Stories from the Port of Poverty

By Sage Wilson When 600 workers and community allies rallied at Sea-Tac airport on September 10th, it made quite a scene. We got noticed by travelers, by airport management, by reporters, and by other airport workers who were just doing their jobs that day.

When I arrived at the airport just as the rally was about to get underway, I overheard one worker who was checking bags look up from the task at hand for a moment to ask a co-worker: “Look at all those people — do you know what that’s about?”

“Yeah,” the second worker replied. “It’s about us.”

He's exactly right.

The rally was about us and every other airport worker, airport neighbor, and community member — because everyone has a stake in what kind of jobs are created at our airport. After all, Sea-Tac Airport is owned and operated by the Port of Seattle, a public agency whose official mission is to generate economic development and create jobs.

At the rally, we heard from a lot of people having problems with their employers at the airport. We heard workers who handle baggage, drive vans, push wheelchairs, and provide other services speak out about jobs that pay as little at $8.67 an hour with no health benefits. About jobs that don’t offer enough hours to make ends meet. And about bosses who hand out unfair discipline to workers who don’t have a voice. We even heard outrageous stories about people being denied employment on the basis of their religion or ethnic background.

KOMO news interviewed one of the skycaps who has been working at Sea-Tac for 30 years and still makes only minimum wage.

That’s why together, we call on Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani to change direction, live up to the mission and create good jobs. CEO Yoshitani certainly knows what a good job is, because he has one. He got a 9 percent raise this year, boosting his pay to nearly $400,000, making him one of the highest paid port officials in the country.

Now it’s up to the Port to do what it can to support good jobs for all workers — not just its CEO.

Washington State Budget Should Work for the People

By Sandra VanderVen There are lots of things people can and should do on their own, and there are many things that make sense for us to do as a community.  Together we decide what these things are, and our government’s role is to translate these values into action. That is why, in the past, our budget has invested in early childhood education, K-12 schools, higher education, health care and human services, and transportation.

A recession adds challenges to our task, it’s clear that we need money to uphold the values we ask our government to carry out. I spoke with Kim Justice, a Policy Analyst with the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, she told me Washington State spends about 30 billion dollars in tax revenues every year to provide the public services that matter most to us. But because of the recession, people are earning less, buying less and paying less in sales tax—which means less money for the public services on which we all rely.  In 2009, we were 13 billion dollars short. It didn’t stop there. We’ve seen big dips in revenue every year since, and so far there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

From my point of view, our values haven’t changed, so we should look for fair and stable ways to pay for the services that we need to keep Washington State’s families healthy and ready to earn a living. Unfortunately, that’s not how everyone sees it.

In 2010, voters passed Initiative 1053, which forces the legislature to achieve a nearly-impossible 2/3 majority in order to raise any revenue, whether by raising taxes on the rich or closing corporate tax loopholes. The law puts veto power over our values in the hands of just 17 legislators (or one-third of the state Senate). The effect is that we are out of revenue, which means our public services are getting slashed and our people are suffering.

Was that the intention of the voters?  To me, that would be a stretch.

Instead of finding ways to fund the services—education and job skills training, health care for our most vulnerable and police and fire protection—that are crucial to our economic recovery, the legislature has addressed 90% of the budget shortfall with cuts and more cuts.

In 15 years, kids who didn’t have access to early childhood education will enter the job market, but will they have the skills they need to get the job done? If our education system doesn’t produce workers who are qualified for the jobs that are available, employers will offer those jobs elsewhere. Some lucky kids will make it all the way through high school and will be ready to go to college, but how many of them can cover the cost of tuition? How many employers will stay in a place without a well-educated workforce?

It isn’t just education that is suffering. Right now, there’s a waiting list of 150,000 Washingtonians who need health care coverage and can’t afford it. Modest cash support for people with disabilities who can’t work is going away.  Parents are being forced to choose between their job and their children; do they lose their job because they can’t find affordable childcare? Or do they leave their child in an unsafe place so that they can keep their job?

Justice asks, “How can we expect to get out of this recession when we are dismantling the public structures that would help our state recover?”

