The Port of Seattle builds a swanky VIP lounge.

by Nathan Jackson

The Port of Seattle and Alaska Airlines have entered a partnership to upgrade the north terminal to the tune of $230 million dollars. The port is paying the lion’s share, investing $194 million into the upgrade that will modernize facilities, improve seismic safety and even throw in an executive lounge for VIP customers.

It’s good that the Port wants to upgrade their facilities and improve the experience of the riders who will benefit. After all it’s been 40 years according to the joint press release since the terminal has seen any upgrades. But when was the last time poverty-wage workers in that terminal have had an update to their wages or working conditions?

In fact, some of the workers have been downgraded. The Port has allowed companies like Alaska Airlines to start shipping jobs off to the lowest bidder contractors, like ASIG and Menzies. Some jobs which used to be decent jobs have been demoted as these low bid contractors cut corners in pay, safety and even workers’ respect.

It’s time to change that.

The jobs that keep our airport moving, skycaps, fuelers, ramp workers, cabin cleaners, and baggage handlers, deserve an upgrade too. They are asking just for what every worker deserves: living wages, affordable healthcare and respect in the workplace.

The Port of Seattle, by entering this partnership with Alaska, is showing it can take a hands-on approach. If it can enter an agreement about spending hundreds of millions of dollars, surely it can have a chat with Alaska and the other airlines about the thousands of poverty wage jobs at our airport.

The Port was started to ensure that our airport and other ports were an economic engine that lifted the region up. They’ve shown a great willingness to improve and upgrade the facilities around our airport. Now it’s time they show that same willingness and excitement to make sure every job at our airport is a good job.

The 99% form a SuperPAC--a People's Action Committee.

It’s all over the news.The 1%, the super-rich, has a new weapon in their arsenal of control--the SuperPAC. SuperPACs take unlimited money, lobby and launch advertisements for the selected candidates and policies of the 1%. Policies like more tax breaks for the wealthy, low wage jobs for the rest of us and unfair access to our legislators. Time to change the rules. It’s time the 99% got its own SuperPAC--but not a money laundering operation, a People’s Action Committee.Jobs are scarce. Working folks continue to see their wages stagnate while gas, food and housing costs rise. The rich keep getting richer while the rest of us are barely making ends meet. It’s time for the 99% to step up and make real change. The 99% SuperPAC is us, standing up for policies that put the needs of the 99% first instead of the whims and desires of the rich. Together we can fight for economic justice, good jobs and a fairer tax system where the rich pay their fair share and the economy is steered towards a path that works for all of us. We need good jobs. Too many of us are either out of work or working in jobs that do not pay living wages or have no chance for a better future. We have the know-how, the skills and the drive. It’s time that we also had good jobs with living wages, safe working conditions, and the right to speak out together to improve our jobs. We need the rich and the big corporations to pay their fair share. The 1% has said that giving tax breaks to the richest amongst us will stimulate the economy and create jobs. We knew it was a joke theory, but the 1% have gamed the system. We were forced to try that and it just doesn’t work. The rich need to pay their fair share into the system that they benefit from. We need the 1% to play by the same rules that we do. It’s only fair. We need an economy that works for the 99%, and we can’t afford to wait any longer. We have to make our priorities more important to our elected officials than the 1% money that has influenced our legislators to create policies that enrich the rich and hurt the rest of us. We need to register to vote, get our neighbors involved and most importantly hold our elected officials accountable to us both in and beyond the voting booth. We won’t let them forget who put them in power in the first place. Join us as we meet community by community and push our elected officials to finally stand up for the rest of us, the 99%. Together we can create good jobs, make the rich pay their fair share and create a better economy that works for all of us.

99% SuperPAC Meetings People’s Action Committee Greenwood Tuesday, August 21st 6:00 pm Greenwood Library 8016 Greenwood Ave Bellevue Wednesday, August 22nd 7:00 pm Bellevue City Hall 450 110th Ave NE Boulevard Park Thursday, August 23rd 6:00 pm Blvd. Park Library 12015 Roseberg Ave Central Seattle Tuesday, August 28th 5:30 pm Douglas-Truth Library 23rd and Yesler West Tacoma Tuesday, August 28th 6:00 pm Greener Bean Coffee 1039 Regents Blvd.

Broken fuel trucks? Vacuum cleaners on fire? Alaska Airlines- contracted workers deserve to work in a safer place.

Originally posted on itsourairport.org By Nate Jackson

Sifredo Flores, a Fueler at Sea-Tac airport, pulls up his sunglasses and starts telling the on-duty manager of Alaska Airlines why he and 25 other community members came out to talk.

