Union-related bill sparks a heated partisan battle in General Assembly

RICHMOND

Partisan war erupted in the House Thursday when Democrats refused to vote on a sensitive bill introduced by one of their members and Republicans, invoking a rare procedure, cast the votes for them.

Democrats accused Republicans of being bullies. Republicans mocked Democrats for lacking courage to vote on their convictions. In the end, the House posted an improbable 82-0 vote against legislation that would have allowed collective bargaining by state and local employees.

The fight began when Del. Adam Ebbin, D-Arlington, asked for permission to withdraw the measure, HB852. Requests by patrons to have their bills spiked are routinely honored in the General Assembly. But Ebbin was denied.

GOP leaders said they wanted to corner Democrats into a difficult vote that would force them to chose between labor or business interests. They accused Democrats of wooing organized labor during elections by suggesting they might ease the state's venerable right-to-work law, which bars compulsory union membership. They said the Democrats know the measures will be quickly killed in a committee, often without even a recorded vote.

This year, House Republi-cans set a trap.

Using their majority, the GOP passed rules that allow Speaker William Howell to bypass the usual committees and send bills of his choosing straight to the House floor.

Ebbin, learning his bills was headed straight for the floor, asked Howell on Tuesday for permission to spike the bill and was turned down.

He appealed to full House on Thursday as the legislation as called up for vote. "This bill is not fully drawn to what I want it to say," Ebbin said.

House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, accused Republicans of breaching decorum to score political points. He said bypassing usual committee procedures denied the public a chance to testify.

"Your side of the aisle has the majority and it can pretty well do whatever it wants to do," Armstrong said.

"This is a bad precedent. Don't do it."

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, questioned the Democrat's grit. "Part of having freedom is courage," he said. "You had the freedom to talk about this bill. You had the freedom to put this bill in. Now you ought to have the courage to vote for it."

Ebbin's motion to strike the bill was denied on a party-line vote.

Democrats refused to debate the merits of Ebbin's bill. The legislation was defeated on a 57-0 vote. All but two of the 44 Democrats present refused to cast a ballot.

The Republicans weren't finished, however. House rules require all legislators to vote when they are in their seats and a matter comes up, although the regulation hardly ever is enforced. It was on Thursday. Griffith went down the rolls requesting Democrats, one by one, to cast a vote. When they remained quiet, Griffith had their votes recorded against the bill.

Griffith quit after calling the names of 25 Democrats. "I'm tired," he said, stopping the voting at 82-0.

Armstrong called the Republicans "bullies."

Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, replied, "What I just witnessed in this body was a complete lack of courage."

Republicans left the chamber gloating.

"This will allow us to say to union leaders that although we disagree with you on some issues, we are no different that the Democrats," said Del. Clifford Athey, R-Warren.

Warren Fiske, (804) 697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com