Texas AFL-CIO
United Labor Legislative Committee (ULLCO)
End-of-Regular-Session Summary 2009
This regular legislative session, the Texas AFL-CIO and affiliated union
lobbyists engaged the business community and other opponents in countless
battles at every step of the legislative process. For example, we
killed some bad legislation before it even got a hearing. Below is
a list of the different bills we covered—the good and the bad.
Unemployment Insurance (UI) Bill
SB 1569 by Sen. Eltife/ Rep. Strama would have expanded jobless
benefits, thereby allowing Texas to qualify for $555 million
in federal stimulus aid. The bill died at the very end of the
legislative session when it became ensnared in the Voter ID Bill
fight. Unfortunately,
Governor Rick Perry had already vowed to veto the UI Bill. He and
the major business groups opposed the long-run expansion of jobless
benefits even though the federal stimulus aid would have helped
businesses avoid an immediate tax increase (to fill a shortfall
in the unemployment fund). Our
push for the legislation rested in the hope that the legislature
would override a Perry veto or that the governor would change
his mind in the same way Gov. Sarah Palin eventually accepted
the stimulus aid in Alaska. But
we never reached that decision point this session. Thankfully, next
session the legislature can consider the UI Bill again. By then
we hope to have a governor with a better attitude towards jobless
Texans.
Despite being postponed to death after the Voter ID Bill,
SB 1569 managed to be considered by the full House once. Rep. Legler
of Pasadena, Texas, offered an amendment to require unemployment
benefit claimants to submit to drug testing. In other words,
a worker who loses their job through “no fault of their own”
(a requirement of applying for jobless benefits) would have to undergo
a humiliating drug test. Rep. Mark
Strama of Austin offered to gut the Legler amendment by striking
down the drug testing requirement and calling for a study of
such a requirement. Strama
prevailed on a vote of 73 to 71. The entire bill went down due to
the “chubbing” activity against the Voter ID bill as described
below.
Voter ID
SB 362 by Sen. Fraser/Rep. Smith would have required voters to
present a valid photo identification such as the Texas drivers license
in order to vote. In other words, simply presenting a voter registration
certificate would no longer be enough. The Texas Senate changed
the legislative rules early in the session in order to cram down this
bill past a blocking senate Democratic minority on a vote of 19 ayes to
12 mostly Democratic nays. When the bill reached the House towards
the end of the session, House Democrats used the tactic commonly known
as “chubbing” or speaking at length on each and every bill until the Voter
ID bill died past the deadline for bills to pass in the House. ULLCO
opposed the Voter ID bill from the very beginning. The Texas AFL-CIO
waited 24 hours to testify before the full Senate against the bill and
again staying till the wee hours of the morning during a House Elections
Committee hearing as well.
Labor Victories – Good Bills That Passed
Teacher Pay Raise (HB 3646 by Rep. Hochberg/
Sen. Shapiro). Each teacher will receive an average $800 pay
raise across the board. School districts would have received
the funding without designating it as a pay raise were it not
for the efforts of Sen. John Whitmire to amend HB 3646 on the
floor of the Texas Senate.
State Employee Bonus (HB 4586 by Sen. Ogden/
Rep. Pitts). In the last days of the session, legislators
added a one-time salary supplement of $800 for certain state
employees making less than $100,000 per year.
TRS and ERS Supplemental Pension Payment of $500 (HB
3347 by Sen. Duncan/ Rep. Truitt). Retired teachers and
state employees will see a one-time 13th check of $500, if certain
conditions apply. The payment is contingent on a favorable
ruling from the Attorney General.
Prohibiting the Poll Tax (HJR 39 by Rep.
Alma Allen). Texas had never gotten around to ratifying the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits a poll
tax. The Texas AFL-CIO testified in support of this bill
before the Texas Senate.
Film Incentives (HB 873 by Rep. Dukes/
Sen. Deuell). The Texas AFL-CIO supported the film worker union’s
efforts to raise film incentives by an additional $40 million,
for a total of $60 million.
Private Sector Prison Industries Program (HB
1914 by Rep. McReynolds/ Sen. Nichols). Some legislators
went on the warpath after finding that private sector employers
in their district lost business to a program that allowed competitors
to hire prison labor at much-cheaper wage rates. Sen. Nichols
led the charge with the help of the Texas AFL-CIO, whose support
he touted on the Senate floor. Sen. Williams tried to derail
the bill, which tightened the requirement that prison labor may
not displace free world employees. Sen. Nichols prevailed
on the Senate floor with a vote of 15 to 13.