“I’m a fueler. I work hard, but ASIG doesn’t have any respect for us,” he said. “We have to work whether it is rain or snow, sick or well and the equipment we use doesn’t always work.”

Flores drives a truck that takes the fuel out to the Alaska airplanes. He’s is one of many fuelers who work for ASIG, the fueling contractor.

On a typical refueling he and other fuelers at our airport are hauling out over 10,000 lbs of high grade airplane fuel--in trucks that have shoddy brakes. Workers report that many of the trucks have emergency brakes that give out, defrosters that refuse to deice the windshields and other problems that make the act of hauling highly flammable fuel even more dangerous.

Flores continued.

“We do the work,’ he said. “We do it and the fuel gets soaked into our uniforms. We have to take our clothes home and wash them in our own family washing machines. It’s not right.”

For the entire story check out www.itsourairport.org

Don't let Waste Management kick workers to the curb

Update: Recycle and Yard Waste drivers have reached a new 6 year deal with Waste Management. For more details visit teamsters117.org. Recycle and yard waste drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 117, voted to ratify a 6-year contract agreement this morning. The contract vote was held after a 9 A.M. meeting at the Teamsters building in Tukwila. The Local 117 leadership and bargaining committee fully recommended the proposal for ratification by the membership.

by Sage Wilson

It's the same old rhetorical tactic greedy employers recycle over & over again: Waste Management executives are trying to convince the public that the people who drive their trucks are living high on the hog, claiming that the "total compensation" of a truck driver is almost in the six figures.

Yeah, right. That must be why all the recycle trucks have bumper stickers that say "My other ride is an Aston-Martin".

It's obviously a bunch of a garbage, and it's frustrating that some reporters are letting the company get away with building a rats nest of confusion out of their rotten numbers without even having to break down where they come from.

For example, the Seattle Times recently cited a starting wage for a recycle driver of $17 an hour, which works out to about $34,000 a year. And yet they also seem to swallow the junk numbers Waste Management feeds them, also mentioning a $98,000 figure for a driver's "total compensation". So here's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: where did they get the extra $64,000 from? Clearly, it's rubbish. Because you definitely don't see a number anywhere near that on drivers' pay stubs.

But they say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and that's definitely true for Waste Management CEO David Steiner— he's shoveling millions a year into his bank account on the backs of sanitation workers and the rate-paying public. In fact, it turns out that his $5.19 million salary works out to a bit more than $98,000... every week. So maybe the corporate executives were trashed when they did the calculation, so they got themselves confused? Because it's obvious that the guy who's feeding like a pig at a trough is the one who's making 52 times more than a driver makes in their wildest fantasies.

And while you wouldn't glean this fact from the TV reports, sanitation work is among the most dangerous in the country. Since 2005, four Puget Sound recycle workers have been killed on the job, and more have been injured. This is hard work that all of us benefit from, and the people who do the work deserve respect and fair treatment.

For decades, garbage truck drivers have worked together in a union to make sure they earn a decent living in exchange for their hard work. Recycle drivers have done the same. Now they are only asking for equal pay, since their work involves picking up the same kind of cans from the same customers in the same alleys on the same schedule with the same struggles and the same hazards. In fact, garbage drivers are supporting the picket lines of the recycle drivers because they too support the principle of equal pay for equal work.

But Waste Management executives have refused to negotiate fairly with refuse workers over this and other issues. Instead, they litter the landscape with misleading numbers and try to make workers who spend their days sharing territory with alley cats look like they're the ones who are the fat cats.

All these workers are asking for is to be given the respect they deserve by their multi-billion dollar employer and its multi-million-dollar CEO: fair negotiations, fair treatment, and equal pay for equal work. They deserve the support of the entire 99% — and these deceptive 1% tactics belong in the dustbin of history.

Visit SeattleTrashWatch.org to see what you can do to support workers.

The 99% had a message for State Attorney General Rob McKenna--we deserve a raise.

By Nate Jackson Over 50 community members gathered outside the downtown Seattle offices sporting over sized "pennies" that had the likeness of Rob McKenna with the message "In low wages I trust." McKenna had tried to stop a 12 cent increase in the minimum wage and had previously said that he believed in a training wage that would be below minimum wage for some workers. If McKenna thinks the 99% are already paid too much, he should try living on minimum wage himself.

Luis Escamilla, a Tukwilla area High School teacher, grabbed the megaphone and addressed the crowd.

