JUDGE RULES IN GOVERNOR’S FAVOR; UNION PURSUES APPEALS, OTHER AVENUES TO FREE YOUR CONTRACTS FROM LIMBO

A Thurston County Superior Court judge on Wednesday afternoon ruled against the Federation in the lawsuit against the governor for failing to forward a funding request for your contracts to the Legislature.

Judge Anne Hirsch ruled that a strict look at the collective bargaining statute required her to rule against the union. She said the law requires the contracts to be negotiated, ratified and submitted to the state Office of Financial Management by Oct. 1. Then they must be certified as “financially feasible” by the OFM director, which he did not do. Without both those conditions, the judge ruled, the governor does not have to forward a request to the Legislature.

In her ruling, the judge noted that “certification” is not defined in the collective bargaining statute, so she relied on the dictionary definition.

And the judge did not rule on other parts of the union’s overall lawsuit, including the unfair labor practice allegation and state Rep. Brendan Williams’s contention that the 2002 legislation on collective bargaining can’t tie the hands of the 2009 Legislature if lawmakers want to go forward debating contract funding without a request from the governor.

Judge Hirsch did agree to the Federation’s request to OK the case for possible consideration by the state Court of Appeals on the important legal issues.

The union will continue to pursue an appeal and other avenues to free the contracts from limbo. As it stands, the statute does not allow the Legislature to consider the contracts or take a no vote, the only way renegotiations can occur. Unless you are allowed back to the bargaining table, any sacrifices you may wish to make to save co-workers’ jobs won’t have any effect.

While the judge ruled against the union, she did take the governor to task for her behavior in the episode.

Judge Hirsch said the governor’s choice of OFM as both the bargaining agent for the state and the entity that certifies financial feasibility of the contracts “muddy and blur” the act of negotiation and the act of certification.

The judge also noted that in the two previous rounds of bargaining, she forwarded a funding request even though the OFM director had not certified them as financially feasible.

And she chided the OFM director for issuing a letter of non-certification just a day before the governor unveiled her budget Dec. 18. “The budget had obviously been completed by then,” Judge Hirsch said, giving unions no opportunity to propose a return to the bargaining table.

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