Taxpayers are on the hook for pay increases of public employees. Negotiations made with the public's dollar deserve to be transparent.

Is an unfair labor practice?

Not at all! In fact, even former President Obama praised the merits of government transparency. In Washington state, certain counties have even adopted it as policy with great success. There is a push for fewer barriers between people and their government, and collective bargaining transparency is among that trend. It makes sense to let the public see where their taxpayer dollars are going. Washington allows lots of ways for citizens to keep tabs on the government, this should just be another part of that system.

Are the negotiations expensive or worrying?

Potentially - but the problem is we don't know! What we do know is that the governor has strictly kept all talks secret and recently the talks have been disputed in terms of fairness. By the end, the talks will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, over which we had no input or oversight. Hopefully in the future the governor will consider the types of reforms the legislature has looked at, but for now he seems to have no intention of opening up the process to the public. This is why reform is needed!