Voters toss out labor-supported ergonomics rule

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

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Voters yesterday approved a measure to dump the state's controversial ergonomics rule, ending a long and bitter tussle between businesses and labor unions.

With more than half of the votes tallied statewide late last night, Initiative 841 was passing by an insurmountable margin.

The measure repeals the ergonomics rule and bars state regulators from trying to put another rule in place unless required to by the federal government.

"Most people are concerned about the loss of jobs, and they saw that this rule was going to further inhibit job creation," said Tom McCabe, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), which sponsored I-841 and has been trying for three years to kill the ergonomics rule.

"I sure hope the government learned a lesson tonight. You just can't slam things on the public when they don't want it," McCabe said.

The measure won easily across most of Eastern Washington and in other rural areas but was trailing in King County and urban areas along Puget Sound.

I-841 opponents were still hoping for a miracle. But with nearly all of King County's precincts counted, it appeared they would not be able to overcome the vote deficit.

"It's a long shot," said Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, which led the fight to defeat I-841.

Bender said unions lacked money to compete with the business-backed campaign. He said that made it hard for unions to counter the BIAW's claims that the rule would wipe out jobs and drive children off health insurance, which he called "bogus scare tactics."

"Unfortunately, if you say those things enough, people start to believe them, even if they're not true," Bender said.

The Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) crafted the rule to prevent costly workplace injuries such as carpal-tunnel syndrome, back strain and shoulder tendinitis. There are more than 50,000 such injuries every year, and ergonomic injuries make up more than 40 percent of all workers'-compensation costs, according to L&I.

Union leaders contended the rule was needed because many employers are not doing enough to prevent ergonomic injuries. Business leaders, meanwhile, said the rule was vague and gave government regulators too much power.

As of yesterday, businesses had outspent unions by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio in the campaign.

The business-led "Workers Against Job Killing Rules" had raised more than $1.4 million in campaign donations. More than half came from the BIAW. The union-dominated "Working Families for Safer Jobs" raised about $520,000 for its anti-I-841 campaign.

Though the rule was adopted in 2000, enforcement had not yet begun. Gov. Gary Locke ordered a two-year delay to give businesses more time to prepare. That gave most large companies in high-risk industries until July 2005 to comply; most small employers had until 2008.

Earlier this year, business lobbyists got a bill through the Republican-led state Senate that would have made the rule voluntary. But the measure died in the Democrat-controlled House.

Business leaders also tried unsuccessfully to overturn the rule in court.

The 18-page rule would have required all employers — private and public — to identify jobs likely to cause "work-related musculoskeletal disorders." Employers would have been required to do whatever was "technologically or economically feasible" to eliminate ergonomic hazards.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882

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