Tag Archives: labor

Seattle labor officials mark International Workers’ Day with ‘door-to-door outreach’

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MAY DAY 2025 ON CAPITOL HILL
Seattle’s labor and worker energy this May Day will center on Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park where labor and community groups will gather for a noontime rally before marching into the streets of the city with messages in support of workers and immigrants. 2025’s May Day comes in a string of enthusiastic but mostly peaceful May 1st events in the city following years of intense clashes between police and demonstrators pushed onto the streets of Capitol Hill. More…

As thousands gather at May Day rallies on Capitol Hill and across the Seattle area, city officials from the Office of Labor Standards are again marking International Workers’ Day with door-to-door outreach to workers and businesses in neighborhoods including Broadway, Pike/Pine, and the Central District.

It is the seventh year of the May 1st outreach for OLS but 2025’s visits will include Mayor Bruce Harrell, Council President Sara Nelson, and Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck to kick things off, the city says.

“Today, the City of Seattle will honor International Workers’ Day and Seattle’s own tradition of protecting workers’ rights with its annual door-to-door outreach campaign,” the city announcement reads. “The event will mark the Office of Labor Standards’ (OLS) 7th anniversary of bringing outreach and education on Seattle’s labor laws directly to workers and businesses.”

This year’s outreach efforts will begin at the Chinese Information Service Center on S Lane. Last year’s outreach kicked off at the Central District’s booSH plant shop at 23rd and Jackson. Continue reading →

‘SOLIDARIDAD, HECHO A MANO Y SIN PERMISO’ — Seattle’s May Day 2025 will step off from Capitol Hill

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Marchers in 2022

It appears Seattle’s labor and worker energy this May Day will center on Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park, an enduring base of First Amendment activity in the city, the site of past May 1st clashes with police, and the core of the 2020 Black Lives Matter CHOP protest camp.

2025’s May Day comes in a string of enthusiastic but mostly peaceful May 1st events in the city following years of intense clashes between police and demonstrators pushed onto the streets of Capitol Hill.

Multiple union and labor groups plus organizations like Washington Community Action Network are urging members and followers to gather for May Day 2025 starting at noon Thursday in the popular park in the center of Capitol Hill and served by multiple transit options including nearby Capitol Hill Station and only a block from East Precinct headquarters.

A rally and afternoon march from the park is planned.

“The event will commence in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park at noon with a rally program before the big march,” one announcement from WashingtonCAN reads. “Bring your friends and family, the more people demanding respect for our siblings the stronger the message will be!” Continue reading →

Seattle Council approves workforce housing and ‘affordable workspace’ plan for Stadium District

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(Image: Seattle City Council)

The Seattle City Council approved a bill Tuesday from council president — and former beer brewery owner — Sara Nelson that will change the zoning in a small area near the city’s stadiums to allow the construction of “workforce housing and affordable workspaces for Seattle’s small manufacturing businesses.”

The hotly debated legislation split the city’s growth advocates and labor leaders over its potential creation of new development and construction jobs and its potential impact on operations at the nearby Port of Seattle. Continue reading →

How SAM’s security guards won their first union contract

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SAAM

After a 12-day strike, the 60 or so guards at the Seattle Art Museum and Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum have secured a contract agreement. The deal, finalized last week, delivers a wage boost from $21.68 to $23.25 per hour and guarantees 4% annual raises from 2025 through 2027 — a hard-fought victory for workers determined to improve their livelihoods while safeguarding some of the city’s premier cultural institutions.

It is a small victory but an important win for a small group left out of protections for their peers that was able to organize — and win — at a smaller scale.

To get there, the security workers had to overcome reluctance from museum leadership — and decades-old labor law.

“There is a law that the union believes the museum exploited to avoid recognizing us under that umbrella union,” Tahlia Segura, a part-time Visitor Service Officer and teaching artist in the museum’s education department who serves as the union representative, said. Continue reading →

Cherry Street Coffee owner says Capitol Hill cafe closed for good after tangle with Sawant over minimum wage tip credit

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A small Seattle coffee chain has closed its Capitol Hill location amid an ongoing labor dispute with its workers backed by former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

Cherry Street Coffee owner Ali Ghambari tells CHS he has reversed plans to reopen his E Pine cafe and is instead looking for a new tenant to take over the space and the lease.

CHS reported here as Ghambari said he planned to reopen the Capitol Hill coffee shop later this month after Sawant and Cherry Street workers held a one-day “strike” that temporarily shut down the four-location chain over demands for “a living wage, an end to workplace sexual harassment,” and, the group said, an end to Ghambari’s “petitioning to roll back Seattle’s historic minimum wage victory.” Continue reading →

SPOG deal approved as Seattle City Council approves big raises with a few accountability strings for its police officers

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No word, yet, on how the new deal will change the Seattle Police Officers Guild’s “Seattle Public Safety Index”

With reporting by Hannah Saunders

The Seattle City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a new contract agreement with the city’s police officer union that leaders including Mayor Bruce Harrell and Chief Adrian Diaz says will boost salaries and morale as the department struggles to hire more officers. Council members voting for the contract also said Tuesday the deal will adding limited new oversight resources and move more public safety work like handling automated traffic tickets and property damage to civilian teams outside the department to help focus officers on the city’s most serious crime needs.