There is no shortage of options on how to raise revenue, just a lack of political will. The people who represent us in Olympia need to do the work that will keep our state strong, healthy and educated. We can help them come up with the nerve it takes to do the right thing by reminding them as often as possible that they are there to uphold our values.

Protest the Port of Poverty & Pollution

 

Date: Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011 Time: 11:30 am to 1 pm Place: Westin Hotel, 1900 5th Avenue, Seattle

They call it the "Port of Prosperity," we call it the "Port of Poverty & Pollution."

This Thursday at noon, hundreds of workers, religious leaders, environmental activists and allied community members are taking over the sidewalks and streets outside of the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle to protest the “Port of Poverty and Pollution.”

While the Port CEO got a big raise at taxpayer expense, port workers are barely getting by on minimum wage, with little access to full time jobs or benefits. Port neighbors are suffering the effects of noise pollution and air pollution, and rates of asthma around the port are skyrocketing.

Join us as we tell the Port that enough is enough!

RSVP now!

Facts on the American Jobs Act

In his address to a joint session of Congress last Thursday, President Obama showed the leadership we need to get America back to work. Now the burden is on Congress to honor America’s long tradition of innovation and hard work by creating the good jobs for all Americans. To create more jobs right now, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – a set of ideas supported by both Democrats and Republicans that Congress must pass right away. The President will call on Congress to act on it immediately.

The purpose of this package is simple: put more people back to work - including teachers, first responders and construction workers and to put more money in the pockets of working Americans. This will lead to new American jobs, and it won’t add a dime to the deficit.

The American Jobs Act is:

• Based on bi-partisan ideas.
• It is fully paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.
• It will have an impact on job and economic growth NOW – just as soon as Congress acts.

The American Jobs Act will:

• Cut taxes for small businesses, the engines of job creation, to help them hire and grow;
• Put more money in the pockets of working and middle class Americans.
• Put more people back to work --teachers laid off from state budget cuts, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, first responders, and constructions workers rebuilding our roads and bridges, and schools.
• Help the long term unemployed, by helping them support their families while they look for work and reforming the system to better connect them to real jobs.

The President is rebuilding the economy the American way – based on balance, fairness and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street where hard work and responsibility pay and gaming the system is penalized.

Our jobs crisis is too important to be held up by Washington gridlock. The American people are tired of waiting while a small group of right-wing politicians in Congress holds our country hostage in the name of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and incentives for reckless corporations.

The American Jobs Act is something that Congress can do to create more jobs and put more money in people’s pockets right now.

Labor Day celebrations ignore our jobless

By Nate Jackson Most folks think Labor Day is all about BBQs and kids splashing around in cheap plastic pools and keeping up appearances no matter the cost. Unfortunately Labor Day is just another day to stand in line—a day work line—and hope there’s some work to be done. This national holiday used to be a celebration of working families, but how can we celebrate when so many of us aren’t working?

Families drove into the Home Depot’s parking lot to pick up last minute supplies for a new grill, deck or other family project over the weekend. The cars rushed in, the children tumbled out and the parents argued about which credit card wasn’t maxed out. If they just kept pretending things were normal maybe it would be.  The problem is this “recovery” isn’t normal. Too many of us are still out of work, underemployed or running up our credit cards because corporations and greedy CEOs just aren’t hiring.

Even on Labor Day many of us can’t afford to take the day off. Some of us were looking for work in the parking lot. Some were laid off construction workers who have been turned away because the work demand is so low. Some had no day labor experience, but because no one is hiring anywhere else they would try anything. Most of the drivers ignored us as they pretended they weren’t one paycheck away from the street themselves.

We know this recession isn’t over and the fact that we keep going through the motions and ignoring the facts needs to stop.  We have to work together and realize we are all on the same side; no one is a throw away.

A young man in his twenties sat outside a QFC on Labor Day.  He had a cardboard sign that read “out of work artist” and next to him were samples of his art.  He paints.

