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April 22, 2009 |
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
State
Senate vote looms on unemployment bill
The
State Senate could vote today on whether to concur with the House-approved
SSB 5963, the Unemployment Insurance reform bill. The Washington State Labor
Council and the rest of organized labor are strongly urging Senators to
concur with the bill. Republicans, business lobbying groups and The Boeing
Co. are urging Senators not to concur and to strip the benefit improvements
from the bill. Read more.
Sales tax increase proposal:
► In today's Olympian - Sales tax increase passes House committee, faces fight -- A $1.1 billion sales tax proposal to pay for health care programs targeted by budget writers was kept alive another day Tuesday, passing on an 8-7 vote in a House committee. Minority Republicans blasted the idea of even asking voters to consider the temporary, 0.3-cent increase, which would “buy back” some health care programs slated for cuts in the budget.
►
At TVW's Capitol Record -- Why
not send it to voters? -- Asked what’s
wrong with letting the voters decide, Republican Rep. Gary Alexander says,
"To go out and ask the voters … is only for one reason: Because they
don’t have the votes to do it here.” GOP Rep. Richard DeBolt's says that
it’s “offensive” to put healthcare to voters because it’s the item
that polled the best.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Where Snohomish legislators stand on sales tax hike -- They are united in their distaste for raising it, but they disagree on whether the proposed three-tenths of a penny hike should be nixed now or put on the ballot for voters to decide this fall.
Legislative news:
► At SeattlePI.com -- Shoreline CC students protest tuition proposals -- Protesters were encouraged to voice their thoughts on proposed budget cuts to community college programs, amid already strapped resources. The Shoreline demonstration was one of three protests organized at community colleges Tuesday, with others at Seattle Central Community College and Pierce College in Lakewood.
► In today's Seattle Times -- Cuts at community colleges opposed -- A petition signed by about 10,000 community-college students, faculty and supporters was delivered to the offices of Gov. Chris Gregoire and legislative leaders. The petition was organized by AFT Washington.
► From AP -- House votes to suspend money aimed at reducing class sizes -- The House OKs a two-year suspension of I-728, which dedicates money to reducing K-12 classroom sizes.
► At TheOlympian.com -- Preferred drug list enforcement approved -- The House passed SB 5892, a bill once was of great concern to the main state worker’s union, allowing the state to contact doctors who routinely require name-brand drugs instead of cheaper generics on the state’s preferred drug list. The vote was 54-43, with a group of Democrats breaking ranks to vote no.
► At Publicola -- Why does Frank Chopp hate Seattle? -- He supports an amendment sponsored by House transportation committee chair Rep. Judy Clibborn that says any cost overruns on the Viaduct tunnel project have to be paid by Seattle-area businesses -- a standard for a state-funded project that Carlyle argued had never been applied to locals before.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Am I my brother's keeper? (Sen. Cheryl Pflug op-ed) -- If we froze state employee health care benefits, which are currently funded at $723 per month per employee, and then subtracted $25 from that amount, we could save $169 million -- enough to rescue the most critical parts of our health care safety net. Given the choice, I think state employees would agree to do this. Their unions might try to talk them out of it, but they would say yes.
►
At HorsesAss.org -- Populism
on the cheap -- The Seattle Times hasn’t always sold populism so cheap
(as it did recently in touting the teabaggers' rally). When 40,000 people
peacefully marched in Seattle to protest WTO, only to be met with tear gas
and billy clubs (and yes, the overwhelming majority of marchers were
peaceful), the Times didn’t embrace the populism of the moment. No, they
demonized and ridiculed labor leaders and environmentalists for their
“narrow point of view,” calling their message “shameless,”
“dishonest,” “distorted, “canned,” and “99% fact free.”
And where is the populist embrace from the Times when labor manages to turn
out teabagger-plus-sized crowds at the state Capitol?
Local news:
► In today's Seattle Times -- Boeing posts 50% decline in profit -- Boeing made $610 million in 2009's first quarter, compared with $1.21 billion in 2008. The company says profits dropped partly because of planned production cuts as airlines postpone deliveries of new jets.
► In today's Olympian -- Olympia School Board approves employee cuts -- The board approves a reduction in force of up to 37.5 full-time-equivalent employees with teaching certificates.
► In today's Daily News -- Cowlitz commissioners agree to layoffs, other cost-cutting moves -- They lay off 25 workers and leave another 17 jobs vacant as part of $4.5 million in budget cuts.
► At SeattlePI.com -- Nickels orders Seattle Fire Dept. to improve financial accountability -- In the wake of whistleblower complaints, the mayor orders five key changes at the department.
► From Bloomberg -- Weyerhaeuser to suspend matching 401(k) payments -- Effective May 1, it will temporarily suspend matching payments in its retirement-savings plan for all employees.
National news:
► From AP -- Labor Dept. seeks to cancel rule on unions -- A regulation approved during Bush's last days in office would have increased scrutiny of union finances to help root out financial corruption. The DOL considered comments of many labor organizations that claimed the new rule was overly burdensome and would have little effect on efforts to detect fraud.
► From AP -- South Korea-U.S. trade deal nears vote in Legislature -- The nations signed the agreement in 2007, but the ratification process has been slow amid opposition in both countries. It is the largest for the U.S. since the NAFTA in the 1990s and the biggest ever for South Korea. South Korea's conservative GNP says they will seek to ratify the trade accord after seeing the results of a possible summit between South Korea and the U.S. in June.
► In today's NY Times -- Swimming without a suit (Friedman column) -- We need to invest money and energy into schools with a sense of urgency that the economic and moral stakes demand.
