Reporter's Notebook

--Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com

MUCH ADO ABOUT ‘X’ FILES

Remember the legislation we reported on March 6 that could have limited workplace communications regarding political and religious matters? On March 25, it turned into an “X” file.

Senate Bill 5446 and its companion, House Bill 1528 (aka the Worker Privacy Act) were halted because of allegations that a Washington State Labor Council staffer sent an email linking future campaign contributions to action on the bills. The case went to the Washington State Patrol at the request of Gov. Chris Gregoire, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Speaker of the House Frank Chopp.

The investigation did not go beyond initial review, and WSP reported March 17 that there was no criminal conduct involved. Even so, eight days later, the Senate made the legislation an “X” file.

So far, from what I can tell, this has nothing to do with aliens. But it means that this bill won’t go any further this session, and there won’t be a new state law keeping employers from making workers join in on meetings or exchanges that would influence their religious or political beliefs, including those about unionizing.

All of this makes me wonder how much anyone wanted this bill in the first place – a bill that could have put a kink in free speech rights. The WSP said there was no criminal activity, but the bill is still kaput. When I talked with Rep. Deb Wallace (D-Vancouver) about the bill in late February she was indifferent about it, even though she had signed on as a supporter.

“I don’t feel strongly either way about this legislation,” she said. “There are laws in place that protect employees from harassment. On the other hand, we have organizations saying that there are issues. If there is a need to improve the law, fine. I don’t know if that is the case or not.”