He was surprised when I stopped to chat with him. He told me that most people sped up and avoided looking at him. He didn’t understand how they could act like they weren’t on the edge of a knife with this economy as it is. No one is hiring.

He hasn’t been able to find any work for so long that he has to beg to survive.  He had a forced smile and even though the sun was beating down on him he was wrapped in a blanket.

He mumbled good day when they ignored him and was grateful when someone gave him anything. He would snatch the money out of their hands and stuff it in his back pocket before looking up with the same forced smile.

There is a jobs crisis in this country.  We want to work.  We leave our homes on a national holiday to work and we are denied.  We need our politicians and our big and small businesses to take the lead in creating good jobs so that anyone who is willing and able has the opportunity to find a living wage job.

Working families create the profit that CEOs are snatching away for themselves. We have the most productive workforce the world has ever seen. Working people are the backbone of this country and it’s time we remembered that.  We’ve been hit with layoffs, CEO bonuses and the lack of hiring.  Enough. This is our Labor Day; let’s keep fighting because we’re going to win. We always have.

Seattle Workers May Get Paid Sick Leave!

By Sandra VanderVen What happens when a member of Seattle City Council gets the flu?  I bet he or she doesn’t go to work that day. If a Council member has a sick kid, I bet he is going to do the right thing and stay home. That right there is the number one reason that the Seattle City Council should give all of us the same option.

Here’s another:

Last year, there was a very serious scare.  We were all worried that the swine flu would course through our schools, businesses and homes like wildfire, causing widespread, lethal illness.  The Centers for Disease Control told us all to stay home if we got sick.  Remember the vaccine?  If there had been an epidemic, the vaccine would have been late.  So staying home was really the best option, but it’s an option that lots of us don’t have.  Missing work would cause many people to lose their jobs, or the lost shifts and lost money would wreck their budgets.

Enter Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce.  This group of businesses and advocacy organizations believes that if people have to work when they are sick or if they have to send sick kids to school, it is bad for all of us. In fact, it makes all of us sick! So they went to the City Council to ask them to require employers to offer paid sick leave.

The good news is that the City Council’s health committee voted unanimously for the paid sick leave proposal, with only Richard Conlin abstaining. As things stand now, the council has exempted small businesses with less than four employees, but the biggest businesses will have to offer nine paid sick days a year.  Employees will begin accruing sick days when they start a new job, but won’t be able to use them until they have worked at least 180 days.

As usual, the corporate lobbyists are on the loose looking for ways to either kill the proposal or water it down before the final vote on September 12. According to Alex Stone of the Economic Opportunity Institute, “Big Business lobbyists are trying to get more concessions.  They want to make the waiting period longer, create more barriers to using the leave, and exempt larger businesses.”

The corporate lobbyists are worried about profits, not people. But we only have to look at San Francisco to see what effect paid sick leave will have on local businesses. The people of San Francisco have had guaranteed sick leave since 2007. What they have found is that the effects on businesses are negligible, and the benefits for workers are great.

The bottom line is that our elected city council knows the value of paid sick leave, and it’s only fair to give the people who elected them the same options and benefits that they have. On September 12, they will get the chance to do just that.

Here’s how you can help: Click on this petition to tell the Seattle City Council where you stand.  Then come to a rally on September 12th at 1:30 PM in the 4th Ave Plaza at City Hall, and we’ll march up the stairs together to the council chambers for the 2 PM meeting and final vote.

Sea-Tac Good Jobs Gazette

Click to download the Sea-Tac Good Jobs Gazette (PDF) -- inside you'll find:

• The Port of Seattle proclaims it is the ‘Port of Prosperity’; many workers see a ‘Port of Poverty’
• A tale of two airport workers
• Airport Workers in the Spotlight
• Community In the Spotlight
• Dozens of workers attend the Port Commission meeting on August 24
• Sea-Tac airport workers speak out!
• Rally on Sept. 10 to demand good, family-wage jobs at Sea-Tac Airport

We need a "big, bold" jobs program

Today 68 major progressive organizations have sent a letter to President Obama urging him to present a "big, bold" jobs program to the nation in his anticipated post-Labor Day address. From the letter:

With 25 million Americans out of work, or only able tofind part-time work when they want and need full time jobs, aggressive action is needed. ...

