While Port Commissioner Bill Bryant may be trying to introduce himself to Washington State voters as a plausible candidate for Governor, thousands of people who work at our seaport and airport can measure his track record in their poverty-wage paychecks.
Since he was first elected as a Port Commissioner, Bryant has repeatedly been on the wrong side of history, consistently opposing efforts to raise wages and improve working conditions at our port:
- When poverty-wage airport workers and port truck drivers began pressing for the Port to improve labor standards in 2011 and 2012, Bryant repeatedly opposed workers’ demands for living wage jobs. His vote was the margin of defeat for improved job protections and environmental standards backed by workers and green groups.
- When workers and community members brought the landmark SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative to the ballot in 2013, Bryant failed to speak out in support of higher pay for workers in the travel & tourism industry. After the law passed, Bryant & colleagues let Port lawyers argue in court that Sea-Tac Airport should be exempt from decisions by SeaTac voters.
- When Alaska Airlines managed to use a legal loophole to block $15 from taking full effect, Bryant opposed the solution offered by 27 state & local elected officials who asked the Port to respect the will of voters and sign an interlocal agreement to implement the terms of Proposition 1 at Sea-Tac.
- When the Port adopted its own wage policy without any real input from airport workers, Bryant helped ensure the minimal improvements did not even apply to the people who work low-wage food service and retail jobs in the terminal.
Bryant has served as a Port Commissioner at a time when Sea-Tac Airport workers have led a living wage campaign that is widely recognized for helping spark the nationwide $15 movement — and yet he has opposed essentially every proposal which has come before him to lift up poverty-wage airport workers and boost our local economy.
This is the Bill Bryant who airport workers are familiar with.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org