Worker Privacy: Labor talks, leaders silent and Boeing’s vote count

While the news today will be dominated by coverage of the economic forecast, the Dawgs in the Big Dance and the inauguration of the Seattle Sounders, the story of the Worker Privacy Act is not over.

Today, leaders of the Washington State Labor Council expect to have their weekly meeting with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and the topic of resurrecting Senate Bill 5446 is sure to come up.

(No guarantee the meeting will be held. On Wednesday, House Speaker Frank Chopp canceled his regularly scheduled meeting with labor leaders.)

WSLC President Rick Bender told me Wednesday they want the legislation revived.now that the investigation of a labor lobbyist’s e-mail turned up no wrongdoing.

That’s the e-mail where WSLC veteran Jeff Johnson suggests not “another dime from labor” go to Democratic campaign groups until the bill was signed.

Brown, Chopp and Gov. Chris Gregoire said the e-mail raised legal and ethical questions. They then halted action on the bill and requested the probe.

“We’ve been vindicated so we’d like to have them take the steps necessary to exclude it from the cut-off,” Bender said. “It’s not a question of if they can. It is a question of will they,” he said.

I’ve been trying to find out the answer for two days with no success.

While Brown, Chopp and Gregoire issued a joint statement when they requested the investigation, all three have been silent and unresponsive since the findings became public.

Meanwhile, the plotting behind the scenes thickened yesterday. AP writer Curt Woodward revealed a lobbyist for the Boeing Co., one of the bill’s most ardent opponents, had been counting votes in the days before the bill’s demise and shared the info with Gregoire’s new aerospace envoy in hopes of drawing out the governor.

It’s great reading so I’ve put it below.

The Wednesday press release from the Washington State Labor Council calling for the Legislature to act on the bill is pretty good too.

Here’s a snippet. You can read it all here. .

It no longer passes the straight-face test to blame what was clearly an internal email among labor leaders — one that had inadvertently been forwarded, not to you, but to a handful of legislators who already supported the bill — for denying a vote on the Worker Privacy Act.

Here’s the e-mail from Boeing lobbyist Trent House to Gregoire’s adviser Bill McSherry:

Sent: Fri Mar 06 23:29:15 2009

Subject: Vote count on HB 1528 – Worker Privacy

Bill,

I have been counting votes and the reality is grim. Legislator’s

overwhelmingly want this bill just to go away and not have a vote.

However, if a vote is required, most would reluctantly vote with the

Labor community despite the known legal and symbolic flaws. This bill

must not come up for a vote or it will pass with a large margin and

compel the Senate to act as well. I don’t believe that Senate and House

Leadership can make this call on their own. I think they need and

expect the Governor to share the responsibility necessary to do the