4 days ago
Tacoma creates labor task force after workers bill of rights misses ballot deadline
The Tacoma City council voted Aug. 12 to start a task force charged with reviewing labor standards in Tacoma. The move came after the council missed the deadline to get a citizen's initiative seeking to improve working conditions in Tacoma on the November ballot.
The council made their decision in a 7-1 vote, a rare split for a council that often makes decisions with unanimous votes. Council member Sandesh Sadalge was absent. Council member Olgy Diaz was the sole dissenting voice, saying that she feels the process was rushed and that she didn't understand how the task force would address concerns about the workers bill of rights.
The newly-approved task force will consist of 15 people appointed by members of the council and the mayor. They will suggest recommendations to improve labor policy in Tacoma. The council's approval also directs $50,000 to be directed to support the task force's work.
Mayor Victoria Woodards first proposed the task force at the council's Aug. 8 special meeting, saying that conversations about the workers bill of rights raised concerns and questions about labor standards in Tacoma that she hopes the task force can address.
Diaz expressed doubts.
'I have a lot of pause about the mayor bringing this forward in such a rushed timeline,' she said at the meeting. 'We really need to be more transparent with folks about what the goal of this is and what that $50,000 is going to be used for and who that's going to go to. I don't know who would convene this, what kind of consulting process there's going to be.'
The vote comes after controversy around the proposed workers bill of rights in Tacoma. Organizers with Tacoma For All, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 and the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America had since February been gathering signatures to get the measure on the ballot. The proposal seeks to improve working conditions in Tacoma and set a $20 minimum wage.
They delivered the signatures to city officials in late June, and city and county officials validated the petition by July 10, leaving Tacoma's City Council with 30 days to decide whether to approve it directly or to send it to the ballot.
While council members have in recent weeks expressed support for the sentiments behind the measure, they also expressed concern about the logistics involved with implementing the measure. In the special meeting on Aug. 8 they voted unanimously to send it to the ballot – three days after the county's deadline to do so.
Just before the council's Aug. 12 meeting, Tacoma for All, UFCW Local 367, and the Tacoma DSA filed a lawsuit against the city, Pierce County and County Auditor Linda Farmer alleging that they did not act with 'reasonable promptness' to get the item on the November ballot. The suit also called for a judge to put the item on the ballot despite missing the deadline.
The council's on the task force was met with a mixed response from people at the meeting. Activists criticized the decision, some making the case that the task force is an effort from the city to get an alternative to the workers bill of rights on the table.
Ty Moore, co-executive director with Tacoma For All, said it was similar to the council's efforts to propose an alternative measure to the tenants bill of rights which appeared on the ballot in 2023. The council is using the task force to prepare an alternative measure to the workers bill of rights, he said.
The same activists in 2023 sued the city, Pierce County and county auditor, alleging that the city violated its charter when the council put an alternate renters' rights measure on the ballot that year. A judge ruled in favor of the activists, and voters eventually approved the tenant bill of rights.
'There is a right to initiative for a reason – it's because when voters disagree with the council, they should be able to exercise their right,' Moore said at the meeting. 'Voters did everything right and you failed in your obligation to sustain democracy in this city. Shame on you. '
Members of the business community expressed support for the decision, saying it will broadly represent workers and business owners in conversations about labor standards in a way that the workers bill of rights didn't.
'It's far better than Measure 2, that had been proposed without consulting stakeholders that really have a stake in the game,' Rose Gundersen of the Washington Retail Association said at the Aug. 12 meeting.
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