Worker Privacy Act: A Wedge Between Labor and Democratic Leaders?

Last week in an apparently tense session labor leaders met with Gov. Chris Gregoire, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Slpeaker Frank Chopp - the leaders who tabled the Worker Privacy Act after learning of an email that tied campaign contributions to legislative action. Most of the press coverage following the meeting focused on union concerns.

Joe Turner summarizes it this way on his TNT blog: "We can't get no satisfaction on Worker Privacy." Turner includes a brief statement from the Washington State Labor Council. Here's the WSLC account from their web site.

"This entire incident has severely strained labor's relationship with Democratic leaders," said WSLC President Rick Bender . "We still consider their actions to have been a dramatic over-reaction especially after the Washington State Patrol and the Public Disclosure Commission quickly determined no legal or ethical wrongdoing. Democratic leaders offered no explanation at Wednesday's meeting to counter assertions that their actions were anything but a pretext for blocking the Worker Privacy Act at the insistence of The Boeing Company.

Union considerations also factor heavily in what's being reported as an emerging split within the House Democratic Caucus.

Some members say the Democratic caucus is splitting into pro-labor and pro-business camps. Those who consider themselves more pro-labor complain that lawmakers aren't doing enough to address such issues as climate change or worker rights.

Brad Shannon has more on his blog for the Olympian.

Tight budgets factor heavily into liberal/labor unhappiness this year, as the Wall Street Journal reports.

But, Kris Tefft notes at Olympia Business Watch, labor scored two big - but we hope inconclusive - wins in the House Commerce and Labor Committee late last week.

The committee movedESSB 6035 the bill that would impose newrestrictions and regulations on trade associations that operate voluntary retrospective ratings programs in workers' comp. It thenamended and moved SSB 5963 a delicate and heavily brokeredeffort to bring the state's Unemployment Insurance tax system back into conformity with federal law.

Watch for more on this in the coming days.