| The Building Industry of Washington (BIAW) has pulled out of a faltering coalition of businesses and organizations supporting a referendum to overturn legislation granting state employees collective bargaining rights over wages and benefits.
Citing a lack of financial support from other members of the coalition for the effort, BIAW announced it will drop efforts to repeal the collective bargaining legislation. The bill, House Bill 1268, shifts the power of setting state employee wages and benefits from the Legislature to the Governor, allowing Governor Locke to negotiate state employees’ wage and benefit packages with the same unions that contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign and help elect him to office.
“While BIAW is totally committed to overturning this incredibly bad piece of legislation, other members of the coalition have not stepped up with any money to help print the petitions and obtain signatures. This is a battle that BIAW cannot fight alone,” a spokesman for the group stated.
BIAW will now focus solely on passing Referendum 53 to overturn legislation increasing unemployment insurance tax rates on homebuilders and small businesses. | 
