News for the week of February 23-27, 1998If you have news related to the labor movement in Washington state that you would like to share via WSLC Reports Today, we encourage you to submit it by e-mail, by fax (206-285-5805) or by phone (206-281-8901)
News for the week of February 23-27, 1998Friday, 2/27/98 — Tacoma signature-gathering effort for I-688 kicks off Saturday
Wednesday, 2/25/98 — "Paycheck
Protection:" An national update
Tuesday, 2/24/98 — PDC hits BIAW with extraordinary fine for
campaign finance violations
Monday, 2/23/98 — UAW members reject Caterpillar contract offer
News from previous weeks:
February 16-20, 1998 — February 9-14, 1998 — February 2-6, 1998 — January 26-30, 1998
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Tacoma signature-gathering effort for I-688 kicks off Saturday
Now that the legislation to raise Washington state's minimum wage has died in Olympia, the initiative campaign to put the question to voters begins in earnest. The official signature-gathering kickoff for the Tacoma area will be this Saturday, Feb. 28 at Noon at IBEW Hall B, 3049 So. 36th.
After being briefed by campaign organizers on exactly what Initiative 688 would do and why it is so necessary, volunteers will fan out to 10 different locations to begin collecting signatures.
"Increasing the minimum wage is long-overdue and essential to improving the lives of the working poor," said John Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Pierce County Labor Council, who will be on hand at Saturday's kickoff. "And I'm very excited about working for a citizens' initiative that will get the job done the old-fashioned way — with nothing but volunteers." Campaign organizers have vowed to use only volunteers and no paid signature-gatherers to collect the 225,000 signatures necessary by July 2 to qualify for November's ballot.
The official title of the initiative is: "Shall the state minimum wage be increased from $4.90 to $5.70 in 1999 and to $6.50 in 2000, and afterwards be annually adjusted for inflation?" If passed by voters, Washington would become the first state with a minimum wage indexed to inflation.
"That's why we're referring to Initiative 688 as the Paycheck Protection Act," said Rick Bender, the President of the Washington State Labor Council who formally filed the initiative. "If this passes, it will take the politics out of the issue so we won't have to keep debating it every several years while the value of these workers' paychecks erodes further and further because of inflation."
Among the organizations represented on I-688's Paycheck Protection Coalition are the Interfaith Alliance of Washington State, Association of Community Action Agencies, Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO, Washington State Democratic Central Committee, Washington Citizen Action, Jobs With Justice, and many union councils and locals throughout the state.
For more information on Initiative 688, click here.
"Paycheck Protection:" An national update
Unlike in Washington state where Paycheck Protection is about raising the minimum wage, the movement to establish intrusive administrative hurdles for unions to participate in the political process continues to be championed by the Republican Party across the country. Initiated by right-wing extremists with a political agenda that includes charter schools and privatizing Social Security, this version of "paycheck protection" is all about cutting their opponents — working people and their organizations — out of the politics.
In Congress, Republicans failed by a 48-51 vote to kill the bipartisan McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, which would ban unregulated "soft money" contributions to political parties by corporations, unions and individuals. (Sen. Slade Gorton (R) voted to kill it, and Sen. Patty Murray (D) voted to keep it alive.) The simple explanation: the GOP receives much more soft money than Democrats — corporate interests outspent labor 12-to-1 in the '96 elections — and they would rather ignore fundraising scandals and indictments than lose their advantage.
Ironically, defending their opposition to McCain-Feingold, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued the bill is an infringement on First Amendment rights saying, "We don't suffer from too little political discussion in this country. We ought to be encouraging more." Apparently, that sentiment does not extend to working families' First Amendment rights.
In addition to a planned filibuster, the GOP will now attempt to attach an amendment to the bill that would require unions to get annual written authorization from each member to use any portion of that member's dues for political purposes. This measure ignores the fact that any union member can already prevent dues from being spent on politics by simply voting not to or by becoming a "Beck objector" and having that portion of their dues refunded. It is very simply an attempt to silence their opponents in the labor movement and make it harder for working people to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Democrats and even the Republican sponsor of the campaign finance reform bill say such an amendment is a "poison pill" designed to kill chances for the substantive campaign finance reform the American people have called for.
In the meantime, similar union dues restrictions are being pushed in at least 23 states. Here's an update:
State legislation introduced and still alive — Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
State legislation introduced, but now dead — Mississippi, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming
State legislation introduced, considered likely to die in committee — Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri and West Virginia
Ballot initiatives, qualified for ballot — California (vote in June '98)
Ballot Initiatives, possible — Arizona and Colorado (referred by State Legislature), Nevada and Oregon (petitions in circulation)
Representatives of a right-wing extremist organization, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, are travelling the country misleading Congress and State Legislatures into believing that Washington state already has a law that bans use of union dues for politics. We don't. (For more information, click here.)
