$15 SeaTac, Wash. minimum wage challenged in court
In a local campaign that’s being
closely watched nationally, voters in
tiny SeaTac, Washington, narrowly
passed an initiative giving workers in
large transportation and hospitality
businesses in and around SeaTac Inter-
national Airport the nation’s highest
minimum wage — $15 an hour — and
a host of other rights.
The campaign was the fruit of a
multi-year campaign by local unions
and community groups, dating back as
far as the 2005 decision by Alaska Air-
lines to contract out baggage handling
and other services at its biggest hub,
slashing wages in half. Efforts to re-
unionize those workers were stymied
by a federal labor law which was inter-
preted to say that groups of contracted
workers in far-flung airports had to be
in the same unit, even though they had
no contact with one another. This year,
inspired by the $15-an-hour demands
of a growing strike movement by fast
food workers, a coalition got to work
in SeaTac, population 27,000, and
gathered 1,541 signatures to take an
audacious question to voters.
The ordinance would mandate a
$15-an-hour minimum wage for air-
port workers, and workers at hotels,
shuttle services, car rental agencies,
and institutional food service opera-
tions.
If $15 an hour seems shockingly
high, it’s only because expectations
have been lowered by decades of off-
shoring, outsourcing, downsizing, and
union-busting. If the federal minimum
wage had kept pace with inflation and
productivity increases since its 1968
peak, it would today be $18.67 an hour.
SeaTac’s ordinance guarantees
other rights as well: 6.5 days a year of
paid sick leave for full-time employ-
ees; a ban on managers or owners tak-
ing workers’ tips; a requirement to of-
fer additional hours to part-time
employees before hiring from the out-
side; and the opportunity for employ-
ees of contractors to keep their jobs
when the contract changes hands.
Alaska Airlines and other big cor-
porations employed legal maneuvers to
keep the initiative off the ballot, but lost
in a state appeals court. Then Alaska
Airlines, the National Restaurant As-
sociation, the American Car Rental As-
sociation spent heavily to convince
voters to oppose it.
But supporters also got out the vote.
The coalition included Working Wash-
ington, a community organizing proj-
ect of the Service Employees Interna-
tional Union; SEIU Healthcare
775NW; United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 21; UNITE HERE;
Teamsters; the community group
Puget Sound SAGE; and faith coali-
tions including the Church Council of
Greater Seattle, the Faith Action Net-
work, and Abu Bakr Islamic Center of
Washington. The campaign also had
public endorsements from U.S. Con-
gressman Adam Smith, King County
Executive Dow Constantine, and King
County Council member Julia Patter-
son.
The end result, certified Nov. 26 by
King County elections officials, was
3,040 to 2,963 in favor: The measure
won by 77 votes. Opponents paid to
have a hand recount conducted, but the
tally, announced Dec. 9, was exactly
the same.
The measure is supposed to take ef-
fect Jan. 1, giving sizable raises to an
estimated 6,500 workers, including jet
fuelers, baggage handlers, hotel house-
keepers, and rental car employees.
But opponents are again in court to
challenge it, on multiple grounds. King
County Superior Court Judge Andrea
Darvas heard both sides Dec. 13 and
said she’ll rule on it by Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, supporters of the ordi-
nance are ready for it to spread. Both
candidates in the Seattle mayor’s race
said they backed a city-wide $15-an-
hour minimum wage, and the winning
candidate, Ed Murray, pledged to bring
it about in his first term. On Dec. 5, the
coalition that ran the SeaTac campaign
staged a day-long march from SeaTac
to Seattle City Hall to demand a $15
an hour minimum wage, with no delay.
UA #290 contractor comes to aid of injured war veteran
Tualatin-based Plumbers and Fitters
Local 290 and signatory contractor
D&F Plumbing helped out a disabled
veteran with a clogged kitchen sink
just before the crunch of the holiday
season.
Derek Bitte, 32, was at wit’s end af-
ter trying everything possible to unclog
the kitchen sink at his Milwaukie
home. The father of five poured vine-
gar down the drain, then “snaked it”
with a piece of wire, but to no avail.
“Financially, I couldn’t afford to
call a plumber,” said Bitte, an 8-year
Army veteran injured during a tour in
Iraq and currently unemployed.
So Bitte reached out to a veteran’s
representative in Clackamas County.
The rep in turn contacted the Oregon
Military Support Network. One of the
volunteers at the Support Network is
Glenn Shuck, a retired executive direc-
tor of Labor’s Community Service
Agency. Shuck put out a call for assis-
tance to construction trades unions in
the area.
Shuck told the Labor Press that the
very next day after he sent an email re-
questing assistance, Plumbers and Fit-
ters Local 290 Business Manager Al
Shropshire notified him that it would
be taken care of. Shropshire told the
Labor Press that he notified his staff of
the situation and that organizer Todd
Templeton contacted D&F Plumbing,
a minority-owned shop in North Port-
land.
“D&F said they would be happy to
help out,” Templeton told the Labor
Press.
Within the week, they did.
“They came out and in 45 minutes
everything was working fine,” Bitte
said. “And everything was comped. I
was very appreciative.”
Season’s Greetings
from the
THE KORPI LAW
FIRM PLLC
Michael H. Korpi
Attorney at Law
Representing employee benefit
plans in Oregon and Washington
for more than 20 years
135 Second Avenue North, Suite 202,
Edmonds, WA 98020
(425) 582-8935
Email: mikek@korpilaw.com
DECEMBER 20, 2013
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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