Tacoma leaders: Workers must have majority on labor task force | Opinion

This summer, Tacoma grocery workers and their community supporters collected over 10,000 signatures for the Workers’ Bill of Rights — a citizens’ initiative to raise the minimum wage to $20/hour and guarantee fair scheduling and safe staffing. In response, the Tacoma City Council undemocratically blocked the initiative from the November ballot and created its own “Labor Standards Task Force” to draft an alternative.

While UFCW 367, Tacoma for All, and Tacoma DSA are now suing the City to place the initiative on the February ballot, a new fight has emerged over the composition of this Task Force. Regardless of the pending court decision, we are concerned this new body, if not representative of Tacoma’s working-class majority, will be used to undermine the will of the voters.

The following open letter, signed by over 50 local labor faith, and community leaders, demands that working people have a majority voice on the Task Force.

To Mayor Woodards and the Tacoma City Council,

We, the undersigned labor and community leaders, are writing to demand that working people and their representatives make up a majority of the new “Tacoma Labor Standards Task Force.” We understand this task force was created to craft an alternative to the Workers’ Bill of Rights — the citizens’ initiative that would raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour, require predictable schedules and mandate safer staffing levels.

This Task Force will have no legitimacy if it does not reflect the people of Tacoma, the majority of whom are living paycheck to paycheck. Business owners and their allies, who represent a tiny minority of our city, must not have a disproportionate share of the seats.

We therefore demand that a majority of the Task Force be composed of those with direct experience of the issues at hand: one-third made up of workers who will directly benefit from these improved labor standards, and another third made up of labor and community leaders who represent Tacoma’s diverse working class.

Critically, this must include the union grocery workers leading the fight for the Workers’ Bill of Rights. Their hard work on the initiative campaign is the only reason the city is having this conversation. The task force will have no credibility without also including the elected leadership of their union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 — the largest union in Pierce County.

Furthermore, we must express our profound disappointment with the council’s decision to run out the clock and prevent the Workers’ Bill of Rights from appearing on the November ballot. Even more concerning is the city’s legal attempt to block Tacoma voters from ever seeing the initiative on their ballot. As Judge Philip Thornton pointed out at the Aug. 26 hearing, the city’s legal argument would effectively give the council the power to block any citizens’ initiatives they don’t like from going before voters.

Assuming the court upholds the democratic rights of Tacoma voters and places the Workers’ Bill of Rights on the February ballot, we ask that you do not interfere any further. Tacoma voters deserve a clean up-or-down vote, without a watered-down alternative put forward on behalf of big business. The task force can make advisory recommendations for voters to consider, and the city council can pass additional ordinances to strengthen labor standards — but this should only happen after voters have made their decision on the Workers’ Bill of Rights.

We urge you to honor the democratic process and ensure that the voices of working people are central to any discussion about their rights and livelihoods.

Partial list of signers, edited for space:

Michael Hines, president, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367

Yasmin Trudeau, state senator

Bishop Lawrence White, president, Tacoma Ministerial Alliance

Lyle Quasim, chairperson, Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective

Ann Dorn, chair, Tacoma for All

Tyron Moore, co-director, Tacoma for All

Devin Rydel Kelly, co-director, Tacoma for All

Mary Le Nguyen, executive director, Washington CAN

Reverend Malando Redeemer, president, NAACP Tacoma Branch

Jacqui Cain, president, AFT Washington, AFL-CIO

Rev. David T. Alger, director emeritus, Associated Ministries

Rev. Shalom Agtarap, pastor, First United Methodist Church

Jeff Johnson, former president, Washington State Labor Council, and co-president of Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action

Karen Richter, co-president, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action

Michael Williams, vice president, Tacoma Education Association

Roxana Norouzi, executive director, OneAmerica

Julie Andrzejewski, co-chair, Indivisible Tacoma

Ellen Floyd, co-chair, Indivisible Tacoma

Sherrilla Bivens-Mburu, president, APRI-Tacoma

Lilliane Ballesteros, executive director, Progreso: Latino Progress

Cinthia Illan Vazquez, executive director, Washington Bus

Richard Burton, state affiliate political organizer, AFT Washington

Silong Chhun, Tacoma City Council candidate, District/Position 4

Zephyra Topaz Burt, co-chair, Tacoma & Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America

Catherine Lee, co-C\chair, Tacoma & Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America

Rev. Mike Roberts, social justice chair, Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, and Labor and Union Chair, NAACP Tacoma Branch

Rev. Maria McDowell, rector, Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma

Bishop Michael Doss, Deliverance House of Prayer

Bishop Prentis Johnson, Sr., Greater Christ Temple Church

Rev. Gordy Hutchins, Evergreen Grace Church

Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos

Eva Bowen, leadership team, The Conversation 253

Judith Kay, professor of ethics, emerita, University of Puget Sound and leadership team, The Conversation 253

Jake Nau, Common Good Tacoma

Ryan Taylor, secretary-treasurer, Tacoma & Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America

Ra’Shawn Read, executive board member, Tacoma Education Association

Marjorie McCraney, officer, APRI-Tacoma

Margaret Gilbert, 2nd vice president, NAACP Tacoma Branch 1138

Jonathan Johnson, chair, Branch Education Committee, NAACP Tacoma Branch

Yanah G Cook, chair, 2nd Legislative District Democrats, RPEC Chapter 12