This morning, in front of a small crowd of union members at City Hall, mayoral candidate Katie Wilson stood at a podium to accept an endorsement from PROTEC17.
“I am so honored to receive the endorsement of PROTEC17, and so grateful to the thousands of city employees who have decided to put their faith in our campaign because they believe in our vision of what Seattle can be,” she said.
The Working Families Party, the small but mighty progressive political party, spoke about why they were endorsing her. So did reps from UAW 4121 (graduate school workers), WFSE 1495 (state employees), the American Federation of Teachers (obvious, I hope), all of whom have already endorsed her. But PROTEC17 was the headliner.
This isn’t Wilson’s first endorsement, or even her first labor endorsement. So why throw a press conference about it?
Because PROTEC17 represents more than 3,000 city workers in Seattle—almost a quarter of the city’s workforce—which means this union is endorsing against their boss. This is the first time in recent memory that they’ve endorsed in the primary.
At the press conference, Karen Estevenin, Executive Director of PROTEC17, expressed two concerns that define Wilson’s campaign: affordability and progressive revenue. Katie shares their union values, Estevenin said.
“Katie overwhelmingly won our support with her concrete ideas, her doable plans to address these and many other issues that city workers and Seattle residents are facing,” she said. “PROTEC17 members, along with so many in this moment, are hungry for elected officials who can offer hope, who can offer inspiration, authenticity and a clear vision for a better world and the dogged tenacity to create it.”
In a blue city whose politics is defined by labor and business, Wilson seems like a natural union choice. In the last decade and a half, she’s been one of the lead organizers in the campaigns to raise the minimum wage (in Seattle and Burien), make transit affordable (you can thank her for that unlimited low-income Orca Card), and protect renters (she helped cap late fees and move in fees). But this Spring, MLK Labor Council (our county’s Union of Unions, so to speak), endorsed Mayor Bruce Harrell. So did SEIU 775, the caregivers union and main funder of Seattle’s Progressive People Power PAC.
The vote wasn’t unanimous, and several major unions reportedly abstained, but the endorsement got through. Katie Garrow, executive secretary-treasurer of MLK Labor, told the Seattle Times that they endorsed Harrell because he has a “proven track record of delivering real results for working people.” At the time, the “results” she pointed to were the city’s housing and transportation tax levies, and a new contract for the city’s unions that was more labor-friendly than expected. “Now, more than ever, blue cities like Seattle need experienced, strong elected leaders to uphold our values,” Garrow told the Seattle Times.
That was back in May, though, when Harrell’s fundraising seemed like it was leaving Wilson in the dust and most of the city didn’t know her name. It was easier to consider Harrell’s reelection as a foregone conclusion. In July, they’re neck and neck. Both candidates have collected the maximum number of democracy vouchers they’re allowed to in the primary, and they’ve raised almost the same amount of money: Harrell has raised $449,980 and Wilson has raised $449,829. Wilson even has slightly more individual contributors—5,978 to Harrell’s 5,100.
Outside of the feelings in the greater labor community, though, it’s no surprise that Harrell’s own employees might want a new boss. KUOW reported in March that, according to his niece (and senior deputy mayor) and six other women in City Hall, his administration is a misogynistic boys club, where women were condescended to and shut out of meetings in favor of white male advisors. Last year, PubliCola reported that the mayor’s office borrowed staff (and therefore budget lines) from other departments. The year prior, Harrell’s offered a 1 percent cost of living for essential city workers like electricians and librarians, while trying to coax rookie cops to join SPD with six-figure salaries and $30,000 signing bonuses, inspired workers to protest on the steps of City Hall.
Today, Wilson stood with city workers in the same place.
“I have been organizing alongside workers and labor unions for the whole of my career, because I believe deeply in the principle that lies at the very heart of the labor movement, solidarity.”
