WORKERS: Judge's ruling got it right

Score two for the people who keep the wheels rolling. The U.S. District Court recently ruled that two anti-worker laws passed in the last Idaho legislature violated existing law. SB 1006 and SB 1007 both sponsored by Senator Goedde denied workers the right to cooperate with an employer to help reduce the cost of projects in Idaho.

Senator Goedde who acknowledged that the legality of the bills was in question before they passed is quoted as saying, "I thought that we were OK." Does that sound like, "I thought I could slip this one by?" You know right away there is a problem when a law states its intent is to "protect open access to work" and then goes on to restrict employee-employer cooperation and bar certain contractors from bidding for work.

The bills were popular with Idaho's anti-worker legislators (every Republican voted for them) because they served two purposes at the same time.

First, they protected some Idaho contractors from competition. The competitive bid process is the essence of fair project pricing in both the public and private spheres. This special interest legislation would have meant extra costs to the public with the money going right to the bottom line of the protected contractors. Apparently the free market doesn't work profitably enough.

Second, the bills paid off some political debts to the anti-worker forces such as the Associated Builders and Contractors and out-of-state agitators like the Right to Work Legal Foundation.

Thankfully we are still a nation of laws.

JERRY SHRINER

Coeur d'Alene