COBRA Continuation (SB 1771 by Sen. Duncan/
Rep. Eiland) This bill allows Texas workers in businesses with
fewer than 20 employees to obtain health insurance premium assistance
with federal stimulus funds. Texas had to make a technical
adjustment in state law in order to comply with COBRA coverage.
Capitol Metro Bill (SB 1263 by Sen. Watson/
Rep. Rodriguez) On behalf of the Austin Transportation Union
ULLCO supported this bill, which changes the board composition
of Capitol Metro.
Political Action Committee Administrative Expenses (HB
2525 by Rep. Smith/ Sen. Wentworth) Interested parties,
including Labor, treated this bill as if it contained nitroglycerin
because one false move would have caused an explosion. The
bill defines general purpose political committees’ administrative
expenses in order to avoid certain campaign abuses such
as those committed by the Texas Association of Business several
years ago. The bill applied to corporations’ and labor
unions’ PACs. So, any amendment could have been lethal
to labor unions in an anti-union legislature. The Texas
AFL-CIO agreed to allow the bill to move forward under the condition
that no amendments would attach to it. Apparently, other
parties had the same concerns. The bill finally passed
without incident. Had one person fired a shot, however,
the bill would have died in the cross fire.
Elevator Grandfather Clause (HB 3628 by
Rep.Delwin Jones/ Sen. Duncan) This bill falls in a special
category of bad bills that turned out pretty well despite
the authors’ attempts. The
legislation sought to extend for five years--once again--a 16-year-old
grandfather provision that exempted old elevators from two safety
requirements: (1) allowing firefighters access and control of
elevators and, (2) automatic locks on doors to prevent people
from crawling out of stuck elevators. Sen. Lucio amended
the Duncan bill to apply a two-year extension for the firefighter
access only, but elevator doors must be upgraded in 2010 as scheduled.
Buy American (Partial Victory) The Texas
AFL-CIO helped push a Steelworker resolution calling for
the expenditure of federal stimulus funds for domestic products
and services only (HR 716 by Keffer/ SR 447 by Wendy Davis). The resolutions
were referred to House and Senate budget committees where they
languished without a hearing from the committee chairs. However,
Rep. Yvonne Davis sponsored a Buy American rider, which was added
to Senate Bill 1, the Appropriations Committee. The language
was stricken except for a provision that requires quarterly reporting
of the federal stimulus funds and the number of jobs created
(Section 5, Article 12).
Train Operating Crews (SB 481 by Sen.
Carona/Veasey). Drug
and alcohol testing and liability insurance requirements were
approved for contract carriers transporting train operating crews.
Persons with Disabilities Employment Rights (HB
978 by Rep. Burnam/ Sen. Watson) expansion of coverage under
employment discrimination prohibitions for persons with disabilities
Green Jobs (HB 1935 includes SB 108 by
Sen. Ellis/ HB 516 Rep. Strama) green jobs training
Voter Complaint Information (HB 1256 by
Rep. Alma Allen; Sen. Ellis) requires the posting of voter
complaint information at the polling locations, including
the telephone number for the voting rights hotline.
Entergy Bill (HB 1657 by Rep. Giddings)
This bill would have undone a Texas Supreme Court decision
that allows large premises owners such as refineries to escape
liability from unsafe work place accidents that could have
been prevented due to the knowledge of existing danger. Unlike the other
bills on this list, the Entergy Bill never became law. But
it can be claimed as a victory of sorts because Labor and the
Texas Trial Lawyers battled the entire business establishment
and prevailed on the House floor on a close vote of 73 to 72. The
bill, however, died in the Senate.
September 11th Holiday for Firefighters (HB
2113 by Rep. Walle; Sen. Gallegos) Under this bill, at least
one of the holidays that firefighters receive in the same manner
as other city employees shall be September 11th.
Labor Victories – Bad Bills Killed
Voter ID (SB 362) – see notes above
Attacks on Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (HB
3606 by Rep. Anderson/ SB 1430 by Williams; HCR 64 by Rep. Isett). The
bills would have required that an exclusive bargaining representative
election be held by secret ballot. The resolution would
have called on Congress to oppose the EFCA. All the legislation
was essentially killed in the best way possible—in the crib. None
of it got out of committee.
