Latest news with #TacomaDSA
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tacoma council sends workers bill of rights to ballot. But did it miss deadline?
The Tacoma City Council on Aug. 8 voted to put a workers bill of rights on the ballot in November, but the action came three days after the county's deadline to qualify for that election. Pierce County's deadline to submit initiatives for this year's Nov. 4 general election was Aug. 5. By July 10 city and county officials validated a petition from a group of activists seeking to put a workers bill of rights on the ballot. The last step in the process required the city to call for an election within 30 days of the validation of the petition, but the City Council missed the deadline. Activists with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 and the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America have been working since February on the bill of rights, which proposes stronger protections for workers in Tacoma and a $20 minimum wage. The item has been controversial, and council signaled over the last few weeks that it was supportive of the idea behind the initiative but had concerns about the exact language and the feasibility of its implementation. After receiving the petition, the council had 30 days to decide whether to approve the proposal outright, which would eliminate the need for an election; send the item to the ballot; or send it to the ballot while also putting forward an alternate proposal. The council met in three separate study sessions between July and August to discuss the matter and to ask the city manager and city attorney how the initiative could be implemented and enforced if approved. Ultimately, they decided against approving the initiative outright and did not put forward an alternate proposal, and instead voted in a special meeting Aug. 8 to send it to the ballot. 'I have deep concerns. I have deep concerns about the specific implications of this particular resolution. There are legal complexities and potential impacts that we do still not yet, even after 30 days, completely understand,' Mayor Victoria Woodards said at the special meeting. 'And the lack of clarity makes this a difficult path to navigate,' Woodards and council member John Hines, who is running for mayor, were the only two to speak on the matter before the council's vote. 'What is written currently is just something I don't think I can support and I have deep concerns about potential impacts,' Hines said. 'And I wish we could have come to a place prior to this, where we could have worked together to understand some of these potential impacts, to have a broader conversation with our stakeholders, to really get at some of the nuance that exists.' The council received 45 pages of written public comment on the matter with a mix of opinions -- from business owners who expressed concerns about the potential for a wage increase to union workers who said it would support Tacoma residents who live paycheck to paycheck. Since the city missed the deadline to put the initiative on the ballot in November, its next option will be to put the item forward for a special election on Feb. 10 next year, which has a submission deadline of Dec. 12, 2025. Pierce County elections manager Kyle Haugh said in order to so, the council would need to put forward another resolution that identifies Feb. 10 as the date of the special election. 'The Auditor's Office will not put anything on the ballot that the deadline has been missed for,' Pierce County elections manager Kyle Haugh told The News Tribune. The city of Tacoma did not immediately return a request for comment about the missed deadline. The effort to get a workers bill of rights on the ballot in Tacoma comes at the same time that a similar effort takes place in Olympia – but the Olympia city council voted to get the initiative on the ballot on July 22. Colton Rose, an organizer with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367, told The News Tribune that the union hopes it can still work with local officials to find a way to get it on the ballot this fall but said he was confident it will win whenever it does appear before the voters. 'There is sort of a thought that – did they delay the certification? Because we got the signatures in right on schedule,' UFCW 367 president Michael Hines told The News Tribune. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Efforts to pass worker's bill of rights, $20 minimum wage in Tacoma advance
Organizers with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union 367 chapter and the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America on Tuesday submitted signatures for a ballot initiative that could establish a 'Worker's Bill of Rights.' The two groups started the process of getting the initiative on the ballot in February, when they submitted a proposal to increase protections for workers in Tacoma with new policies like a $20 minimum wage. In submitting the roughly 10,000 signatures at city hall on June 24, UFCW 367 and the Tacoma DSA are one step closer in the city's initiative process. After submitting the draft of their initiative in February, the organizers had about six months to collect valid signatures from at least 10 percent of people who voted in the last mayoral election. They told The News Tribune in March that they planned to have at least 8,000 by early July. It's now up to the county auditor to verify the signatures, and the city clerk to validate the petition. As long as that happens, it would be up to the city council to enact or reject the initiative, according to the city. If the council enacts the petition, their approval would be the final say, eliminating the need to put the initiative to the voters. If council rejects the initiative, then it would be on the ballot. According to the city, if the council rejects the initiative or fails to take action within 30 days, the initiative would end up on the ballot for the next municipal or general election that's at least 90 days from when the signatures are validated — which organizers estimate could take 30 days. That means there's a possibility it could end up on the November ballot, or it could be part of a special election that happens sooner. If a majority of voters approve the initiative, it'll go into effect 10 days after the election results are certified. 'It's been much easier than we thought to get people to sign on to this,' union president Michael Hines told The News Tribune. The organizers put forward two versions of the initiative in February, which are largely similar but Version 2 has stronger penalties for violations of the bill of rights and stronger language outlining worker protections for fair scheduling and hours. Colton Rose, an organizer with the union, told The News Tribune that after hearing from residents through the process of getting signatures, the union decided to pursue Version 1 — the one with more lenient penalties. The Worker's Bill of Rights would require every employer in Tacoma with more than 500 employees to pay their staff at least $20 an hour, and any employer with between 16 and 500 employees must pay their staff at least $18 an hour. That rate drops to $17 an hour for employers with 15 or fewer employees. Minimum wage in the state of Washington is currently $16.66 per hour, which also currently applies to Tacoma. Cities like Seattle and Bellingham have different rates, at $20.76 per hour and $18.66 per hour, respectively. It also, among other things, would require employers to create a safety plan to protect workers and consumers in case of violence or a natural disaster, and would require them to give employees an estimate of their work schedules at least 14 days in advance. As city and county officials work to validate the signatures, a process that could take 30 days, Rose said organizers are still in the process of collecting more signatures in case they fall short of the number of signatures required. Hines said organizers are optimistic that the initiative will receive the support it needs from voters. 'I remember the days when you could be a single mom and a checker and pay your rent or buy a house, and that's pretty hard to do now based on what these companies are doing with the schedules,' Hines said. 'I think there's a lot of empathy from the community.'
