In several hearings before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee this session, union officials have resisted bills designed to protect the rights of union workers by claiming to be democratic organizations.
However, SB6244, introduced by Sen. Mike Hewitt (R-16th District) helped shine a light on what union democracy looks like in practice.
Under current law, once a public sector union is certified to represent a bargaining unit, it becomes the exclusive bargaining representative for all employees in the workplace. The union may then require all represented workers to pay union fees as a condition of employment, and may use government resources to automatically deduct membership dues from workers’ paychecks in much the way that taxes are deducted.
After being granted these extraordinary privileges, the union must never again be certified by the employees it represents.
The only way employees may change or leave their union is through a cumbersome decertification process. Workers wishing to decertify their union must collect signed cards from at least 30 percent of their bargaining unit expressing a desire for an election. Employees have only a 30 day window each contract cycle, which can last for up to three years, in which to submit all of the appropriate paperwork to the Public Employment Relations Commission. If all goes well, PERC will hold an election for the bargaining unit.
But if employees miss the 30 day window, they must wait years before getting a chance to try again. Furthermore, if there is any defect in their paperwork, they have very little time to correct it. For obvious reasons, decertifications are almost always opposed by the union. While workers seeking to change unions or decertify are on their own, unions have staff attorneys and nearly unlimited resources.
One union worker involved in a decertification effort noted that the “thirty day window is like the State holding a stopwatch and giving David a time limit versus Goliath.”
But when employees are able to jump through the right hoops and an election is held, they choose to change unions or decertify almost eight times out of ten.
Hewitt’s bill would simply extend the window for filing a petition from 30 to 90 days. Other states have filing windows longer than 30 days. Minnesota and New Hampshire have 60 day filing windows, and Oregon places no restrictions at all on when decertification petitions may be filed.
Nonetheless, union officials were eager to testify against the bill. Pat Thompson of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees (WSCCCE) and Tim Sears of the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) argued that the change “would destabilize the bargaining process.”
According to Thompson, it would be difficult for government agencies and unions to conduct bargaining when there is a possibility that a decertification petition might be filed. However, Thompson noted that negotiations do not typically start in earnest until the last two months before the expiration of the current contract. But under both current law and SB6244, decertification petitions may not be filed during the last two months of the contract. SB6244 adds the additional 60 days to the front end of the filing window, not the back end, meaning that it is no more “destabilizing” than current law.
Both Thompson and Sears contended that “it doesn’t seem that there’s anything broke to be fixed.” Of course, to union executives, the system works just fine.
Union bosses realize that the law leans heavily in their favor. At the end of his testimony, Sears gave the real reason he opposes the bill when he noted that it “would create more opportunities to undermine or destroy existing bargaining relationships.”
In other words, Sears and Thompson simply oppose SB6244 out of their own self-interest in keeping the deck stacked against workers who do not believe union representation is in their best interest.
One union-represented worker, Dan Varey, recently retired from WSU, testified in favor of the bill. Dan explained how his bargaining unit of 108 employees has been trying to decertify the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) union for years. At one point, they missed the filing window to decertify by one day, and had to wait two years before getting to try again.
Two labor-backed Democratic Senators on the committee were dismissive of employees’ concerns. Sen. Bob Hasegawa, a long-time Teamsters official, stated bluntly, “Well, I’m sorry, but filing windows are there for a reason.”
Sen. Steve Conway, a former UFCW employee who received about 40 percent of his campaign funds from unions in his last election, said that the bill “makes no sense.”
His objection: “I look upon this as an attack on public employee unions. Sorry.”
Thankfully for Washington workers, the majority on the Commerce and Labor Committee voted to advance the bill to the full Senate in spite of these objections.
Watch my testimony in support of SB6244 and the rest of the hearing below:
Watch Sen. Conway and Hasegawa voice their concerns on SB6244 below:
UPDATE: Though referred to the Senate floor, no vote on SB6244 was held before the cutoff date. The bill is dead for this session.