"McKenna voted against raising wages for childcare workers," he said. "These are the people who take care of our families, who take care of our future."

The crowd gathered shook their heads as Escamilla continued.

"CEO pay has skyrocketed 700% in the last 30 years,' he said. "Minimum wage? Ha, it hasn't even been close. If it would have stayed a pace with the CEOs it would be over $20 an hour."

What we want are living wages that allow us to take care of our families. Nothing more than that. We work hard. We deserve that at least.

Escamilla continued.

I see how depressed wages and unemployment adversely affects both the motivation, dignity and achievement of my most vulnerable students. With parents making income comparable to some of their own children, my students are being offered a glimpse of an economically disenfranchised future.

A worker from Burlington Coat Factory, a company owned by Bain Capital, Mitt "I don't release my tax returns" Romney's company, wrote a letter to be shared with the crowd. Susan Wilkinson read the letter on the worker's behalf.

Minimum wage means minimum hope. I've worked for this company for 12 years and it has always been a struggle just to make ends meet. We all work hard down there, but we don't ever see our pay become a living wage. Things got worse when Bain Capital took us over. They cut a 1/3 of the employees hours and put them on part time, not benefits. That's how they made their money by cutting down the employees.

Escamilla after a few rounds of chants addressed the crowd again.

"We don't want to be rich or famous," he said. "It's simple. We want wages that are living wages. Respectful wages. Dignified wages. We work hard. The 99% deserve a raise."

With giant pennies, low-wage workers will give Rob McKenna their "two cents" about raising the minimum wage

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR JULY 24, 2012***CONTACT: Sage Wilson, 206-227-6014, sage@workingwa.org

"Rob McKenna didn't want us to have our 12¢. So we're giving him our 2¢ — with his face on it."

TODAY, low-wage workers will gather outside the Attorney General's office in downtown Seattle to give Rob McKenna their "two cents" — in the form of giant pennies with McKenna's face on them — about his attempt to block a 12¢ increase in the minimum wage. The voices of a low-wage child care worker, a low-wage airport worker, and others will be joined by dozens of community supporters to tell Rob McKenna it's time he listened to the 99% and heard that we need a raise.

The McKenna campaign for Governor has received more than $16,000 from some of the largest low-wage employers in the country, but there is at least one worker McKenna has supported raises for: McKenna himself. In fact, not long before he argued 12¢ was more than minimum-wage workers should get, he made the case that his own 6-figure paycheck was "too low."

When: TODAY — Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 11:00 am 

Where: Attorney General's Office in downtown Seattle: 800 5th Avenue

What/visuals: Low-wage workers give Rob McKenna their "two cents" by speaking out about their struggles to make ends meet and calling on the Attorney General to stop opposing pay increases for low-wage workers while taking thousands of dollars from low-wage employers. Workers & community supporters will be holding 12 giant pennies with McKenna's head on them and reading "In low wages I trust" to emphasize the 12¢ raise he tried to block. McKenna's attempt to keep 12¢ out of the pockets of low-wage workers is not the first time he has opposed economic policies that would lift up the 99%. As a member of the King County Council, he voted against a raise for childcare workers who were earning barely more than minimum wage. And just before launching his bid for Governor, he said he'd support a lower, sub-minimum wage for some workers.

McKenna's record of opposing raises for the 99% may be due to the people who have his ear — and fill his campaign treasury. In fact, a recent report shows that the 4 of the 6 largest low-wage employers in the country gave a total of more than $16,000 directly to the McKenna campaign — Walmart, Yum Brands (which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC), McDonald's, and Subway. What do they expect in return?

The event in Seattle is part of a national day of action to raise the minimum wage. Low-wage workers in dozens of cities are calling on elected officials and big corporations to give the 99% a raise by supporting higher state minimum wage laws and measures like the proposal by Senator Tom Harkin to raise the Federal minimum wage to $9.80/hour.

More information:

• Report on low-wage employers in the country by the National Employment Law Project: "Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage": http://www.raisetheminimumwage.org/pages/report-big-business-corporate-profits-and-the-minimum-wage
• According to PDC filings, four of the six largest low-wage employers on the list (Walmart, Yum Brands, McDonalds, and Subway) have given a total of $16,900 to the McKenna campaign.
• McKenna arguing his 6-figure salary was "too low": http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/797404/state_officials_legislators_judges_could_be_smiling/

###

State Attorney General Rob McKenna thinks the 99% are paid too much.

by Nate Jackson State Attorney General Rob McKenna doesn’t think the 99% deserve a raise. In fact, he actually thinks that low wage workers should get a pay cut.

