Reject I-1029, a proposal to train and license long-term-care workers

Initiative 1029 is a proposal to require extra training, and also state licensing, of long-term-care workers. Voters should reject I-1029, because it is the sort of specialized bill that belongs in the Legislature.

There was a bill in the Legislature, House Bill 2693, sponsored Rep. Dawn Morrell of Puyallup. Morrell is a critical-care registered nurse and was co-chair of a state task force on training for long-term-care workers. These are typically entry-level employees who help patients with dementia, mental illness or disabilities, helping them with cooking, eating, bathing, dressing, taking medication and doing household chores.

Morrell's bill would have required 35 hours of training for all workers, many of whom have it already. For the ambitious, it had an option for an extra 50 hours of training and a test for a new state certification. Versions of her bill passed both houses of the Legislature almost unanimously, but the final bill was killed by opposition from the Service Employees International Union.

The SEIU spent $650,000 of union funds to promote its proposal as I-1029. Instead of an option of more training and a test, I-1029 requires 75 hours of training and a test. Workers already organized would be trained by the SEIU and paid by the state.

Morrell opposes I-1029 for several reasons. She worries that the cost — $30 million in the first two years, and more thereafter — would be squeezed from other social programs. She worries that the test would tend to scare away immigrants, because they could not read it, and to discourage home care — all of which would tend to create a shortage of workers in a critical field.

We believe Morrell's concerns are valid. I-1029 is not in the public interest and should be defeated.