New Year, Returning Anti-Employer Bill

The Hoppin' John has been eaten (thanks to my wife's Southern roots) and we enter the new year anticipating good fortune for AWB members. As Don's column in yesterday's Columbian points out, we enter the year dragging along some risk from 2007.

Last year, it was called the "union neutrality" bill. This year when the Legislature convenes in Olympia, it will be dubbed the "worker privacy act." No matter how the bill is labeled, it skews the rules to give union organizers the upper hand in the workplace.

Kris Tefft also wrote on this last year (for example, here). Don nails employers' concerns:

Backers claim the measure is needed to prohibit employers from forcing their religious and political views on their employees, but that is just more of a smokescreen. What labor leaders want to do is make sure their organizing efforts face no employer opposition.

He notes that the legislation may run afoul of federal labor laws and the First Amendment. Even so, his closing argument should bother everyone worried a healthy, competitive economy.

Even if the measure is ultimately overturned, its passage would send a loud and clear anti-business message to employers considering whether to locate or expand their businesses in Washington state. In effect, the Legislature would be announcing that, "Employers who want fairness and free speech in the workplace are not welcome here."