Taxi cab drivers may engage in work stoppage over Port of Seattle's failure to enforce regulations at Sea-Tac

***MEDIA ADVISORY FROM TEAMSTERS 117 AND WORKING WASHINGTON***

Delegation of taxi drivers & community leaders to deliver petition calling on Port to enforce their own rules

The Western Washington Taxi Cab Operators Association will demand on Monday that the Port of Seattle enforce its own rules governing ground transportation at our airport. To protest unfair conditions, taxi cab operators may engage in a work stoppage, and this could disrupt ground transportation for tourists, businesspeople, and other Sea-Tac travelers.

When: Monday, July 16, 2012, 2 pm

Where: Port of Seattle headquarters: Pier 69, 2711 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98121

What: Faith and community leaders join taxi cab drivers to call on the Port of Seattle to enforce its own rules. They will hold a press conference explaining the situation before delivering a unity petition signed by hundreds of taxi drivers to Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani.

Taxi cab drivers provide a crucial transportation link for thousands of Sea-Tac passengers each day, but many struggle to make ends meet despite working as long as 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. After paying for insurance, gas, leases, and airport pick-up fees, drivers start as much as $1000 in the hole each week — money they have to earn back before they see a cent in their pockets.

Recent actions by Port of Seattle management have made things even harder for these drivers — the Port is allowing other transportation providers to undercut taxi services, creating confusion for travelers and pushing drivers further into poverty. These actions by the Port are also in direct violation of the rules the Port itself has established to ensure reliable & efficient ground transportation choices.

Taxi drivers have repeatedly appealed to the Port to follow their own rules and hold up their end of the bargain so that they can have a shot at a decent living for themselves and their families. Monday, taxi cab operators and community leaders will call on Port leaders to enforce their own rules. Taxi drivers are also preparing for a possible work stoppage to protest the unfair conditions.

More information about poverty-wage jobs at our airport: Taxi drivers are among the thousands of workers who bring home only poverty wages for the vital and critical work of keeping Sea-Tac moving, including the people who get your bags from the ticket counter to the plane, make sure the aircraft cabins are clean, assist people in wheelchairs so they make their flights on time, and pump thousands of gallons of jet fuel into the planes. Airport workers are joining together to call on the elected officials who run our airport and the corporate players who profit from their work to say it's time to make every airport job a good job.

For more about Teamsters 117, the Western Washington Taxi Cab Operators Association, and Working Washington's campaign to make every job at our airport a good job, visit teamsters117.org, TeamsterTaxi.org, and itsOURairport.org

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CONTACTS: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org Paul Zilly, Teamsters 117: paul.zilly@teamsters117.org

Today marks 63 years of Sea-Tac: time to make our airport a first class facility for workers.

by Nate Jackson

On July 9th, 1949 — exactly 63 years ago — thousands of curious folks gathered around the new main terminal of Sea-Tac Airport to see the facilities. The mood was exciting: propeller planes roared on the runway, newspaper and TV cameras snapped away, and regular people explored the terminal with its brand-new dining areas and coffee shops overlooking the new air fields.

It was the start of a new chapter in the region where efficient transportation and good jobs were to be the hallmark of this new airport. Everything was on track for our airport to be first class. Expectations were high.

But 63 years later, much of that promise is unfulfilled. These days, millions of people move through our top-notch Sea-Tac facilities each year — but their safe travels are due in part to the work of thousands of poverty-wage workers employed by low-bid airport contractors.

They are the skycaps, baggage handlers, ramp workers, fuelers, and passenger service workers who make our airport work. Many of them are immigrants and refugees who came to this area seeking a better life. All of them are working hard to put food on the table for their families. They deserve living wages, respect and the right to stand together for better working conditions.

But our airport economy today is deeply unequal. It’s a first-class airport for some, but a poverty-class airport for far too many.

The publicly-owned Port of Seattle oversees Sea-Tac Airport. When the Port was established, it was all about protecting workers and the public from the abuses of the big businesses who had a chokehold on all the transportation routes in the region.

Now — 100 years after the Port was established and 63 years after Sea-Tac opened — we are seeing something quite different. Big businesses are taking advantage of thousands of workers at our airport while our public Port turns a blind eye.

These days, the dominant airline doing business at our airport is Alaska Airlines, which controls more than half the flight at Sea-Tac. Because it dwarfs the scale of other airlines at Sea-Tac, Alaska sets the standards that other airlines emulate. What Alaska does, the whole airport usually follows.

Unfortunately, Alaska hasn’t led the way in the right direction. It has been engaging in a race to the bottom in our airport, cutting costs and trying to evade their responsibilities by contracting out work to the lowest bidder. This low-bid airport economy has created thousands of poverty-wage jobs.

