House OKs union dues measure

OLYMPIA – The state House passed a measure Friday night that would allow labor unions to spend nonmembers’ bargaining fees on political causes without first getting their permission, an issue that is under appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.

After a three hour debate, the measure passed on a 55-42 vote and now heads to the Senate.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, said the measure was just a clarification of accounting rules and had nothing to do with the case before the nation’s high court concerning the Washington Education Association.

But opponents of the bill said that’s exactly what the measure will do: pre-empt a possibly negative ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Of the WEA’s 80,000 members statewide, more than 3,000 teachers are not members of the union. They are charged “agency fees” instead of dues that go toward collective bargaining.

The measure passed Friday night deals with co-mingling of funds, and the measure says that that when labor organizations are making political campaign contributions, the contribution is not considered to be using agency shop fees when the organization’s general treasury has enough money to cover the contributions from other revenue sources. So by clarifying the statute, the unions would be able to spend money on political action and not have to show that it isn’t using agency shop fees.

McDermott said that because union dues and “agency fees” from nonmembers are co-mingled, there’s no way to see which is agency shop fees and which is union dues, and that the measure just clarifies that the money can only be spent on political action once nonmembers have been refunded the money after their dollars go to collective bargaining.

But opponents said that unions could choose to hold onto the refunds for months after the money is already spent on political action that nonmembers don’t agree with.

“The people who don’t agree don’t have recourse,” said Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City. “They are essentially hostages.”