Labor council to Democratic leaders: Revive dead bill and vote…

The state labor council is not going quietly, when it comes to a key union prioritiy this year: a bill that would have banned companies from requiring workers to attend meetings to discuss unionization, religion or charitable giving.

The governor and the top two Democratic lawmakers declared the bill dead and called police last week after seeing an email to some lawmakers from a labor council staffer. The note urged union leaders to tell lawmakers that they’d get “not another dime from labor” until the governor signed the bill into law. The state patrol subsequently said the email wasn’t a crime.

Fast forward to today. The labor council is now calling on Gov. Gregoire, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Speaker Frank Chopp to revive the dead bill and bring it up for a vote.

From the labor council’s long message, (which I pasted at the “continue reading” link below):

It no longer passes the straight-face test to blame what was clearly an internal email among labor leaders — one that had inadvertently been forwarded, not to you, but to a handful of legislators who already supported the bill — for denying a vote on the Worker Privacy Act.

It is time to take a principled stand.  All we ask is for a fair vote.  If it fails, so be it.  Our elected representatives are adults.  They can explain why they voted “yes” or why they voted “no.”

At this point, maintaining what is already being criticized as a political effort to “shield” legislators from taking a tough vote only exacerbates the embarrassment to the institution of the State Legislature.

It is time for a moment of truth.