This isn’t the first-class publicly-owned airport we were promised 63 years ago.

But on this anniversary of the first terminal opening at Sea-Tac we can make a difference for these thousands of workers who are still working towards that hopeful promise of its founding: add your name to the petition that says every job at our airport should be a good job.

The Port and Alaska need to do their part to ensure that every worker at Sea-Tac gets paid a living wage, is treated with respect, and has the right to stand together for better working conditions.

The airport started off with high expectations where workers and passengers would both benefit from the work being done at our airport. It’s been a long time and we still have a lot of work to do to fulfill those dreams. Together let’s fulfill those expectations and exceed them.

Feeling nostalgic? Your pocket-book might.

The year was 1968. The Number 1 song was Hey Jude by The Beatles. The Graduate was a top movie. Patchouli was in the air. Feeling nostalgic yet? If not, maybe this will get you pining to turn back the clock for a moment: 1968 also marked a peak in the minimum wage that we haven't reached since.

You read that right: after adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage was at its highest all the way back in 1968... at about $10.00 an hour in contemporary dollars.

Today, forty-four years later we are nearly a dollar behind the 1968 figure here in Washington State — and we have the highest minimum wage in the nation. In most other states, the floor is even lower — the Federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour and hasn't been raised in 3 years.

Today, millions of workers across the country earn wages well below the $10 high-water mark set in 1968. And these are not a bunch of kids working a few hours to earn money for videogames. A recent study showed that only 12% of minimum wage workers are teenagers working less than 20 hours a week. The rest are adults working hard to try and make ends meet... but struggling to hold it together because of the declining purchasing power of the minimum wage.

The 99% aren't expecting to get rich — we just want a decent wage, a fair shake, and a shot at a better life. The first step is getting the minimum wage back up at least to where it was in 1968: at $10/hour, as is being proposed in the Catching up to 1968 Act that's been proposed in Congress.

There was time when that didn't seem like too much to ask. And there's no reason it should be too much to ask today, either. We need a decent minimum wage in our future, not just as a relic of our past. Because how can our economy ever get back on its feet if we continue down an economic path where the top 1% get all the spoils for our hard work?

As immigrant students celebrate major advance, immigrant workers rally to protect family healthcare

Janitors and community supporters to rally for good jobs & affordable healthcare

TODAY, as immigrant students across the country celebrate a major advance that will protect against unreasonable deportations, immigrant janitors will rally with community supporters to protect the major advances they have made in recent years to improve their jobs. One of the key issues Seattle janitors are fighting to protect in contract negotiations this year: affordable healthcare benefits for their children.

The commercial real estate market in Seattle is quite healthy, with rents up and office employment growing. But instead of sharing the success, building managers are proposing to substantially increase the cost of family healthcare for this largely immigrant workforce.

When: TODAY: Friday, June 15, 2012, 3:00 pm

Where: Westlake Park, 401 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101

What: Janitors and community supporters rally for good jobs and affordable family healthcare

Working Washington is one of many organizations joining workers, community leaders, people of faith, elected officials in support of the Justice for Janitors campaign. U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Church Council of Greater Seattle Director Michael Ramos, and Martin Luther King County Labor Council Executive Secretary David Freiboth are among those who will be joining today's rally for good jobs and strong communities.

For more information on today's rally and other issues facing Seattle-area janitors, contact Tania Maria Rosario of SEIU Local 6 at (206) 850-5021.

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Workers push back against contractor musical chairs at our airport

Workers & community leaders push for fair treatment after contractor re-shuffle leaves experienced skycaps without their jobs. 

"Decades," the young woman said, shaking her head as she looked at the flyer a worker handed her. The flyer laid out the situation of 3 long-time skycaps who were recently informed they were going to lose their own jobs just because Delta Airlines decided to re-shuffle the contractors they pay to provide skycap services to their passengers.

Hosea Wilcox has served Sea-Tac travelers as a skycap for decades: 31 years in fact. Alejandro Geracio for 22 years. And Baltazar Pineda for 19 years. After decades of service, these workers deserve more than a pink slip. And yet all 3 recently learned they are going to lose their own jobs — not through any fault of their own, but simply because Delta Airlines has decided to re-shuffle the low-bid contractors that provide passenger services to travelers.

Hosea Wilcox in particular had become a familiar face to thousands of airline passengers, after a 31-year career as a skycap and a prominent role in advertisements highlighting the prevalence of poverty-wage jobs at SeaTac. Now Hosea is dramatizing another unfortunate reality of employment at SeaTac: Thousands of contracted workers are at risk of losing their jobs when airlines decide to change contractors.

