Washington Legislature considers collective bargaining for legislative staff

A new bill that would give state legislative staff the right to bargain collectively was introduced in the Washington House of Representatives after two similar bills missed the cutoff to be passed to the opposite chamber last week. Around 100 legislative staffers called in sick after the bills did not advance.

The first set of bills

Forty Democratic representatives sponsored House Bill 1806, which would have given state legislative branch employees the right to bargain collectively. Two committees passed versions of the bill: the House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee on Feb. 1 and the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 7.

The Senate companion to the House bill, SB 5773, passed the Senate Labor, Commerce & Tribal Affairs Committee on Jan. 27 and was referred to the Senate Ways & Means Committee on Jan. 28. Eighteen Democrats sponsored that bill.

Feb. 15 was the last day a bill could be passed in its chamber of origin, a date the legislature agreed upon at the beginning of the session. According to The Hill’s Reid Wilson, the fact that the bills were not passed by that date “effectively [killed] their chances of passage this year.”

According to Northwest News Network’s Austin Jenkins, “[S]cores of Democratic staffers in the Washington Legislature staged a ‘sick-out’ [on Feb. 16] … An estimated 80 to 100 or more Democratic staffers, including legislative assistants who work...

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