Public Safety Committee chair Bob Kettle said prior to Tuesday’s vote the key to the contract is improving SPD staffing levels, and that the agreement shows a commitment to both SPD and improving public safety. Acknowledged that the contract is expensive and a challenge with the budget deficit, Kettle said Seattle cannot compete in the law enforcement labor market, then it cannot accomplish the goal of achieving public safety.

“This is not done. This will continue. This is an interim or partial agreement,” Kettle said. “I have high standards and high expectations for our police department.”

The deal retroactively covers 2021, 2022, and 2023 with a series of raises that will give officers an immediate 23% boost in pay. Continue reading →

City Council set for vote on new contract with Seattle’s cops

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Recruit Class 872 being sworn in (Image: SPD)

Despite complaints that the vote is being rushed without adequate public debate, the Seattle City Council is set to approve a new deal Tuesday afternoon with the city’s cops that will bring big raises, some new oversight, and more police work moved to “civilian resources.”

The meeting of the full council is set for 2 PM and includes a mandated opportunity for up to 20 minutes of public comment. Expect there to be demands for much more.

District 2’s Tammy Morales has called for the vote to be delayed.

“This contract with SPOG is an incredibly important vote about the future of police accountability and civilian public safety alternatives in Seattle,” Morales said in a statement. “The community deserves a chance to make their voice heard before we vote on it. We shouldn’t be rushing this.”

Council president and citywide representative Sara Nelson said this week the vote cannot be delayed, adding that it is urgent the city puts a new deal in place that she hopes will begin to address the city’s dwindling ranks of sworn officers. Continue reading →

May Day 2024 in Seattle: Workers’ rights rally and march from Westlake, CD refugee and UW protest camps, and plywood on the Capitol Hill Starbucks roastery

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For the second year in a row, the focus of workers’ rights and labor on May Day in Seattle will move out of the Central District and into the city’s downtown.

Organizations rallying and marching to mark the international day for workers are gathering Wednesday in Westlake Park, the El Comite activist group said:

This May 1st, we honor the historic struggles of workers around the world. Labor Day celebrates solidarity and the fight for justice, remembering the achievements and sacrifices of those who have fought for decent working conditions.
Date: May 1, 2024
Hora: 10:00 am
Location: Westlake Park – 401 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
Join us in Seattle to march in honor of global solidarity for workers and immigrants to continue fighting for a world where all our rights are valued and respected.
Together let’s inspire change and respect for all workers and immigrants!

CHS reported last year on the move away from the traditional march from the Central District with a new route reversing the patterns with a downtown start.

Many groups are again planning to gather at the end of Wednesday’s march in the Central District’s Judkins Park. Continue reading →

Seattle’s new deal with cops: big raises, some new oversight, more police work moved to ‘civilian resources’

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Seattle has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with its police force that meets many of the goals on salary increases that advocates have said are necessary to help grow the Seattle Police Department’s ranks, adds increased oversight and accountability, and opens the door for City Hall to move more of its work around public safety like automated traffic tickets and property damage to teams outside the department.

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the tentative agreement with the Seattle Police Officer Guild and the move of legislation covering the contract to the Seattle City Council.

“This agreement focuses on three key areas: improving police staffing and fair wages at a time when officer numbers are at a historic low; enhancing accountability measures to ensure allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and discipline is appropriate; and expanding civilian response options to build a diversified safety system and create new efficiencies,” Harrell said in statement.

The deal retroactively covers 2021, 2022, and 2023 with a series of raises that will give officers an immediate 23% boost in pay. The Harrell administration said negotiations for 2024 “are ongoing with the assistance of a mediator appointed by the Public Employment Relations Commission” and suggested more reform measures “proposed by the City based on input from community partners and the federal judge overseeing the City’s Consent Decree with the Department of Justice” will be included in the final agreement. Continue reading →

Facing looming deficit, Seattle City Hall agrees on raises with employees — and a deal for higher pay for its cops

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(Image: City of Seattle)

The Seattle City Council approved new contracts Tuesday for more than 7,000 city workers across 16 different labor unions that will raise wages, catch up on back pay, and expand benefits.

But all eyes are on a deal that falls outside those bounds as details are emerging from an agreement between City Hall and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Under the agreements finalized by the council Tuesday, city employees will see a catch-up on raises with a retroactive 5% payout for last year, a 4% bump in 2024, a 2025 raise tied to the regional Consumer Price Index and gated between 2% and 4%. and, in 2026, raises of between 2% and 5% pegged to inflation, Crosscut reports. Continue reading →