That's why airport workers, people of faith, and community leaders are taking action.

In late May, a delegation of nearly 30 crowded into to the office of the new contractor to ask that Hosea, Alejandro and Baltazar get their jobs back. We managed to get a manager on the phone, but we didn't get much of an answer.

We know that the contractors aren’t the real decision-makers in the airport economy — it’s the big corporate airlines. The airlines are the ones who hire the contractors, they’re the ones who set the rules, they're the ones whose passengers the skycaps serve, and they’re the ones who have the power to make sure every job at our airport is a good job.

That’s why our next stop was to send a bigger delegation of workers and community leader to take the skycaps’ case directly to Delta Airlines. We occupied their ticket counter and asked to speak to the airline’s top-ranking local decision maker on contracting operations — their Sea-Tac Station Manager, Roy Tschumi. Like a game of tennis, Delta lobbed its responsibility to workers back to the contractor, sending out representatives from their passenger services subcontractor. These representatives politely received the delegation’s letter to Delta, but they said little and promised less.

That’s not good enough.

So we continued to increase the pressure on June 8th, when 40 workers and community leaders circled around Delta Ticket Counter and curbside skycap station with some special luggage that had signs attached calling on Delta to ensure these experienced skycaps get more than a pink slip.

We successfully got the attention of passengers and employees in the crowded terminal. After more than an hour of peaceful parading workers packed up their luggage and chanted “We’ll be Back!” And we will be back — we’ll continue to persistently, peacefully call on Delta and its contractors to give these workers their jobs back. Stay tuned for our next steps in the days ahead.

And in the meantime, call Delta Station Manager Roy Tschumi at 206-988-7499. Tell him to make sure that Hosea Wilcox, Alejandro Geracio and Baltazar Pineda get their jobs back.

Three airport workers deserve more than a pink slip.

Earlier this month at our airport, three experienced skycaps learned that they will soon lose their jobs, as Delta Airlines shuffles the contractors that provide passenger services to customers. After decades of reliable service to Sea-Tac travelers, these airport workers deserve more than a pink slip!

Call Delta Airlines Sea-Tac Station Manager Roy Tschumi at (206) 988-7499. Tell him to make sure that contractor Bags, Inc. offers jobs to Hosea Wilcox, Alejandro Geracio and Baltazar Pineda.

Amazon dumps ALEC and promises to invest in warehouses, courtesy of the 99%.

By Nate Jackson Reverend Angela Ying, a 99%er, stood up in the middle of the Amazon Shareholder meeting and asked the billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos point blank, “Why are you still supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)?” Bezos passed the question to an Amazon lawyer, Michelle Wilson. Wilson in as many words told us that the giant online retailer is dropping their support of ALEC.

“This year, we've decided not to renew with ALEC, and it's because of positions they've taken not related to our business,” said Wilson.

Positions not related to their business? The real reason Amazon is dropping ALEC is because of the consistent public pressure from the 99%. Nationally the 99% has persuaded more than 15 corporations to leave the right wing, extreme organization, Amazon was the 16th.

The message was spread out from inside the shareholder meeting by text and twitter messages and the 99% raised a cheer both outside the shareholder meeting and across the country.

The 99% had been gathering signatures, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, to bring public attention to ALEC’s lobbying for tax loopholes for big corporations, Stand Your Ground legislation, and voter suppression laws.

Amazon under consistent public pressure decided to end their affiliation.

These promises came at the annual shareholder meeting in which CEO Jeff Bezos, looking nervous, answered questions posed by the 99% who just so happened to hold a share of the giant online retailer.

Meanwhile on the outside of the shareholder meeting, under the watchful gaze of the Hammering Man, we gathered hundreds strong to send a message to the executives of Amazon.

Deana Knutsen, a Washington CAN! activist stomped around the stage revving up the crowd.

“We came here to say one thing,” she said shaking her fist. “Amazon you need to pay your fair share!”

Amazon using a combination of tax loopholes had an effective federal income tax rate of 2.6%

“We pay our taxes, we don’t abuse loopholes,” she said. “It’s time for you to do the right thing!”

She led the group in chants getting louder and louder as we all raised our voices. Onlookers snapped photos and took video as the bull horns blared out “Pay your fair share! Pay your fair share!”

The crowd was getting bigger by the minute and we displayed signs, held banners and even floated a thought balloon over the Hammering Man’s head. The 16 ton structure representing working people agreed with us, his thought bubble reading “I wish Amazon paid their fair share.”

