Home-care workers: Gov. Inslee’s credibility at stake

Re: “Thousands of Washington home-care workers, represented by SEIU 775, remain exempt from Gov. Inslee’s vaccine mandate” [Oct. 5, Local News]:

Sadly, Gov. Jay Inslee showed his true political colors by exempting the 45,000 home-care workers in Service Employees International Union 775 from the vaccine mandate. At 80 years of age myself, I manage affairs as power of attorney for my 90-year-old neighbor, and I made sure both she and her live-in caregiver of 14 years got vaccinated.

Has Gov. Jay Inslee forgotten that COVID-19 had its heyday early on in hundreds of assisted living facilities killing thousands of the elderly? If the governor lets SEIU 775 slide, he and his advisers should also know that all the other union and nonunion outfits dealing with the mandate will think they have been singled out for not being aggressively supportive politically. Letting politics sway vaccine-mandate decisions in this case could be very damaging to their political future. Gov. Inslee, lift the exemption you gave your friends at the SEIU. Your credibility is at stake.

Bruce Howard, Freeland