This is the Federation Hotline updated Feb. 27.
Much priority legislation survives latest committee cut-off; big deadline looms Friday
After Monday’s latest fiscal committee cut-off in the Legislature, many of AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE)’s priority bills have continued to survive the two-year vetting process and now sit poised for action in the House or Senate.
The supplemental budget (ESSB 6032) passed the House Monday (Feb. 26) on a vote of 50-46. It passed the Senate Feb. 23 on a vote of 25-23. Because the House amended it, both chambers must reconcile differences before it goes to the governor’s desk.
The latest AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) priority bill to clear committee late Monday was the interpreter services bill, 2SSB 6245, which passed out of the House Appropriations Committee on a vote of 21-12.
All bills that cleared committee Monday have until this Friday, March 2, to pass either the House or Senate.
Here is a list of our priority bill divided into those that must pass the House and those that must pass the Senate.
Keep calls coming into your legislators to support these bills; call 1-800-562-6000, especially on the two bills facing heavy opposition from corporate interests: 2SHB 1851 the Taxpayer Protection Act; and 2SSB 6245 the interpreter services bill.
WFSE/AFSCME priority bills that must pass the SENATE by March 2:
- 2SHB 1851: Bringing accountability and transparency in state outsourcing (the Taxpayer Protection Act).
CALL TO ACTION on outsourcing transparency bill - 2SHB 1851: Dial 1-800-562-6000: Share your experience with outsourcing gone wrong and ask your Senator to SUPPORT 2SHB 1851, the Taxpayer Protection Act!
- ESHB 1434: Expanding shared leave to allow for pregnancy disability/newborn bonding.
- SHB 1558: Expanding the Public Safety Employees Retirement System (PSERS) to include state institutional workers.
- SHB 1559: Granting binding interest arbitration to campus police.
- HB 2611: Peer support counseling/privileged communications in Community Corrections.
- HB 2669: Adding part-time state employees to civil service.
- SHB 2778: Protecting the privacy of state employees who blow the whistle on sexual harassment.
- 2SHB 1541: Prescription drug transparency.
WFSE/AFSCME priority bills that must pass the HOUSE by March 2:
- 2SSB 6245: Interpreter services bill.
CALL TO ACTION on interpreter services bill – 2SSB 6245: Dial 1-800-562-6000: Urge your House members to SUPPORT 2SSB 6245 to spread the successful interpreter program demonstrated by WFSE/AFSCME Interpreters United Local 1671 members to other agencies.
- SSB 6340: One-time COLA for PERS 1 retirees.
Bills that did not make it, but....
- SB 6079 to keep our dates of birth private to protect state employees’ safety and security did not make it out of the House State Government Committee. But there is some chatter about reviving it.
CALL TO ACTION: Continue to call your legislators at 1-800-562-6000 to support SB 6079; revive this bill to protect state employees’ privacy, safety and security.
- SHB 1560 to make PERS 2 the default pension plan for new hires died in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
UW Laundry members ask county council’s help to stay open
Some 50 University of Washington Laundry members – many people of color and immigrants who have embraced the American Dream -- pleaded with the King County Council Monday afternoon (Feb. 26) to join their fight to keep their facility open.
“Please help us – our dream is gone,” Sewalem Gebre, a laundry operator 1 and Local 3488 member, told the council.
The UW claims a $75 million budget shortfall may mean a closure and outsourcing of the facility in Seattle’s Rainier Valley.
But a grass-roots petition flying out of the hands of laundry supporters urges the UW to meet with the laundry workers to brainstorm solutions.
The closure proposal is “targeting lower-wage workers from communities who have little or no voice in the university’s decision-making,” the petition said.
The laundry and its 120 workers are too valuable to lose, members told the council meeting in their chambers in Seattle. Laundry members from SEIU 925 were also there.
“We didn’t do anything wrong – and we’re losing our jobs,” said Local 3488 member Mustafa Getahun.
The Local 3488 members said if the laundry closes and they lose their jobs, their families would suffer when it comes time to pay the mortgage and doctors’ bills.
“I just pray, I hope you guys help us out to keep this laundry open,” said Local 3488 member Patricia Thomas, a laundry operator 1 for 27 years.
The county officials have already gone on record in support of the laundry and its acclaimed workers.
Seven of the council’s nine members and County Executive Dow Constantine on Feb. 12 formally asked UW President Ana Mari Cauce to freeze the contracting timeline and discuss options to save the laundry and jobs. One of those might be new funding tied to the county’s upcoming capital levy for Harborview Medical Center.
The letter was signed by Constantine and councilmembers Joe McDermott (chair), Rod Dembowski (vice chair), Larry Gossett, Dave Upthegrove, Reagan Dunn, Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Claudia Balducci.
The county had asked for a meeting before March 1.
Cauce responded Feb. 16 that her staff would reach out to the council “as soon as possible” to schedule a “substantive discussion of your ideas.”
So at Monday’s hearing the laundry workers urged the council to continue holding the UW’s feet to the fire on behalf of the Local 3488 members, their families and the community.
King County has unique leverage because it owns Harborview Medical Center. The UW runs it on a management contract, but the council expects the UW to follow the county’s values in how it treats workers and patients. The county-owned facility is a major user of the laundry, thus the council’s keen interest and responsibility in protecting jobs, safety and health related to the proposed closure of the laundry.
“They (the laundry workers) are really providing an important public service in cleaning all of UW Medicine’s laundry,” said Rod Palmquist, AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE)’s Higher Education strategic coordinator. “We really hope that we can work with you to find an alternative solution to this problem.”
This is not the first time that the UW has tried to close facilities that harm the surrounding communities and workers, both of whom are largely people of color and immigrants.
In 2014, AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) members and the community rose up to stop the UW’s proposed closure of four critical care clinics at Harborview Medical Center (Women’s, Pediatric, Family and Adult Care) and move them away from the county citizens who depend on them.
More on Monday’s Supreme Court hearing
Top quotes from Monday’s US Supreme Court hearing on the Janus case that aims to install inequality at the bargaining table (to negotiate wages to sustain our families) and also in representing state employees’ contract rights in the workplace:
- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflected on the consequences of ruling against the union in the case before the court. “It drains it of resources that make it an equal partner” with the government in negotiations.
- David C. Frederick, a lawyer for the union, said it should be free to fight for higher wages. “Most public servants are underpaid,” he said, “and I will stipulate to that before this body.”
- Near the end of the argument, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the case represented an existential threat to the labor movement. “You’re basically arguing, ‘Do away with unions,’ ” she told Mr. Messenger.
The Supreme Court ruled that such laws (that Janus would overturn) are constitutional in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, a foundational 1977 decision that made a distinction between two kinds of compelled payments. Forcing nonmembers to pay for a union’s political activities violated the First Amendment, the court said. But it was constitutional, the court added, to require nonmembers to help pay for the union’s collective bargaining efforts to prevent freeloading and ensure “labor peace.”
Source: New York Times, 2/27/18: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/supreme-court-unions-gorsuch.html?emc=edit_th_180227&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=53380235
That’s it for now.
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