Maribel Peralez grabbed the microphone and pointed out the glaring differences between the beautiful buildings in South Lake Union and the warehouse conditions the workers faced across the country.

“Hey Jeff Bezos!” she shouted looking over her shoulder to the Art Museum. “You are worth billions of dollars and you pretend you can’t afford to install basic air conditioning in your warehouses? Shame on you!”

We took up the chant and Peralez waited for us to quiet down.

“These warehouses got up to 100 degrees and instead of putting in air conditioning you brought in paramedics?” she asked. “Shame on you!”

We weren’t just outside sending our message, many of us had actually gotten inside the meeting as well. We were shareholders in the truest sense.

Inside the meeting, shareholders were shown a PowerPoint presentation that went over the profits, “tax liabilities” and other business information. The most interesting thing amongst the presentation was a video showing a helicopter dropping in a new air conditioning unit amongst one of Amazon’s warehouses.

An Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania had reached temperatures in excess of 100 degrees while workers were forced to keep up quotas, even if they were in threat of heat exhaustion.

Amazon having taking hit after hit from public pressure pledged to spend tens of millions installing basic air conditioning in their warehouses.

We wanted to ask more questions about Amazon’s tax dodging, but the shareholder meeting was stopped short. We were cut off and escorted out of the meeting by police who seemed eager to do the bidding of the big corporation. Uncharacteristically Amazon CEO Bezos didn’t even take any questions from reporters. It was a hasty retreat.

The Amazon executives including the CEO heard our message and they had prepared to address our concerns. After all we, the 99%, had been raising these questions on the street, online, and across the country.

We’ve had a huge victory. Amazon dropped ALEC and started taking responsibility towards the basic needs of their warehouse workers, air conditioning is a basic starting point, but they’ve failed to address their tax dodging. Now we just need the biggest online retailer to take another look at its tax responsibilities. It’s time for them to pay their fair share.

Headlines across the country are following the peaceful protests that are making a difference and getting under the skin of the 1%. No longer, if we keep up the pressure, will the 1% get to do whatever they desire without the 99% taking notice of their irresponsible behavior.

The 1% is worried. They are not used to the 99% standing up and demanding justice. Too bad. We’ve gotten the taste for it and we’re still hungry. We’ve had a great appetizer with Amazon dropping ALEC and agreeing to invest in the basic upgrades to their warehouses, but the main course is still ahead.

As hundreds rally outside Amazon's shareholder meeting, company makes major concession on working conditions and cuts ties to ALEC

Peaceful persistent pressure from the 99% gets results

On a cold and drizzly morning, hundreds of people gathered outside — and inside — Amazon's shareholder meeting today for a fair share protest calling on the giant retailer to stop dodging taxes, to treat all workers with respect, and to cut ties to the shadowy and extreme right-wing organization known as ALEC. In addition to the hundreds outside, the shareholder meeting itself drew 200 people today, more than twice as many people as have attended in past years.

As a thought bubble floated above the iconic Hammering Man saying "I wish Amazon paid its fair share", supporters of Working Washington, Washington CAN, Other 98, and Fuse Washington joined with hundreds of other concerned community members to seize the opportunity provided by the shareholder meeting to make sure that top executives from the giant retailer heard what the 99% had to say.

Showing once more the power of persistent, peaceful protest, Amazon's corporate leaders made substantial concessions at the shareholder meeting today: in response to repeated questions about Amazon's support of ALEC, corporate leaders announced they are not renewing their membership in ALEC. After months of pressure about working conditions — including an event that brought 2 workers from Amazon's Pennsylvania warehouse to speak out at their South Lake Union headquarters earlier this month — the company also announced they will invest $52 million to improve warehouse working conditions. We applaud these substantial moves towards social responsibility, and hope to see a similar change in their perspective on corporate tax loopholes in the months ahead.

"It was amazing to be there to hear these corporate executives respond to popular pressure by cutting ties to ALEC and investing in better conditions for warehouse workers. This really shows how public protest can take something they say is impossible and make it happen," said Rev. Angela Ying, a shareholder who attended the meeting and witnessed Amazon's concessions. Echoing the Hammering Man's thought bubble, Rev. Ying added: "But I still wish Amazon paid its fair share of taxes."

Amazon's major announcements come after months of growing public pressure over the giant retailer's record on workers and taxes, and their support of ALEC.

Working Washington is bringing people together to fight for a fair economy — and that means holding corporations like Amazon accountable to pay their fair share and make sure all the jobs they create are good jobs. We're taking creative, direct action to call on elected officials, big corporations, and the top 1% to do what it takes to stop the cuts to education, health care, and other services. It's time to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the top 1%. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org

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BREAKING NEWS: Amazon to drop its support of ALEC and improve warehouse conditions.

