Truckers crowd bill hearing

Consultant predicts court would throw out law under consideration

By Mark Johnson, VP Government Affairs

The Senate Labor Committee on Monday heard House Bill 2395, which seeks to claim independent port short-haul drayage truck drivers are actually employees of retail importers.

The day started out peacefully enough when Teamster-chartered buses were late arriving from Seattle; there were at first plenty of seats in the hearing room.  After the buses showed up about 200 "independent" truck drivers crowded the room.

Twice during testimony the Vice Chairman, who was running the hearing in the absence of the Chairwoman, had to stop the hearing and ask the truckers to be quiet and refrain from outbursts.  The rest of the hour-long hearing calmed down.

The best testimony of the hearing came from Phil Talmadge, the former state senator and former state Supreme Court justice, who today is a private attorney. Talmadge was hired by the trucking association to analyze the merits of the bill and whether it would withstand a court challenge if it became law.

Talmadge's firm answer was that the law undoubtedly would be tossed out. He went on to say that federal law is very clear in its pre-emption of state law on this matter. Washington State would lose a court battle just as California recently lost in the Ninth Circuit. A court battle, funded by our state, would be costly and a waste of limited resources.

Talmadge's testimony agitated the pro-labor Senators who sit on the committee and they were not quite sure what to do next.  Sadly, this fatally-flawed bill will come out of the Senate Labor Committee on a partisan vote and then the real battle will be on the floor of the Senate.

I hope the entire body has enough sense to vote down this bad idea and look to more productive solutions.