Report #4 4/3/97

As if following the bouncing ball of worker protections in the four existing welfare reform bills wasn’t enough now there is something new and more confusing. It’s called a "Joint Bill." In this case the joint bill is yet another welfare reform bill, EHB 3901. Here’s how I think it works, but please remember they’re making the rules up as they go along. The majority in each house puts together a meeting where they decide what they can each agree to in a given bill. That’s not unusual and probably productive. What is unusual is the fact that after the majority party (in this case the Republicans) had the meeting, the bill never had a public hearing. Not one. It just showed up on the floor of the House for a vote. It passed on a straight party line vote with all the Republicans voting Yes and all the Democrats voting No. Showing such party loyalty is known as "locking up." What’s unusual about the "D’s" locking up in this case is that the last welfare reform bill, HB 1079, passed 71 to 26 with 16 Democrats voting for it. Why the change? No Worker Protections! Although no one is claiming responsibility, all the displacement and labor standard protections we got into HB 1079 were removed in EHB 3901. Some lawmakers said we were protected, some said we weren’t but it’s someone else’s fault. They all said we should be protected. The only anti-displacement language in EHB 3901 is inadequate. It would require an employee who is laid off or fired to prove that their employer intended to replace them with a welfare recipient. Proving "intent" is a nearly impossible legal requirement. There are no protections for partial displacement such as reducing your hours or pay because welfare recipients are doing your work. Our collective bargaining law is completely ignored.

EHB 3901 came together on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. The lack of public hearings prevented any testimony so communications consisted of hallway conversations with legislators and staff. It became obvious at about 6:00 P.M. that we were going to get rolled over. It is important to watch from the gallery just to let legislators know you’re there and you know what they’re doing to you. It should be noted that your lobbyist is of Irish descent and was hoping to be doing something more enjoyable on St. Patrick’s Day than scowling at politicians. At about 10:30 P.M. the inevitable happened and EHB 3901 passed out of the House. As of this writing EHB 3901 is eligible for a floor vote in the Senate. The bill still didn’t get a public hearing, but we had time to develop our arguments and lobby key individuals. An amendment has been drafted that puts the needed protections back in the bill. If our amendment isn’t included the bill will go onto the Governor who is expected to veto it.

If you didn’t read our last update you don’t even know what W.E.E.R.S. III is, but believe me, you’re glad it’s dead. Basically, it was the brainchild of the Teachers Union (W.E.A.) and the Public School Employees (P.S.E.). It took classified school employees out of P.E.R.S. and put them in yet another retirement system similar to the P.E.R.S. III we’ve successfully avoided the past three sessions. The debate pitted the AFL-CIO unions and other associations against W.E.A. and P.S.E. Although it’s unfortunate that employee organizations are sometimes at odds, it does make for exciting fireworks. The W.E.A. and P.S.E. lost big on this one.

SB 5530 - The bill that would raise bid limits in cities by inflation never got out of committee. A meeting was held with the sponsor, Mary Margaret Haugen (D) Camano Island, the cities, the contractors and us. The contractors simply said no compromise, no way, no how. In the world of Olympia it came down to power and they had the votes, we didn’t. Your lobbyist stated that the longer those dollar amounts stayed in the statute the more ridiculous they become. Someday we’ll be in a better position to change them and we’ll remember how unreasonable the contractors have been. Even though we lost, Senator Haugen was very supportive of our issue. She should be thanked for her efforts. Please call the hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and pass along your appreciation of her help.

Baring a miracle, all the early retirement bills are dead for the session. The list includes SB 5500/HB 1967 and SB 5277/HB 1217. Most weren’t even heard. The good news is that more and more lawmakers are realizing that the current system is flawed and are beginning to offer support for changing it. This will no doubt be the hot topic in the interim.

HB 1721 sponsored by Kathy McMorris (R) Colville was a bill that proclaimed that government shouldn’t perform any "commercial activities." The bill defined commercial activities as virtually any activity that private contractors wanted to do. If passed, this bill would have privatized just about everything we do! It has been gutted of its worst provision but still is dangerous. The scariest part is that its sponsor is the Chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee!

This bill sponsored by Representative Jack Cairnes (R) Kent, protects personnel records such as home addresses, phone and social security numbers from being disclosed to the public. Although legal opinions have clarified that this information wasn’t available under the public disclosure act, SHB 1505 specifically spells out the prohibition for law enforcement personnel. Representative Pat Scott (D) Everett offered an amendment on our behalf to include local government employees such as correction/probation officers and court clerks. The bill is now in the Senate and shouldn’t have any problem being passed onto the Governor for his signature.

Two bills that are beneficial to the safety of bus drivers are in good shape. SB 5470 sponsored by Senator Dino Rossi (R) Issaquah doubles the fine for drivers passing a bus while the visual stop signals are activated. HB 1655 sponsored by Representative Shirley Hankins (R) Richland clarify that assault of a bus driver is a 3rd degree felony.

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