Attack on Prevailing Wage Laws (HB 1042
by Rep. Parker). Building Trades’ union members showed up
defeat this bill when it was given a hearing. Like the EFCA
legislation, it was delayed by friendly committee chairmen
to the point of suffocation.
State Schools Emergency Bill (SB 643 by
Sen. Nelson/ Rep. Rose) The legislature responded to the
state schools abuse cases with a bill that originally included
a provision eliminating due process protections for all state
school employees and placing them into at-will employment
status. The Texas
AFL-CIO assisted the Texas State Employees Union in removing
the at-will provision altogether with an amendment prepared by
Rep. Garnet Coleman which Rep. Rose accepted only at the last
minute.
ERS TexaSaver Program (HB 2283 by Rep. Truitt/
Sen. Deuell) In a bill to allow state employees to contribute
into a Roth IRA as well as a 401k program, Rep. Truitt also proposed
to raise automatically the required state employee contribution
from one percent to five percent of salary. State employees
would have to “opt-out” instead of “opting in” to the tax free
savings retirement program. Finally, Truitt also wanted
to apply the required contribution program to all state employees,
not just the new ones. TSEU amended the 5% provision in
committee and the Texas AFL-CIO assisted in garnering votes for
an amendment offered by Rep. Abel Herrero to keep the current
state employees out of the program unless they want to voluntarily
join. Herrero and Labor prevailed.
Health Savings Accounts for State Employees (HB
1176 by Rep. Crownover). By offering healthier state employees
the option of a health savings account, this legislation would
have created an “adverse selection” effect that would leave the
sicker employees in the ERS health insurance program, thereby
driving up costs for that plan and exposing the HAS plan participants
to medical cost risk. The bill died in the House Calendar’s
committee due to multiple tags on it.
Drug Testing for Unemployment Insurance Claimants (HBs
1135 and 1136 by Rep. Legler) See summary of Legler floor amendment
to SB 1569 above.
Health Insurance Experiment on Teachers and State Employees (SB
10 by Sen. Duncan/Zerwas). The aim of this legislation,
which Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst touted as his own, is to lower
health insurance costs through “alternative payment methods.” House
committee members took teachers from the bill, which died on
the House Major State Calendar at the end of the session. A
piece of the legislation survived in HB 4586, however, and must
be watched.
Eliminating Straight Party Ticket Voting (SB
317 by Sen. Wentworth; HB 1768 by Rep. Branch) The Senate version
passed out of the Senate State Affairs Committee but could not
get the required 2/3rds support on the Senate floor. The
House version did not even get out of committee.
Racketeering Bill (SB 1065 by Sen. Williams)
The Attorney General produced this bill, which was purportedly
aimed at transnational gangs. But Williams offered a committee
substitute that specifically targeted the AG’s proposed expanded
prosecutorial powers on labor unions. The Texas AFL-CIO
dealt a deadly blow to the bill in committee. Prosecutors
around the state finished the job by causing enough senators
to withhold their support of the bill on the Senate floor.
Charter Schools Expansion. The contents
of SB 1830 by Sen. Dan Patrick, which would have multiplied the
number of charter schools, were added to HB 3220 by Rep. Kelly
Hancock. ULLCO and the Texas AFT both opposed this bill. At
the very end of the legislative session, Rep. Lon Burnam killed
the legislation with a point of order.
Bad Bills That Passed
State Employee Pension Cuts (HB 2559 by Rep.
Truitt/ Sen. Duncan) The legislature shored up the Employees
Retirement System fund on the backs of state employees and at
little cost to the state. Under HB 2283, state employees
will see a state contribution increase into the state pension
system that is ten times the increase in the state’s contribution. In
addition, a host of pension benefit cuts were instituted for
people entering the state employee workforce.
Sprinkler System Requirements in New Homes (HB
1511 by Rep. Otto) The firefighters’ union and the Texas AFL-CIO
went head to head against the homebuilders’ lobby and killed
this bill in Calendars. But the home builders came back
with an amendment authored by Rep. Otto and supported by Rep.