Speaking to a group of business leaders last year, McKenna ignored the record profits of big corporations, CEO bonuses and the huge tax loopholes that big businesses exploit.

He said that unemployment could be cut down in our state by slashing workers’ pay even lower than the minimum wage. He actually said that. Enough is enough. Let’s tell McKenna that the 99% deserve a raise. Come join us as we rally outside of the Attorney General’s Seattle office on July 24th at 11 AM to give McKenna our two cents.

It’s outrageous that he thinks the 99% are somehow responsible for our sluggish economy because we are getting paid too much. The facts are that too many of us are struggling just to make ends meet. If we have to choose between paying the electricity bill or having food for the week we sure enough aren’t going to go out, spend money and stimulate the local economy. We need a raise. Come join us this Tuesday, July 24th, to tell McKenna that we deserve a raise.

This isn’t the first time McKenna has tried to stop the 99% from getting a raise.

As a member of the King County council he voted against a pay raise for childcare workers.

As Attorney General he essentially wrote a legal opinion for rich business interests who sued the state to stop the minimum wage from going up 12 cents. That lawsuit was summarily thrown out.

McKenna has shown that he is on the side of the 1% business leaders. He has been listening to them for far too long, even writing their legal arguments for them. Let’s give him an earful from the 99% this Tuesday, July 24th. Come join us and tell the Attorney General, who just so happens to be running for Governor, that the 99% deserve a raise!

Can’t make it downtown next Tuesday? You can sign the online petition here: http://action.workingwa.org/page/s/weneedaraise

Oh! If you are on Facebook you can RSVP here: http://bit.ly/weneedaraise

With deadline past and no help from airport officials, taxi drivers take message to the public

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

Drivers begin reaching out to travelers as they consider next steps 

More than 24 hours have passed since airport taxi drivers delivered a petition calling on the publicly-owned Port of Seattle to take immediate action to ensure all drivers have a fair shot at making ends meet, and Port officials have failed to respond to the drivers' concerns. As a result, leaders of the Western Washington Taxi Cab Operators Association and community allies will begin to take action Wednesday morning by reaching out to travelers for their support at all airport skybridges.

After paying for insurance, gas, leases, and a license to pick up passengers at Sea-Tac, drivers start off each week owing as much as $1000 — which means they effectively have to pay to work. But instead of helping give taxi drivers the opportunity to rise out of poverty, the Port is stacking the deck against them, making it even harder for them to make ends meet. The public outreach today is the next step chosen by drivers after they delivered hundreds of signatures on a unity petition that called on the Port of Seattle to take immediate action to enforce their own rules so that drivers have a shot at making ends meet.

When: TODAY — Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 10:00 am

Where: Sea-Tac airport skybridges between the terminal and the parking garage. 

What: Airport taxi drivers and community allies reach out to the public for support in their effort to get the Port of Seattle to make sure all drivers have a fair shot at making ends meet.

Airport taxi 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. For months, they have tried to get the people who run our airport to enforce the airport's own rules governing ground transportation, so that travelers have choices and drivers have a fair shot at making ends meet.

While the Port has so far failed to respond to appeals for fair treatment, drivers remain hopeful that a show of public support will convince the elected officials who oversee our airport to do what they can to make sure every job at our airport is a good job. If the Port still fails to take action, drivers may choose to take further steps.

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

###

Taxi Drivers drive home a message to the Port of Seattle.

By Nate Jackson Selah Mohammed, a taxi driver sporting sunglasses and a light blue button up shirt, spoke to the gathered media as tourists stood in line to board the cruise ship outside of the Port of Seattle’s headquarters on Pier 69.

“We, the taxi drivers, are part of this airport,” he said. “We provide a great service and we take pride in the work we do. We want the Port to solve this problem and enforce their own rules.”

Taxi drivers have a hard time making ends meet. Most of the cabbies start the week in a $1000 hole due to fees and regulations and have to dig themselves out before they make anything they can take home to their families. They already have enough challenges just to break even and now the Port of Seattle is making it harder by not enforcing its own rules that govern ground transportation at our airport.

And don’t forget, it is our airport. Our airport is publicly owned and ran by the Port of Seattle. The Port is supposed to make sure that the airport works for the workers and customers alike and so far they have been failing the taxi drivers.

