Roomin' House Blues

I posted letters from organizations opposed to recent Workers Compensation legislation.  We defeated the special interests at the polls when they tried to turn Workers Comp into a milk cow for the insurance industry at the expense of the workers, then they tried it through the state Legislature.  Good news! I have a letter from Jaime Pedersen saying the bill is essentially dead.  Thanks Jaime. Keep up the good work.  Dear Mr. Drake -- Thanks for your message and for sharing your thoughts regarding workers' compensation legislation. I share your opposition to SB 5566 and hope that we never see it on the House floor. The bill has not even been scheduled for a public hearing in the House Labor and Workforce Development Committee at this point, and the cutoff has passed. We'll do our best to keep it dead. Best wishes, Jamie Representative Jamie Pedersen  43rd Legislative District 

I got another email about Washington State Workers' Comp legislation today from the Washington State Association for Justice.  If you haven't yet sent email to your legislators about this there are links to do this on a prior post: http://roominhouseblues.blogspot.com/2011/03/special-interests-pocketing-politicians.html And here is the new letter: Joseph, I have spent five years as a judge and 24 years as an advocate fighting for Washington workers in the courtroom, but my ability to help injured workers in the future will be dramatically impacted by our state legislators' actions in Olympia in the next two weeks. The good news right now is that grassroots supporters like you have shifted the momentum in the debate. Both HB 1487, the "retro claims bill" Carol Johnston emailed you about last week on which we have made great progress, and SB 5566, the so-called Compromise and Release ("C & R") provision, are now being re-evaluated by the House...

I got a letter from Washington State Association for Justice asking me to email politicians to stop the scheme to reduce our workers compensation in this state.  You just beat them at the ballot, now the special interests are putting politicians in their pocket again.  Read more below. Washington's workers' compensation system is under attack — once again.  When Washington voters overwhelmingly rejected Initiative 1082 last November, they told legislators to protect the ability of injured workers to get the medical treatment and benefits they have earned through our workers' compensation system.   But last Saturday, special interests led by the state's largest corporate interests (like Wal-Mart, Weyerhaeuser, and BIAW) successfully pressured the State Senate to pass "compromise and release" (C & R) — a provision of Engrossed Senate Bill 5566 that will allow big corporations to coerce injured Washington workers into accepting bad ...