After conducting a public hearing on HB 1355, which would raise the state minimum wage to $12 an hour, and on HB 1356, which would require employers to provide certain amounts of paid sick leave to employees, Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane), chair of the State Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, decided not to advance the legislation.

Defying threats from progressive Seattle billionaire Nick Hanauer to run a statewide $16 minimum wage initiative in 2016, Baumgartner stated:

“I’m not going to put people out of work in eastern Washington just to placate the egos of some extreme liberals in Seattle… We ought to make good policy for good policy, not for the threats of a Seattle liberal that has too big an ego.”

Baumgartner’s move prompted outrage from his Democratic colleagues, with the Senate Democratic Caucus tweeting:

“Senate GOP kills #RaiseTheWage, #PaidSickLeave, #EqualPay bills. They stood w/ corporate special interests, against working families #waleg“

In a joint statement, the Democratic sponsors of the minimum wage bills in the House and Senate, Rep. Jessyn Farrell (D-Seattle) and Sen. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle), lamented,

“…that the Chair of Commerce & Labor refused to pass the (minimum wage) bill out of committee so we could have a full discussion on the Senate floor on one of the critical issues of our times.”

The leadership in the House was perfectly happy, however, to squelch debate on a host of pro-worker union reform bills with even giving them a public hearing.

Sponsored by Sen. Randi Becker (R-Eatonville), SB 5226 passed out of the Senate on a bipartisan vote. The legislation would require unions representing public employees in Washington (like the 80,000-member Washington Education Association) to be financially transparent with the public and the members they represent.

Once in the House, however, the legislation died quietly without a hearing in the Labor Committee. Rep. Mike Sells (D-Everett), the committee chair, is past president of the WEA-affiliated Everett Education Association and currently serves as the secretary-treasurer of the Snohomish County Labor Council.

Earlier in the session, Sells refused to hold hearings on a number of positive labor reform bills introduced by his colleagues, such as:

• HB 1968 – Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley): Clarifies and standardizes state law governing workers with a religious objection to union membership. Removes unconstitutional provisions and gives workers greater control over choosing a charity to send their dues to in place of the union.
• HB 1991 – Rep. Dick Muri (R-Steilacoom): Creates an online library of all school district collective bargaining agreements.
• HB 2068 – Rep. Jesse Young (R-Gig Harbor): Allows public employees the ability to vote out a mandatory union dues provision from their collective bargaining agreement. Federal law already provides this protection to private-sector union workers.
• HB 1934 – Rep. Matt Manweller (R-Ellensburg): Prevents local jurisdictions from exempting unionized firms from minimum wage and paid sick leave ordinances.
• HB 1953 – Rep. Liz Pike (R-Camas): Requires unions representing large, statewide bargaining units of “partial public employees” to win regular recertification votes in order to continue representing workers.
• HB 1774 – Rep. Shea (R-Spokane Valley): Extends right-to-work protections to all workers, making it illegal to fire a worker for refusing to pay union dues. 
• HB 1773 – Rep. Graham Hunt (R-Orting): Prohibits public-sector union contracts from obligating taxpayers to pay for the salaries and activities of union officials. 

Increasing the minimum wage is poor policy based on empty arguments, but it received a fair hearing in the Senate. The same cannot be said of the common-sense, pro-worker, pro-taxpayer union reforms ignored by the House.