The Worker Privacy saga continues....

I frankly don't know what to make of this. Clearly, Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, who I believe is not seeking reelection in 2010, is taking a shot across the bow of The Boeing Co. How much is jest and how much is real is what I can't figure out.

Responding to recently publicized concerns about the undue influence of lobbying upon legislative decision-making, Representative Brendan Williams (D., Olympia) has introduced House Bill 2316 (placing restrictions on lobbying) – which would add to existing legal limitations upon lobbyists clear direction that a forbidden practice would be to “[t]hreaten any legislator, or any government official, with the relocation of manufacturing jobs, including, but not limited to, jobs involving commercial airplane manufacturing, based upon the outcome of any pending or proposed legislation.”

Stated Williams: “We must clarify the rules. The recurring subtext to the recent debate over worker privacy was whether a major manufacturer would relocate jobs if not permitted to browbeat workers in captive audience meetings about their political and religious views. Let’s keep debate over bills strictly on the merits.”

Rep. Brendan W. Williams
22nd Legislative District

A follow-up from Williams: He said the bill is still in Code Reviser, so copies are not yet available, and he added,

If it’s evidently forbidden for labor unions to state that they will not contribute to those opposing labor priorities – a decision entirely within the First Amendment discretion of those unions – surely it should be expressly forbidden to actually threaten, as a means of influencing legislative outcomes, the relocation of taxpayer-subsidized manufacturing jobs.