06.27.08

Supporting labor supports the local economy

Posted in Labor and Trade at 3:12 am by Administrator

Are you disturbed that our plants and jobs have moved offshore? That many of our goods are made in sweatshops without labor or environmental regulations? Or that the global economy is caught in an economic and environmental crisis at the same time huge corporations are earning record profits? In order to support workers and rebuild the local economy, we need to think about our priorities every time we shop. Living wages, comprehensive health benefits, and protection of workers’ rights attract high quality workers and businesses to our state, and provide incentives for higher education and training. What’s good for workers is good for the economy.

I support the following pro-labor policies:
 Buying locally and at family or employee-owned businesses whenever possible.
 Policies that protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively, and that strengthen and enforce laws that prohibit employer intimidation and coercion.
 Policies that ensure that workers have legal rights to safe, healthy and fair conditions at work.
 Strengthening prevailing wage, minimum wage, and indexing laws.
 Extending of unemployment benefits in times of economic hardship.
 Policies to establish a ‘living wage’ designed to ensure that low-wage workers and their families can live above the poverty level.
 Policies that guarantee pay equity for women who perform similar jobs and have similar skills and experience as their male counterparts.
 Worker’s rights to organize and choose who shall represent them in negotiations with management.
 Requiring nonunion workers to pay their fair share of services provided by a union in cases where a union is representing them and negotiating on their behalf.
 Providing all residents with access to portable and affordable health care coverage.
 I oppose the privatization of Social Security. This is corporate welfare to the banking and brokerage industry.

My opponent Don Benton opposed the following bills, which were supported by the Washington State Labor Council (details at www.wslc.org/legis/vr-sen08.htm):
 Opposed SB 5261, granting the insurance commissioner the authority to review individual health benefit plan rates to ensure rate hikes are justified and reasonable.
 Opposed SSB 6333, establishing a citizens’ work group on health care to review proposed statewide plans and propose a plan to provide comprehensive, affordable health care for all Washingtonians.
 Opposed SB 6241, prohibiting the sale or use of prescriber-identifiable prescription data by Pharmaceutical Companies for commercial or marketing purposes.
 Opposed SSB 6809, providing a tax exemption for low income working families, as measured by the federal earned income tax credit.
 Opposed SHB 2815, requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and establish a green jobs initiative to increase the number of green economy jobs to 25,000 by 2020.
 My opponent’s campaign materials do not have the union label. Mine do.