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Union man Stern now heading health care group

• Published January 08, 2009

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Robby Stern, the guy who would stay to the end of the appropriations meeting just to give lawmakers a piece of organized labor’s mind, has retired. He’ll be back in Olympia, but now just as chairman of the Healthy Washington Coalition.

Son of Holocaust survivors, former pipefitter and person of interest to the FBI, Stern has a law degree, and a surprisingly detailed Wikipedia entry. As colleague Joe Turner remarked today, Stern may be most recognizable in Olympia for repeatedly shouting, "What do we want?" and "When do we want it?" into a bullhorn on behalf of the Washington State Labor Council.

The Healthy Washington Collation, led by Stern, made a lot of noise last year, uniting labor and business groups around a few ideas they said would help turn the tide of increasing costs. A successful bit was giving the insurance commissioner approval authority over rates in the individual insurance market. A loss was the bill to ban prescription "datamining," or drug companies using drug store records to find specific doctors and ask why they aren’t prescribing Brand X.

Stern retired in May, but it didn’t hit home until the labor council met with the press in Olympia today. The new Stern on the labor council team is Rebecca Johnson, a former organizer for the Service Employees International Union, and negotiator for SEIU 119NW.