representatives need to hear from their constituents on working family issues.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS of the WSLC Legislative Update:
March 14 -- Job-Killing Bulls--- (re: Olympia rhetoric that pro-workers bills are all "job killers")
March 7 -- What a Difference a House Makes
Feb. 21 -- Workplace safety in jeopardy (re: BIAW ergo initiative, blocking WISHA inspections)
Feb. 14 -- MORE business tax breaks?! (re: digging a deeper budget hole with no accountability)
Feb. 7 -- Commerce and ANTI-Labor? (re: workers' comp, minimum wage and transportation)
Feb. 3 -- Now is the time... to pay less? (re: workers' comp and minimum wage)
Jan. 24 -- Drug bill off to a strong start; competagogues go after ergonomics rule again
Jan. 17 -- It's the Economy, Stupid! (re: "competagogues" and Washington's business environment)
Jan. 10 -- A Question of Priorities (re: explosion of corporate influence on government)
Copyright © 2003 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO