Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard bottled up steelworker bill

Letter to the editor - The Olympian

I am the wife of a steelworker who has worked at Kaiser for 26 years. I am confused about how the democratic process is currently being manipulated in our state Legislature in Olympia.

How is it that one man, Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard, is allowed to put the House in gridlock by not allowing a vote on Senate Bill 6338?

The state Senate has passed a bill to extend unemployment benefits to locked-out steelworkers. This bill would not only affect 2,400 locked-out steelworkers in our state, but it would give future workers involved in a labor dispute a better chance to survive without financial devastation.

There are enough votes to pass the bill in the House.

Gov. Gary Locke has already agreed to sign the bill.

Ballard is holding firm against justice and democracy, for the working class people of our state. What Ballard is doing is wrong!

One man controlling government makes it a dictatorship, not a democracy!

Ronni Talmadge, Lacey