Just Heard

Universal health

While King County mulls over how to fund its public health clinics, two state lawmakers are moving on a plan to solve the larger problem: They want to create a universal system that would provide health care for everyone in Washington state.

Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) and Sen. Rosa Franklin (D-Tacoma) have introduced companion bills in the House and Senate – HB 1886 and SB 5756 -- that would replace the state’s Health Care Authority with a Washington Health Security Trust, which would pay people’s medical bills but leave care up the doctors.

The legislation calls for setting up a $50 million single-payer benefits account that would start operating July 1, 2008. The system would be supported by employee payroll deductions — and cut out the overhead of multiple private insurers. The bill has already picked up 15 co-sponsors in the House and seven in the Senate, including Sens. Ken Jacobsen, Ed Murray and Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

Parks search

When your board is down four members, it’s time to recruit.

In the wake of four members resigning last month from the Board of Park Commissioners, David Della, chair of the City Council’s Parks Committee, is looking to fill two of the positions.

The seven-member board takes public comment and advisory votes on Parks Department projects, which became a heated topic last year after the department cut down trees in Occidental Park and put a concert series at Gas Works.

At a protest last year, activists claimed that, as appointees of the mayor, the Park Board rubber-stamps city decisions. To address that, the City Council changed the board’s makeup this year, allowing the council to appoint three of the board’s members – a move that led four members of the board to depart in protest.

To be considered for the board, send a letter of interest to elma.borbe@seattle.gov.

Westin win

It took eight months, more than a few raucous rallies, and a couple of arrests, but hotel workers with UNITE HERE Local 8 say the contract they finally got at the Westin Hotel as part of the ongoing Hotel Workers Rising campaign is the best they’ve ever had.

Among the wins in the five-year contract, says Local 8's Jessica Lawson, the Westin’s owner agreed to raise wages (lifting housekeepers to $14 an hour by the contract’s end), provide 50 percent more in pension contributions, and reduce the daily room quota for housekeepers — an issue the union raised due to frequent worker injury. The company will also cover all increases in the workers’ health care premiums over the next five years and maintain all current union jobs without hiring subcontractors.

“Without the support of the community, we would not have been able to set the example for the other hotels,” says Westin laundry worker George Graves. But, he says, “We’ve only just begun.”

—Cydney Gillis