Fraser

Gained control of Senate floor

Collective bargaining confirmed

Senate OKs bill on cusp of deadline

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, March 9, 2002

OLYMPIA -- After barely making a 5 p.m. deadline and narrowly defeating a controversial amendment, the state Senate passed a bill Friday that will allow state workers to directly negotiate for their salary and benefits.

State worker union leaders, who have been seeking collective bargaining rights for more than a decade, called the vote historic.

The union leaders and a large crew of state workers perched on the edge of their seats in the Senate gallery as Republicans nearly derailed Democratic efforts to pass the legislation.

After nearly two hours of what Republican Floor Leader Larry Sheahan called "great political theater," the bill passed 29-19. Five Republicans joined with all 24 Senate Democrats present to vote for the bill.

South Sound Sens. Karen Fraser and Dan Swecker both voted in favor. Sen. Tim Sheldon of Mason County, whose mother was taken to the hospital Friday night, was absent.

Union leaders

"This is a major, major victory," said Eugene St. John, executive director of the Washington Public Employees Association.

Greg Devereux, his counterpart at the Washington Federation of State Employees, said, "It's something that a lot of people have been working on for 14 years."

Under current law, the Legislature sets wages and benefits for state employees without having to consult union representatives.

With collective bargaining, the responsibility for setting compensation packages will shift to the governor, who in future legislative sessions will appoint a team to sit down at the bargaining table with union negotiators and hammer out an agreement.

Also included in House Bill 1268 are reforms of the state's civil service system, as well as a provision to allow some private contracting of state services.

Waiting for weeks

The House of Representatives passed the bill in February, and for weeks labor officials waited for action in the Senate. The bill faced a 5 p.m. Friday deadline in the Senate or it would have been dead for the session.

Democrats had placed the bill on a 4:59 p.m. "special order" that would allow it to be pulled onto the floor before the deadline. But as it approached, Republicans began to throw up a number of time-consuming procedural motions in an attempt to run out the clock.

"It's getting ugly in here," Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, remarked at one point.

Just minutes before 5 p.m., Democrat Fraser got control of the floor and launched into a rambling, disjointed speech on an unrelated bill, to prevent Republicans from regaining the floor and blowing the deadline.

Fraser successfully stalled the Republicans, and the bill made it to the floor with less than 30 seconds to spare, prompting Republican Sen. Bob McCaslin to accuse Fraser of "dilatory tactics" by filling her speech with "heavy breathing."

Republicans offered several amendments that collective bargaining supporters charged would gut the bill. The most controversial, removing the requirement that the private contracting agreements be subject to collective bargaining, deadlocked on a 24-24 vote, forcing Lt. Gov. Brad Owen to cast a tie-breaking vote that killed the amendment.

Republicans were able to pass several amendments, but labor officials said it appeared they were acceptable and wouldn't further block the bill's progress.

After the maneuvering ended, no senators stood to speak during final debate on the bill. Republicans said afterward they still object to the legislation, especially the fact that it shifts control of a large portion of the state budget from the Legislature to the governor.

The bill now heads back to the House, where the prime sponsor, Rep. Sandra Romero of Olympia, said she expects they'll accept the Senate amendments.

That would send the legislation on to Gov. Gary Locke, who has pledged to sign it.

"Collective bargaining rights for state employees are long overdue," Locke said in a statement after the vote.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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