Silly bill would forbid Boeing from threatening to leave state

SIX Democratic legislators have introduced a bill to stop Boeing from threatening to move out of Washington. That's right: threatening to move. Such is a silly end to a silly story.

The tale begins with a different bill, one that would forbid any company from requiring employees to attend a meeting about labor issues. The bill is organized labor's, which calls it the "Worker Privacy Act." We argued on this page that it violates federal labor law, employers' free-speech rights and simple fairness.

At the time, we were told the bill was snake venom to Boeing, and would be just the thing to scare the company into moving to North Carolina. Boeing officials had not said that to us. Its friends had said it, and to everyone who would listen.

The bill looked like it might pass until two weeks ago, when the story broke that the Washington State Labor Council was caught sending a threatening e-mail about it. Democratic leaders said immediately the bill was dead, and that they were sending the radioactive e-mail to the Washington State Patrol.

Why had they called the cops? The supposed reason was a statement that if politicians didn't pass the bill they would get "not another dime from labor." But it wasn't illegal to say that. A "threat" not to donate money is fully within labor's rights, or anyone's.

Democratic leaders didn't want to risk losing Boeing — and they were right. Ethics was not the reason the bill was killed. It was the excuse. Gov. Christine Gregoire confirmed this later when she said she would have vetoed the bill because of its effect on Boeing.

All of which left labor's supporters sore. Now comes House Bill 2316, sponsored by Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, and several labor Democrats. Under this bill, it would be illegal for a lobbyist to "threaten any legislator ... with the relocation of manufacturing jobs," including jobs "involving commercial airplane manufacturing ... "

No more threats from Boeing! The state's biggest manufacturer might leave, but it could never threaten to leave. Then again, if Boeing were really planning an exit, wouldn't lawmakers want to know?

All of this is what politicians are doing instead of filling the projected budget deficit, now $9 billion.