Tag: Fair Wages & Benefits

Posted inEconomic Security, Litigation, Policy Topics

Kittitas County Superior Court judge turns back constitutional challenge to I‑1433

by Andrew Villeneuve

A Supe­ri­or Court judge in Kit­ti­tas Coun­ty has turned back a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge to I‑1433 filed by sev­er­al trade asso­ci­a­tions, leav­ing new require­ments for paid leave and increas­es to the state’s min­i­mum wage in place. “[T]his Court is of the opin­ion that the Plain­tiffs have failed to estab­lish that I‑1433 has vio­lat­ed the Wash­ing­ton State Constitution […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Familias Unidas por La Justicia ends Sakuma Farms boycott, unionization vote scheduled

by Andrew Villeneuve

Read­ers, here’s some very encour­ag­ing news from our broth­ers and sis­ters at Famil­ias Unidas por La Jus­ti­cia that we just received min­utes ago: Dear Sup­port­ers: As of today, Saku­ma Broth­ers Farms and Famil­ias Unidas por La Jus­ti­cia have mutu­al­ly agreed to con­duct a secret bal­lot elec­tion with­in the next 8 days. The elec­tion will deter­mine if the […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

How would WA Republicans like it if *these* bills needed a two-thirds vote to pass?

by Andrew Villeneuve

Any­one who has spent time attempt­ing to under­stand the pol­i­tics of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty knows that Repub­li­cans spend an awful lot of time lis­ten­ing to (and tak­ing their cues from) mil­i­tant, right wing ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman, who has become obsessed late­ly with gut­ting Wash­ing­ton’s cher­ished tra­di­tion of major­i­ty rule and replac­ing it […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics, Public Planning

State Supreme Court rules that SeaTac’s Good Jobs Proposition applies to airport workers

by Andrew Villeneuve

Work­ers at Seat­­tle-Taco­­ma Inter­na­tion­al Air­port must be paid a min­i­mum wage of $15/hour in accor­dance with the City of SeaT­ac’s Good Jobs law (Propo­si­tion #1, enact­ed by vot­ers in 2013) the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court ruled today. In a 5–4 deci­sion authored by Jus­tice Susan Owens, the Court held the air­port is not exempt from […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Live Coverage

#NN15: Ending Inequality For All

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el, led by Charles Cham­ber­lain, is a dis­cus­sion on the issues of inequal­i­ty in the work­place and how pro­gres­sives can tack­le these issues. Pan­elists include: Elba Diaz, Rep. Don­na Edwards, Rep. Kei­th Elli­son, Analil­ia Mejia, Aman­da Mon­roe The coun­try has turned a crit­i­cal eye toward the his­toric gap between the 1 per­cent and the rest of […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington State Legislature adjourns Sine Die, again (for real this time!)

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hav­ing reached agree­ment on the specifics of an oper­at­ing bud­get, trans­porta­tion pack­age, and plan for delay­ing imple­men­ta­tion of last year’s ini­tia­tive to low­er class size, the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture today adjourned its third spe­cial ses­sion sine die, with exhaust­ed law­mak­ers and leg­isla­tive staff breath­ing a sigh of relief. The Leg­is­la­ture began its 2015 ses­sion a […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Policy Topics

House of Representatives passes bills to raise minimum wage and provide sick + safe leave

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry for work­ing peo­ple, the Wash­ing­ton’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives tonight adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion to raise the state’s min­i­mum wage to twelve dol­lars an hour by 2019. Fifty-one rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed to pass HB 1355, while forty-six vot­ed against pas­sage. One rep­re­sen­ta­tive was excused. The roll call was as fol­lows: Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Bergquist, […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Port dispute at an end? ILWU says tentative agreement reached on new contract with PMA

by Andrew Villeneuve

A dis­pute between the Inter­na­tion­al Long­shore and Ware­house Union (ILWU) and the Pacif­ic Mar­itime Asso­ci­a­tion (PMA), a group of West Coast ter­mi­nal oper­a­tors, is at an end fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful nego­ti­a­tions on a new con­tract, the par­ties say. “After more than nine months of nego­ti­a­tions, we are pleased to have reached an agree­ment that is good for […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman wants $2.2 million for statewide initiative to repeal $15/hour minimum wage

by Andrew Villeneuve

Remem­ber back in June when Tim Eyman filed a statewide ini­tia­tive to pre­vent cities like Seat­tle from rais­ing the min­i­mum wage above the lev­el set by state law? Sev­er­al media out­lets, includ­ing the Puget Sound Busi­ness Jour­nal, erro­neous­ly assumed — and then wrong­ful­ly report­ed — that Eyman was already col­lect­ing sig­na­tures for the mea­sure, when in […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman’s latest slew of initiatives includes scheme to end Seattle’s new $15/hour wage

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hav­ing appar­ent­ly decid­ed that it’s been too long since his ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry received any media cov­er­age, Tim Eyman yes­ter­day used a tried and test­ed gam­bit for drum­ming up pub­lic­i­ty: He filed a slew of ini­tia­tives to the Leg­is­la­ture and then fired  off a pro­mo­tion­al email to what’s left of the state’s polit­i­cal press corps. Two of […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Policy Topics

Anguished Machinists narrowly vote to accept Boeing’s most recent offer on 777X work

by Andrew Villeneuve

Mem­bers of the Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Machin­ists and Aero­space Work­ers have vot­ed by a nar­row mar­gin to accept the terms of The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny’s most recent con­tract exten­sion offi­cer, IAM lead­ers announced tonight in Everett. By a vote of 51% to 49%, the union agreed to Boe­ing’s terms, with many mem­bers telling reporters and writing […]