By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — After years of debate, the state House passed a contentious bill Wednesday that lawmakers hope will give state workers more control over their salaries and private workers more opportunities for jobs.
The collective bargaining proposal for state employees — a first for Washington and a victory for labor unions — has caused huge fights among lawmakers over the years.
And Wednesday was no exception.
"About the only good thing I can see that comes out of this is that all year we’ll have Labor Day," said Rep. Jim Clements, R-Selah, taking a jab at unions.
Under House Bill 1268, state employees would negotiate their salaries and benefits with the governor, rather than the Legislature, and for the first time since 1978, state agencies would be allowed to contract out some services to the private sector.
Democrats said it would raise state workers from their "second-class status," since collective bargaining is allowed for workers in private companies such as Boeing and Weyerhaeuser.
But Republicans worried it would put state workers’ salaries ahead of other needs, such as funding for education, programs for the poor and disabled, or criminal justice. State employees would be allowed to stake their claim on Washington’s budget before a single nickel was dedicated to other services, said Rep. Barry Sehlin, R-Oak Harbor, the Republicans’ chief budget writer.
"I’m not so naive to think this is about anything but money," Sehlin said.
Republicans also called the contracting out part of the bill "meaningless" and "phony" because it would be part of the collective bargaining, and union leaders have always vehemently opposed it in the past.
And they repeatedly expressed their concerns about the potential conflict of a governor relying on campaign donations from the very group he or she would be bargaining with over salaries.
The negotiations would start in 2004, the same year Democratic Gov. Gary Locke will be up for re-election.
House Minority Leader Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, called that issue "the entire essence of this debate" because the appearance of impropriety lowers public trust in elected officials.
One of the 23 Republican amendments Democrats voted down during nearly five hours of debate Wednesday would have banned the governor from taking campaign money from labor unions involved in negotiating state workers’ salaries. Proponents pointed out that the state insurance commissioner is not allowed to accept money from the insurance industry.
"The guy that’s receiving huge amounts of money is doing the negotiating behind closed doors," Ballard warned. "That is a basic firewall that should be there for any elected official."
But Rep. Val Ogden, D-Vancouver, said state employees won’t put their needs above others, and the governor won’t be bought.
"We’ve all taken contributions," she told her colleagues.
The governor will receive advice in the negotiations from a panel of lawmakers, so he won’t be making the salary decisions in a vacuum, said bill co-sponsor Rep. Al O’Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace.
Legislators would be unable to change the governor’s salary recommendation, but they could vote it down.
Another of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, said the measure will both simplify wage negotiations for state employees and help make government more efficient. As a Washington State Patrol sergeant, Lovick is a state employee, but troopers are under a different collective bargaining contract and wouldn’t be covered under the bill voted on Wednesday.
The bill passed, 54 to 43, largely along party lines. Four Republicans, none from Snohomish County, crossed the line to vote with Democrats.
While about half of the other states in the nation allow their employees to bargain collectively, this would be a first for Washington. It’s been the subject of high emotions and loud fights in Olympia’s halls. Two years ago, state workers staged a sit-in at the Capitol for days after Ballard blocked the collective bargaining bill from getting a vote in the House.
The measure now goes to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where a similar proposal passed twice in 1999 and twice in 2000.
Political postscript: A bill to stiffen penalties for ecoterrorism passed the state House unanimously Wednesday. It came one day after the FBI’s top domestic terrorism officer said the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have become the largest and most active U.S.-based terrorist group.
Last month, ALF listed the arson fire at an Arlington egg farm among "notable actions" by ecoterrorist groups in 2001. Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, tried to get the bill passed last year, but it never got to the floor. It now goes to the Senate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 360-586-3803 or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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