Across the political spectrum, Americans are united incalling for the government to create jobs and on how we can pay for this investment in our economic recovery: Raise taxes on the wealthy, so that they pay their fair share again.

Read the whole thing (PDF).

Water costs burst community's pocket books

New Holly, Wash.--Sidney Carter speaks in a sure, careful cadence that makes you want to listen. He’s well known in his New Holly neighborhood, and you can find him knocking on neighbors’ doors, passing out petitions to sign or just chatting them up. The topic he brings to the doors is always the same -- the Seattle Housing Authority is not helping low income residents of New Holly pay what they can afford for their utilities. Some residents are paying more than half of their monthly incomes in rent and utility bills.

Carter has lived in the area for over many years -- before it was renamed “New Holly.” He has seen reconstruction, new parks, renamed roads and a steady, expensive increase in his utility bill.

“I’ve lived here for a long time,” Carter said. “And all those years the water prices have been too high.”

New Holly has a thriving immigrant population, with many cultures blending together as more people move there. The new neighbors join the community and get a sense of connection. The families just begin to get settled -- then they get their utility bills.

“I’ve seen folks move in and then after three months, have to move out again,” Carter said. “The prices of their utilities are so high it’s cheaper to live somewhere else.”

Carter wants to stay in the community and he wants to be able to afford it. He is getting involved with Working Washington and his community because he believes that if you stick together with others you can then bring about change.

He wants to help fix the utilities problem because he has a daughter going to college and she will need a home when she returns. He wants to be able to welcome her back to New Holly.

“I’ve lived here for 12 years,” Carter said. “I want to live here for another 12.”

Carter isn’t the only one who wants to find a solution. Many of his neighbors have decided to tackle the high costs of the utility bills by meeting up and brainstorming solutions.

The meetings are a mixture of English and Somali as residents talk out their plans to work with the Seattle Housing Authority to come to agreements that are mutually beneficial. They want an agreement that will give them the tools they need to make more informed decisions and requests.

The Congressional Super Committee should invest in America By Nate Jackson

The Congressional Super Committee, with Washington’s own Senator Patty Murray as a co-chair, is charged with finding $1.5 trillion dollars in the Federal Budget before the end of November. The money can be from revenue, spending cuts or some combination of the two.

We believe that the committee should protect the needs of the most vulnerable among us by leaving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security off the table. We also know that the real problem in America is not a debt or deficit crisis, but a jobs crisis.

At a forum at Town Hall in Seattle, policy experts Ryan Alexander with Taxpayers for Common Sense, Paul Guppy of the Washington Policy Center, Andy Nicholas of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, and Ross McFarlane of Climate Solutions discussed the goals of the Super Committee.

They pointed to the just released Green Scissors 2011 Report as the basis for their discussion.  

The report details potential spending cuts, tax loophole eliminations and a review of older programs and benefits in a modern light in order to save significant amounts. Proposed cuts include agricultural laws that were passed during the Great Depression, and getting rid of tax subsidies to profitable business sectors such as the oil and gas industry.

The Green Scissors report makes the case for reevaluating outdated programs, and eliminating unjustified tax breaks so that our government can focus on creating good American jobs.

McFarlane from Climate Solutions said that the only way that we can move forward is to make investments in our own country that will put us on a job creating and competitive path. He argued that the keys to a broad economic recovery include energy efficiency, green technology and infrastructure projects – all of which help create good jobs.

Budget and Policy Center analyst Andy Nicholas talked about the need to protect social safety net programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (welfare) and Social Security. He argued that these are proven programs that lift thousands of people out of poverty per year.  He also thought that the first priority of any federal policy maker should be fixing the economy by investing in programs that have a proven track record of getting people back to work.

The Super Committee has an enormous opportunity to help get America back to work. We need to make sure they put people first by protecting our social safety net and investing in the creation of good American jobs.

We’ve heard enough about the debt crisis. Let’s find a solution to the jobs crisis.