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Wow, look at those t̶h̶o̶u̶s̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ o̶f̶ twelve people supporting her
Also, your instagram link doesn’t work
Huh, weird, the instagram link works now. It didn’t for a few minutes
“Thousands of Bruce Harrell’s Employees Endorse His Opponent”
Well, that certainly sounds like a mandate for cha–
“Because PROTEC17 represents more than 3,000 city workers in Seattle—almost a quarter of the city’s workforce—which means this union is endorsing against their boss.”
“A majority of a small minority of city workers in Seattle…” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, now does it?
Also, I was unaware city employees worked personally for the mayor. Perhaps the Stranger still fondly recalls how CM Sawant hired and fired city employees without regard to performance or merit, but solely upon their standing within Socialist Alternative? Is that how the Stranger believes city hall employment should be decided?
Here’s the thing about city employees and union endorsements: City employees are not required to live in the city, so a large percentage of them don’t (the city doesn’t release information on that, but as a long-time city employee, I would guess that it’s about 50%-50%. At one point there was a residency requirement, but a WA State Supreme Court decision in the early 70’s said that cities cannot have residency requirements.
Also, 17 is only one of several unions, and it’s the catch-all. The powerful unions (Teamsters, the IBEW, IAFF, SPOG, AFSCME) have not, to my knowledge, weighed in yet.
But most importantly, for those who harp on the city’s initial recommendation of a 1% increase, the final agreement was closer to 10%, with retroactive pay.
Interesting that the two most atrocious right-wing TS trolls are the first commenters I encounter. Rather like encountering a three day-old pile of dog turds with a slug crawling on top of it.
@6: You’re free to argue with any of the facts I presented @4. (But with kristofarian gone, someone simply must step up — by which I mean down — to the name-calling, eh?)
Unions endorsing the candidate promising to raise taxes and pass it on to them. Shocked.
Katie’s plan to tax Seattle businesses was already tried by the Detroit City Council.
Detroit’s city council imposed high property and business taxes (aka: “Progressive Revenue”), driving businesses to relocate to surrounding cities with lower taxes, contributing to the city’s shrinking tax base and its eventual bankruptcy in 2013.
Encouraging businesses to move to Bellevue is just plain stupid. Yes, stupid.
And, to the twelve Seattle employee in the photo with Krazy Katie: if you care about having your pension when you retire, be careful about bankrupting the city with “progressive revenue”
I’m one of the “most atrocious right-wing TS trolls” and most of my comments have been about how The Stranger / Slog “journalists” have been deliberately and blatantly ignoring the July 4th antifa attack on the ICE facility in Alvarado Texas, resulting in an Alvarado policeman shot in the neck with an AR rifle by an antifa turd, while Slog “journalists” have made numerous posts in almost every Slog AM since then, complaining about other ICE related incidents.
That is awesome, thank you for conferring such an honorable title upon me. I mean it! THANK YOU!!!
I will keep poking you in your metaphorical eye, because you are such a hypocrite.
@10 You really should change that from Antifa turd to “former US marine reserve turd” but you won’t because much like everyone else in your part… you don’t know what most words actually mean.
Um. These employees do not work for Bruce Harrell. They are public employees, their “boss” is the citizenry of Seattle.
@9, Harrell himself just signed on to raising the B&O tax on larger businesses in Seattle. Basically everyone is on board with the idea to give small businesses some tax relief.
@11 cry about it
None of you naive white-guilt Seattle “progressives” would have even been aware of it if I hadn’t posted it here in the first place.
Vawoli dear, not only are you a Good German and a dutiful fascist, but you are also a self-pitying, self-important, bore. Which, come to think of it, is the hallmark of a fascist.
Anger and positioning yourself as the victim is like a drug to you boys. It feels so good, and absolves you from taking any sort of personal responsibility.
“We call ourselves the Anti-Bad Guy Squad and we label our opponents the Bad Guys. How can people not understand this? We can never be terrorists because we’re fighting the Bad Guys. It’s so simple to understand. Everything we do is justified because of our name!”