Roland Gutierrez, co-author of SB 1410. They prevailed
on the House floor. The amendment declared that municipalities
will no longer have the authority to impose requirements that
new homes have sprinkler systems installed. Rep. Armando
Martinez tried to strip the bad amendment on Third Reading but
failed on a vote of 16 to 120.
Austin Meet & Confer for City Workers (SB
764 by Sen. Watson/HB 1173 by Rep. Dukes) The anti-Voter
ID chub-a-thon also killed the Austin meet and confer bill, which
had already passed the Senate and was waiting on the House Calendar
for final approval
Pool-related Electrical Technicians (HB
1973 by Rep. Hamilton/ Sen. Dan Patrick) Maintenance technicians
working on electrical pool devices no longer have to be licensed
electricians under this bill.
Local Chamber of Commerce Property Tax Exemptions (HB
770 Rep. Howard/Sen. Jackson) The contents of HB 831 by Larry
Taylor were added to HB 770 on the Senate floor. The
Texas AFL-CIO, with help from Rep. Lon Burnam, had successfully
amended the Taylor bill to prohibit the hiring of lobbyists by
chambers of commerce that receive the exemption. But HB
770, as amended, did not carry that language. The tax exemption
is considered unconstitutional by the Texas Comptroller’s Office,
however. And, HB 770 is opposed by Agricultural Commissioner
Jerry Patterson due to a provision regarding tax exemptions for
beach property, some of which is owned by Rep. Wayne Christian.
Meet & Confer Bills for Harris, Bexar,
Hidalgo and Dallas Counties municipal and/or county employees
(HB 3008 by Rep. Coleman/ Gallegos; HB 3011 by Rep. Gonzalez/
SB 1687 by Sen. Hinojosa; HB 3058 by Rep. Castro/ SB2447
Sen. Uresti; HB 3686 by Rep. MClendon/Uresti; HB 4295 by
Anchia/ SB 1450 West) All of these bills died at various
stages of the legislative process despite lots of work by
SEIU lobbyists
Good Bills That Died
HB 1564 by Rep. England. Unemployment
Benefits for Non-Striking Workers. This legislation would
have prohibited the practice of denying workers unemployment benefits
in cases where they were on emergency leave or locked out due to
an unrelated labor contract dispute.
HB 1811 Rep. Eiland/ SB 1123
Sen. Duncan – Mesothelioma Bill -
changes the standard for proving that asbestos fibers caused mesothelioma
to a reasonable level that is in line with what other states use. SB
1123 passed the Senate but died in a House committee
HB 2962 Rep.
Coleman/ SB 841 Sen. Averitt – The Childrens’ Health
Insurance Program (CHIP) expansion to cover families beyond the
200 percent of poverty level died many deaths and could not be
revived despite many courageous attempts
HB 535 Rep. Anchia – preference
in state purchasing for businesses providing health insurance to
their workers
HB 1573 Rep. Thompson – companies that receive taxpayer
funding from the Texas Enterprise Fund must provide health
insuranceplans to their employees
HB 2600 Rep. Thompson/ SB 2373
Sen. Van de Putte – sheetmetal worker licensing
bill
SB 2304 Sen. Williams/ Madden – hazardous duty pay for correctional
officers; passed the Senate but died in the House
SB 2309 Sen. Whitmire
– study of correctional officer turnover
Good Bills That Never Came Out of Committee
HB 129 Rep.
Gutierrez; HB 173 Rep. Homer; HB 984 Rep. Veasey – election
of commissioner of insurance
HB 137 Rep. Gonzalez Toureilles –
correctional officer comp time
HB 138 Rep. Gonzalez Toureilles –
correctional officer career ladder
HB 157 Rep. Chavez – same day
voter registration; same
as HB245 by Alonzo
HB 615 Rep. S. Turner – time off work for parents
of special education students
HB 627 Rep. Anchia – early voting
same day voter registration
HB 1246 Rep. John Davis – state agency
and school district preferences to contractors that provide health
insurance to their employees
HB 2119 Rep. Olivo – school districts
would be subject to the Labor Code relating to payment of wages and
allows school
employees to sue for damages when they are not paid on time
HB3042
Rep. Farias – relating to a study making the state minimum wage
a living
wage
HB 3486 Rep. Coleman – allowing cities and counties to establish
a local minimum wage
HB 4298 Rep. Coleman – authorizing
collective bargaining for the Harris County hospital district
SB
180 Sen. Gallegos – state OSHA bill
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