If we did, we wouldn't be able to support such worthy causes as the REAL Paycheck Protection Act. And if we did, this article and much of the information posted on this web site would be considered illegal.
Such a place wouldn't sound much like America, would it?
PDC hits BIAW with extraordinary fine for campaign finance violations
The Public Disclosure Commission announced today that it has fined the Building Industry Association of Washington a total of $6,250, one of the largest fines ever levied against an organization for campaign finance violations. The builders' lobby group has now admitted guilt for exceeding contribution limits to candidates, and filing deceptive and late reports on 1996 independent political expenditures on behalf of candidates.
The PDC investigation culminating in these stiff fines was initiated by a complaint filed by the Washington State Labor Council and a number of legislative candidates who were targeted with negative political mail — or "hit pieces" — which were financed, but improperly reported, by the BIAW.
"The BIAW is finally being brought to justice for playing fast and loose with our election laws and the public's right-to-know who's paying for this last-minute political mail," said WSLC President Rick Bender. "Although this fine may be extraordinary in PDC terms, we know it's just a drop in the bucket for the BIAW's political machine. But hopefully there will be renewed public scrutiny of big business organizations, like the BIAW, that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence elections. They should have to follow the same rules the rest of us do."
Among the charges the organization now admits guilt to are that the BIAW:
EXCEEDED CONTRIBUTION LIMITS to the candidates Clyde Ballard, Joe Zarelli, John Pennington and Linda Evans Parlette. This occurred when the BIAW used "affiliated" political committees, the Washington Affordable Housing Council and local PACs, which share a single limit of $550 per election to make donations in excess of that amount.
FILED DECEPTIVE PDC FORMS. In what appears to be a deliberate attempt at deception, the PDC registration forms for Taxpayers for Good Government and Taxpayers for Ethical Government listed BIAW secretaries as officers without indicating their organizational affiliation.
FILED LATE PDC REPORTS. The BIAW reported the expense of late-October political mailings after the bills were paid (well after the election) instead of when the expense was committed to, as required by the PDC. Late reporting of last-minute expenses make it impossible for the public to determine who paid for political mail attacking a local candidate. The return address of these BIAW independent expenditures simply listed innocuous-sounding names like "People for a Better Community."
The $6,250 in fines concludes an eight-month investigation filled with acrimony. BIAW Executive Vice President Tom McCabe initially accused the PDC of "blindly taking these accusations at face value" and "doing the bidding of the unions." He later decried the PDC for the length and cost of the investigation despite the fact that he caused delay by refusing to cooperate. It was only after the BIAW was threatened with a lawsuit from the Attorney General's office that it opened its financial records to inspection in September.
Ultimately, McCabe declared his organization "exonerated" last October when the PDC dismissed one of the more serious charges against the BIAW, that its Member Services Corp. was essentially a PAC but failed to report as one. Although the MSC was found to have spent some $560,000 on politics during 1995-96, that represented only about 10 to 12 percent of their total expenditures, which according to the PDC, did not represent a "primary purpose" of the MSC.
Still at issue, though, is the source of those political funds — a state program designed to encourage safe workplaces. The MSC helps BIAW members participate in the state's "Retrospective Rating" program, which rebates a portion of workers' compensation premiums to firms with good safety records. For its trouble, the MSC retains 20 percent of those refunds.
"The PDC may not have agreed that this scam constitutes a PAC, but we feel strongly that the public has a right-to-know when more than half a million dollars in state money meant to encourage workplace safety is being funneled into a big business political machine," Bender said. "And worse than that, the money's goes to support candidates who oppose aggressive enforcement of work safety rules. Hopefully, this won't be allowed to continue."
UAW members
reject Caterpillar contract offer
from Associated Press report
United Auto Workers members rejected both their leaders' advice and a contract offer from Caterpillar, ensuring their 6 1/2-year labor battle will continue. The Local 974 union hall exploded in applause when it was announced yesterday that the company offer was rejected 58 percent to 42 percent.
UAW leaders had recommended approval, saying the proposal was better than the one rejected in December 1995. But union members didn't like it any better, ensuring the world's leading maker of earth-moving equipment still would not have a contract with the UAW since the last one expired Sept. 30, 1991.
"The whole proposal wasn't a good enough issue for anyone to accept," said Bill Wheat, a union worker who had been fired. "The wages and benefits was something they could have accepted in '91 but not in '98."
Caterpillar officials said they would not comment until they received official vote totals from the union.
"We'll keep moving on," said Jim Clingan, president of Local 974 in Peoria, Ill. "We'll try to find ways to put pressure on the company, to bring them back to the bargaining table."
If you have a news item regarding unions in Washington state that you would like to have posted on WSLC OnLine, please e-mail or fax a news release to (206) 285-5805.
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