Sea-Tac Airport taxi cab drivers are fed up with the Port of Seattle’s lax enforcement of its own rules. They have tried to get the Port to respond for the past three months to no avail so they formed the Western Washington Taxi Cab Operators Association, which has never been done before at Sea-Tac Airport and sent a small delegation to deliver a letter the association created demanding the Port follow its own rules.

The letter, authorized by the hundreds in the taxi driver association, is addressed to the executives of the Port of Seattle who oversee the operations of the airport. The simple demand is for the Port do its part and follow its own rules.

Selah Mohammed continues.

“We are here to deliver a letter to Tay Yoshitani, the CEO of the Port of Seattle,” he said. “We are working hard every day to help this airport work and we follow the rules. We just want everyone else to follow them too.”

This isn’t about taxi driver vs limo driver. It is a direct appeal to the Port of Seattle to make sure that everyone follows the rules and is on an equal basis so that the “competition” can be on a level playing field. The taxi drivers just want a fair chance as they have always abided by the strict rules that the Port created.

After all it is our port, publicly owned, and if it is truly supposed to be an economic engine for the region, it needs to make sure that all the players can get out of first gear.

Another driver, Paul Singh, came forward as he pointed to the over sized copy of the letter.

“We are bound to follow the rules,” he said thumbing at the letter. “The Port is going around their own rules like they don’t matter. It’s not fair and we want it to stop.”

Passengers should have the choice in what transportation they take when they arrive at our port. Competition, when done fairly, is a good thing that drives workers to provide better service and gives customers choice. The problem is that other transportation options are not being forced to follow the stringent rules that cabbies are and this hurts the competitiveness of the taxi drivers. Taxi drivers should have a decent shot at making a living.

“We just want the competition to be fair.” he said. “We’ve formed an association and we are all in this together.”

After answering some questions from the gathered reporters the dozen taxi drivers entered the Port of Seattle Headquarters and asked to speak with Tay Yoshitani. The person at the front desk informed them that Yoshitani was not in, but she called up an executive to speak with them.

The taxi drivers delivered the letter and the signatures to an executive named Tomm Munroe, thanked him for his time and went back outside to answer more questions from the press.

The drivers don’t want anything special. All they want is fair treatment and the Port of Seattle to play by its own rules. The ball is in the Port of Seattle’s court now. Let’s see what they do.

No one expects to get rich driving a taxi at Sea-Tac Airport. Nobody should expect to be driven into poverty either.

By Nate Jackson It's hard to believe, but it's true: after lease fees, licensing costs, taxes, insurance, gas, and maintenance, taxi drivers who pick up passengers at our airport start the work week as much as $1000 in the hole. That includes money they pay to dispatch companies like Yellow Cab and a weekly fee of more than $300 they have to pay to the Port of Seattle in order to pick up passengers at Sea-Tac.

Taxi drivers are technically classified as “independent contractors,” but in addition to the weekly fee they pay, they must follow detailed rules in exchange for the right to pick passengers up at our airport. Cabbies have set prices they cannot change, a set place to park, set rules on how they cannot approach or solicit customers, and tight rules on the appearance and condition of their taxis. They even have to follow a dress code that is written by the Port of Seattle.

These rules are created by the Port of Seattle and they are supposed to benefit the customers and taxi drivers alike by ensuring orderly & reliable service for travelers. Unfortunately, the Port of Seattle is failing to enforce the rules that they themselves set up.

For-hire limousines have suddenly been allowed to expand their services at the airport and solicit passengers, which confuses travelers and undercuts taxi cab drivers. There’s plenty of room for a wide variety of transportation options at the airport, from taxi and and limos to light rail and buses. Choices are a good thing, but the problem is that the Port of Seattle is not holding up its end of the bargain. The way they're handling the situation is unfair, and it make things even harder for taxi drivers who are just trying to make a living.

For months, taxi drivers have raised these issues to public officials, asking the Port to simply enforce their own rules regarding transportation service in the airport. Still, the Port has done nothing to address the problem and ensure all drivers have the opportunity to make a decent living at our airport.

Taxi drivers don’t expect to get rich. They just want a chance to provide for themselves and their families and continue to provide the vital services many passengers rely on. This shouldn't be complicated: it’s our port, it’s publicly owned, and it’s time the people who run the Port of Seattle lived up to their mission by making sure every job at our airport is a good job.

At this point the cabbies, have nearly exhausted their options, so they are starting to take collective action on their own. The taxi drivers are united and are ready to ready to take action to ensure they are treated fairly. It’s time that the Port of Seattle did the right thing: enforce the rules so that travelers have options and drivers have a shot at making a decent living.