At the shareholder meeting on Thursday, May 24th, Amazon announced that it is dropping its support of ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council) in the face of "public concerns." This is a direct result of consistent, public pressure. When we all stick to it and work together we can make a difference. From the Seattle Times.

Amid protests, Amazon says it will improve warehouse conditions.

by Amy Martinez

More than 100 protesters rallied outside Amazon's annual meeting Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum, where the company told shareholders it planned to improve warehouse conditions and drop its membership in a conservative public-policy organization.

During the meeting, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the company will spend $52 million this year retrofitting its warehouses with air conditioning. Amazon has come under heavy criticism for conditions at its warehouses after a Pennsylvania newspaper revealed that employees were forced to work in temperatures above 100 degrees last summer.

In response to a shareholder's question, general counsel Michelle Wilson said Amazon has decided not to renew its membership in the nonprofit ALEC.

"This year, we've decided not to renew with ALEC, and it's because of positions they've taken not related to our business," Wilson said.

More than 500 to attend "Fair share" rally Thursday at Amazon shareholder meeting in downtown Seattle

The 99% will call on giant retailer to pay their taxes, treat workers with respect, and dump ALEC

More than 500 people will converge at the Seattle Art Museum's Hammering Man this morning for a major "fair share" protest outside Amazon's annual shareholder meeting.

While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and other corporate executives plan to use the shareholder meeting to celebrate their financial success, the 99% have something different planned. More than five hundred of us will rally under the Hammering Man — right outside the room where the meeting is taking place — to send a loud and clear fair share message: it's time for the giant retailer to share their success with the 99% by paying their fair share of taxes, treating workers with respect, and ending support for the extreme right-wing organization known as ALEC. When: Thursday, May 24th, 8:30 am.

Where: Amazon shareholder meeting at Seattle Art Museum, 1st & University in downtown Seattle.

What/visuals: Hundreds of workers, students, civil right activists, owners of community businesses, people affected by budget cuts, and others will hold a fair share rally at Amazon's annual shareholder meeting. Together, we'll hold a "people's shareholder meeting" and call on Amazon's corporate leaders to pay their share of taxes, treat all workers with respect, and drop support for ALEC and similar groups.

As hundreds rally outside the shareholder meeting, the voices of the 99% will be raised inside the shareholder meeting as well. Several shareholders will be there at the meeting to bring our fair share issues directly before the executives and decision-makers who have chosen to take Amazon down a path of tax-dodging, worker mistreatment, and support for the infamous and extreme right-wing policy group known as ALEC. Interviews with shareholders can be arranged.

This fair share protest of Amazon's business practices comes at the end of a "shareholder spring" that has seen major protests over tax dodging and other issues at Wells Fargo Bank, General Electric, Verizon, and other shareholder meetings.

More information on Amazon fair share issues:

• Tax dodging: Recent figures from the tax policy research group Citizens for Tax Justice reveal that Amazon paid an effective Federal income tax rate last year of only 2.6%. They drove their rate so low primarily by taking advantage of a loophole that gives them a $1 tax deduction for every $1 in stock options they give to executives. This continues a downward trend where their tax rate falls every year — from an 11.5% rate in 2008 to a 9.1% rate in 2009 and a 5.5% rate in 2010, despite solid profits. The corporate tax rate set in law is 35%. Corporate tax dodgers report from Citizens for Tax Justice is available online: http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dodgers_2008-2010.php
• Worker mistreatment: Two former workers recently spoke out at the company's headquarters about harsh conditions in Amazon's warehouses, including indoor temperatures that rose above 100 degrees. When workers collapsed from exhaustion, the company's initial response was not to improve ventilation or install air conditioning, but simply to station paramedics outside.
• Support for ALEC: Amazon is known to have been a "Director Level" sponsor of ALEC, the shadowy and extreme right-wing organization. In the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, ALEC has become notorious for its role in passing "Stand your ground" laws, as well as efforts to create tax loopholes, undermine workers rights, and make it harder for young people & people of color to vote. Now that the group has come under increased scrutiny, many large corporations — including McDonald's, Kraft, and others — have publicly dropped support for ALEC. However, Amazon has so far refused to do the same.

Working Washington is bringing people together to fight for a fair economy — and that means holding corporations like Amazon accountable to pay their fair share and make sure all the jobs they create are good jobs. We're taking creative, direct action to call on elected officials, big corporations, and the top 1% to do what it takes to stop the cuts to education, health care, and other services. It's time to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the top 1%. For more information, visit WorkingWa.org

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Contact: Sage Wilson, sage@workingwa.org