It was a record-setting crowd for a SeaTac City Council meeting on July 23 when more than 200 people jammed into council chambers and overflowed into the adjoining municipal courtroom as lawmakers voted unanimously to place the airport workers minimum wage initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Despite nearly two hours of testimony geared toward swaying lawmakers, council members didn’t have much choice. Since the initiative received enough valid signatures, the council was required to either adopt the ordinance outright or send it to general election voters. Council members declined the first choice.
And sounding the last note of the nearly three-hour session, Mayor Tony Anderson noted it likely will be the courts, not lawmakers or voters, who decide the initiative’s final fate.
City Attorney Mary Mirante Bartolo reported a King County Superior Court judge on Nov. 19 refused to grant an injunction barring the council from sending the measure to the voters.
She added the judge did not rule on the measure’s validity.
“That’s looming out there,” Bartolo added.
Bartolo also told council members a petition review board on July 10 and July 22 had found 201 invalid petition signatures but there were enough valid signatures to allow the initiative to go forward. City Clerk Kristina Gregg issued a certificate of sufficiency.
Councilmember Rick Forschler asked if it was possible to wait until Aug. 6 to see if a legal challenge by Alaska Air Lines and others would be decided. Aug. 6 is the county deadline for measures to be placed on the November ballot.
Bartolo replied that the plaintiff’s attorneys haven’t decided whether to file a legal challenge before or after the election.
“We’re going to be sued by one side or another,” Forschler commented.
Councilmember Pam Fernald said she was concerned that the initiative deals with more than one issue.
The initiative sets a minimum wage of $15 per hour for about 6,500 transportation and hospitality workers who work around the airport. It also provides for paid sick leave, full-time employment opportunities and guarantees that workers will receive their tips.
Fernald also said she was concerned the initiative only applies to some workers in airport related businesses.
The measure exempts retail stores with fewer than 10 workers, hotels with fewer than 30 workers and other businesses with fewer than 25 workers. Free-standing restaurants or retail stores are also exempted.
Council members also appointed committee members to write pro and con statements for the voters’ pamphlet.
Writing the statement in favor of the initiative will be Rev. Jan Bolerjack of the Riverton United Methodist Church, SeaTac resident Judy Volkers and White Center Community Association executive director Sili Savusa.
On the con committee are SeaTac resident Erin Sitterley, Filo Foods/BK Foods owner LeeAnn Subelbia and Mike West, former owner of Southtowne Auto Rebuild. The three were recommended by Common Sense SeaTac, a group formed to oppose the initiative.
At previous council sessions and a town hall, the initiative garnered a hostile reaction from most speakers.
However, this time supporters gathered at neighboring Valley Ridge Park and marched over to City Hall with a variety of homemade signs.
Rev. Bolerjack said her church runs Tukwila Pantry and she often chats with airport workers when they come to the food bank.
“I saw the fatigue and stress on their faces with only a few hours to catch some sleep before they would go back to the tarmac or the car rental agency—but rather than sleep they had to come and wait to get food,” Bolerjack said. “My heart broke for them. They were working so hard to provide for their families and yet they couldn’t make ends meet.”
Tim Doherty, who has worked for 25 years as a SeaTac Hilton Doubletree bellman, said, “A few years ago I worked as a short order cook at the Denny’s across the street. I’d work at Denny’s 7 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., take a quick sponge bath in the bathroom, brush my teeth, apply deodorant, then put on my bellman uniform and work from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
”If I have to get a second job to make ends meet on my minimum wage and tips, I wonder how employees at other hotels survive when those corporations are keeping their service charges and tips?”
Initiative opponents said if the higher minimum wage is enacted, low-skilled and young people will lose their jobs to older and more skilled people drawn by the high wages.
Roger McCracken, who operates Master Park facilities in SeaTac said only 14 out of his 150 employees live in SeaTac. He said SeaTac would be providing free legal services to non-residents.
McCracken added, “The deep dark secret is what will be the cost to the city to enforce these new responsibilities.”
Max Nelsen, Freedom Foundation labor policy analyst, said when a similar measure was enacted in Long Beach, California, one large hotel reduced the number of available rooms from 174 to 99 and laid off 75 employees.
Gary Smith, who has worked with small businesses for 40 years, said if the measure is approved, SeaTac would become an “economic island—the worst place for business in Washington.”
