For proof that Washington state is not Wisconsin, look no further than the invitation the state’s largest public employee union extended to the 14 embattled Wisconsin state senators last weekend. The lawmakers remain holed up in an undisclosed out-of-state location, denying Republican Gov. Scott Walker a quorum on his bill to weaken collective-bargaining rights in the state.
In a gesture of solidarity, Tim Welch of the Washington Federation of State Employees e-mailed the Wisconsin senators an offer of refuge in Washington state.
According to The Olympian, about 2,000 Washington state workers joined a rally at the state Capitol on Monday to express their support for Wisconsin public employee unions and the lawmakers who have championed their cause.
Welch of the federation noted that his members ratified a two-year contract with the state last week. In negotiations with Gov. Chris Gregoire, members agreed to accept 3 percent pay cuts in the form of added furlough days beginning July 1. They also agreed to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance premiums.
“There was give and take and there was compromise,” Welch said.
His message: Public employee collective bargaining is working in Washington.
Not everyone agrees. A trio of bills introduced in the 2011 Legislature by a small group of conservative Senate Republicans proposed to repeal Washington’s 2002 collective-bargaining law, enact a right-to-work law undermining public employee unions, and weaken the ability of public employees to compete for contracts with the state when the state decides to privatize a government program.
All three bills were referred to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee; none got a hearing. All are now dead for this session.
Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla was a co-sponsor of all three bills. Senate Bill 5349, which would have repealed collective-bargaining rights, was co-sponsored by Sens. Jim Honeyford, Dan Swecker and Bob Morton. Although Sen. Joe Zarelli did not sponsor any of the bills, the Ridgefield Republican did take part in their roll-out in January.
Even if it had no chance of passing, SB 5349 should have been given a hearing, said Jason Mercier, director of the Center for Government Reform at the conservative Washington Policy Center.
Mercier’s argument: The Legislature’s authority over a significant part of the state budget has eroded since state employees began collective bargaining with the executive branch over wages and benefits under the 2002 law.
Quoting from the bill, he said, “State employees no longer have to make their case to the Legislature for additional funding for compensation packages and compete for limited funding with other priorities. The flexibility of the Legislature has been limited, as the Legislature has no authority to make changes to negotiated agreements between state employees and the executive branch.”
In tight budget times, Mercier said, the Legislature needs to take back that authority.
“Ultimately, union leadership should not be budget power brokers but instead should be their members’ top lobbyist in Olympia to make the case for pay and benefits while being on the same equal footing with every other special interest and citizen during the legislative budget process,” he said.
Mercier noted that according to the Office of Financial Management, conducting collective bargaining in Washington cost about $5 million during the 2009-11 budget cycle.
Welch said the anti-collective-bargaining bills introduced this year could be a harbinger of what’s to come if the anti-union political tide sweeping the Midwest spreads west.
“The significance of those bills is an illustration of what could happen if there is a change in the political makeup in Olympia,” he said. And that could happen, he said.
“It does baffle us why the Senate Republicans have it in for state employees so much,” he said. “We have a bipartisan approach to endorsements and political contributions.”
