House, Senate duel over unemployment
The first overtime session ended at midnight, but the unemployment proposal was stalled in the House so Gov. Gary Locke immediately called a second.
Lawmakers kept working and passed competing proposals, then recessed just before sunrise with plans to resume work in the afternoon.
Locke, many lawmakers and business leaders have called for changes in the system, one of the nation’s most expensive and generous, to help land Boeing’s 7E7 jetliner assembly plant and more generally to improve the state’s business climate.
Locke embraced a business-backed proposal just before midnight, but House Speaker Frank Chopp argued that it would saddle seasonal workers with too much of the cost of fixing the system.
“Remember the people we’re talking about here,” said Chopp, D-Seattle, in a rare floor speech, “the farmworkers, the construction workers, the loggers, the fisherpeople.”
The plan passed 31 to 9 by the Senate and endorsed by Locke would change the system by calculating benefits based on a worker’s income over the last four quarters instead of the most lucrative two quarters in the past year. That change would cut benefits for nearly all workers. But seasonal laborers would be hit hardest.
Chopp’s plan - passed 52 to 38 by the House - retains the two-quarter system and cuts benefits for all classes of workers.
Backers of the Senate approach argue that seasonal workers often improperly use unemployment to supplement their income.
“The unemployment system operates to protect people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own,” said Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger. “What we’re talking about here is a social program.”
Senate GOP leaders hope to get the House to adopt the business plan over Chopp’s objections. They were meeting with Chopp behind closed doors.
“It’s supported by Boeing, the Machinists union, large business, small business, and now the governor,” said Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside.
House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler acknowledged that the pressure from Locke, the Senate, Boeing and the rest of the business community may be impossible to resist.
“We’re making an attempt to try to make sure that what we pass is fair to all workers,” said Kessler, D-Hoquiam. “We’re not trying to be obstructionists. We’re not going to hold this up forever.”
The unusual all-night session resulted from the end of the first special session, which forced lawmakers to repeat several votes they had already taken last night.
The House and Senate plans both share a revamped unemployment insurance tax structure designed to harmonize what businesses pay in taxes with what their laid-off workers claim in benefits.
Boeing has effectively been subsidizing some seasonal industries for years to the tune of $20 million a year, company officials said.
In the Senate plan, averaging all four quarters would cut benefits for nearly all workers but mainly for seasonal laborers, saving $167 million a year, $37 million more than the House plan.
For fishermen, average weekly benefits would drop 23 percent, from $358 to $268, according to figures from state Employment Security Department. For agricultural workers the cut would be 17 percent, from $237 to $191.
Aircraft workers, in contrast, would lose 3.6 percent of their benefits, going from $435 to $403 a week.
The maximum benefit is $496 per week.
To win Locke’s endorsement, the bill adopted by the Senate dropped a provision that would have ended eligibility completely for some seasonal workers in 2009 unless they lost jobs during their normal working season.
Despite opposition from the Washington State Labor Council and unions for farm laborers and construction workers, the bill drew bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Senate, largely because of support from Boeing and its Machinists union, which hopes to win thousands of jobs associated with the company’s planned 7E7 jetliner.
To bolster their case, non-Machinist union workers, activists and lobbyists crowded around the entrances to the House and Senate yesterday. Hard-hatted ironworkers milled around in the Senate lobby, mingling with smooth-suited business lobbyists.
“Find another way to keep Boeing here, leave UI benefits alone,” labor lobbyist Robby Stern shouted to a cheering crowd. “Let’s show them the strength of people who are going to stand up against unjust cuts.”