Employee
Free Choice Act news:
► In today's Roanoke Times -- EFCA restores fairness (op-ed by pastor) -- Instead of taking sides in a political fight, we should be asking very simple questions: What is moral? What is right and what is wrong? What kind of economy do we want? If we view the Employee Free Choice Act in light of these questions, what emerges? We should be concerned that, by simple moral standards, the current system of how workers form unions is a disgrace.
► At Omaha.com -- Debate over EFCA shows deck stacked against labor (op-ed by professor) -- The debate proves that the history of introducing democracy into American workplaces needs to be taught in our schools. The lack of accurate information creates a "knowledge vacuum" filled with distortions, half-truths and innuendo.
► Check out the IBEW's new video -- Employee Free Choice Act: Fact vs. Fiction
WEDNESDAY,
APRIL 22, 2009
State Senate vote looms on unemployment bill
The State Senate could vote today on whether to concur with the House-approved SSB 5963, the Unemployment Insurance reform bill. The Washington State Labor Council and the rest of organized labor are strongly urging Senators to concur with the bill. Republicans, business lobbying groups and The Boeing Co. are urging Senators not to concur and to strip the benefit improvements from the bill.
Call the Legislative Hotline RIGHT NOW at 1-800-562-6000 and leave a message for your State Senator to concur on SSB 5963, a balanced approach to changing our Unemployment Insurance system.
Barring budget disputes that could push it into overtime, the 2009 legislative session is scheduled to end this Saturday, April 26. The Senate is scheduled to resume floor action this morning at 10 a.m. Watch it live on TVW and/or check the Senate Concurrence Calendar here for a real-time status update on SSB 5963.
Here is an excerpt from our most recent Legislative Update newsletter on the issue:
A balanced approach: Easy as 1-2-3
Senate urged to concur with all three changes to Unemployment Insurance billWith Washington's unemployment rate hitting 9.2% in March -- a level not seen since May 1984 -- the Washington State Labor Council is urging State Senators to concur with all three House amendments to SSB 5963.
This bill grants $224 million in Unemployment Insurance tax rebates to employers. When our state emerges from recession, employers' tax savings will grow into billions of dollars.
SSB 5963 is balanced by important benefit improvements. Here are some critical details about the three amendments:
The bill restores the benefit formula to 4.0 next year, where it was from 1970 until being lowered to 3.85 in 2005. That means that workers will get an extra $8 to $19 a week starting in 2010. If the Senate were to strip the 4.0 provision from the bill, weekly benefits will drop from $45 and $71 on Jan. 1, 2010, with the expiration of the temporary economic-stimulus benefit increase approved earlier this year. Restoring to 4.0 on that date will mitigate that drop in benefits.
The formula will not return to 4.0 until additional state and federal dollars expire. Should the federal government continue to provide $25/week in additional benefits in 2010, the formula would not be restored to 4.0 until 2011.
If the U.I. Trust Funds balance drops too low, the formula returns to 3.85. If at any point between 2010 and 2015, the trust fund balance can cover only 8 months of benefits, then the formula reverts to 3.85 until the trust fund is out of solvency danger. At the beginning of this year, the state projected that the trust fund was sufficiently funded for 21 months of benefits. The tax cuts and benefit improvements in SSB 5963 -- combined with the temporary economic-stimulus benefit increase -- are expected to lower the trust fund to a balance of between 12 and 15 months.SSB 5963 also upholds a Supreme Court decision granting the commissioner of the Employment Security Department some flexibility in determining whether workers who have quit their jobs for extraordinary reasons should receive benefits. The Supreme Court case involved an outrageously abusive employer who acted like a drill sergeant in a boot camp rather than an employer. The court found in favor of the worker even though her reasons for quitting did not meet any of the 11 black-and-white "good-cause quit" descriptions in the statute.
Since that Supreme Court decision last June, ESD has reviewed 23,000 voluntary-quit claims and has reversed in favor of the worker in only 300 of them. Under SSB 5963, the bar will remain extraordinarily high and the costs will be very small. But the ESD commissioner will retain some important discretion for egregious circumstances.Finally, the House fixed a glitch in our law that will allow workers in Washington who have exhausted their U.I. benefits for the year to receive extended federal benefits. This change has no cost to our state because the U.S. Government picks up 100% of the tab for these extended benefits.
The Washington State Labor Council thanks and congratulates the State Representatives who supported these reasonable changes and restored some balance to SSB 5963. Here is last Friday's roll call for the 53-45 vote on final passage (Democrats are listed in bold):
VOTING YES: Appleton, Blake, Campbell, Carlyle, Chase, Chopp, Clibborn, Cody, Conway, Darneille, Dickerson, Driscoll, Dunshee, Eddy, Flannigan, Goodman, Green, Hasegawa, Hudgins, Hunt, Hurst, Jacks, Kagi, Kelley, Kenney, Kirby, Liias, Linville, Maxwell, McCoy, Miloscia, Moeller, Morrell, Nelson, Ormsby, Orwall, Pedersen, Pettigrew, Probst, Roberts, Rolfes, Santos, Seaquist, Sells, Simpson, Springer, Sullivan, Takko, Upthegrove, Van De Wege, White, Williams, Wood
VOTING NO: Alexander, Anderson, Angel, Armstrong, Bailey, Chandler, Condotta, Cox, Crouse, Dammeier, DeBolt, Ericks, Ericksen, Finn, Grant-Herriot, Haigh, Haler, Herrera, Hinkle, Hope, Hunter, Johnson, Kessler, Klippert, Kretz, Kristiansen, McCune, Morris, O'Brien, Orcutt, Parker, Pearson, Priest, Quall, Roach, Rodne, Ross, Schmick, Shea, Short, Smith, Taylor, Wallace, Walsh, Warnick
Copyright © 2009 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO