Monday, August 25, a huge crowd of Spokane Alliance activists packed Spokane City Hall to urge council members to approve a community workforce agreement ensuring that a portion of the labor costs of large city projects goes to local workers and assists underserved neighborhoods.

Speakers from Spokane Alliance member organizations, including ministers, child care providers, young apprentices and older union members, urged the council to endorse the progressive measure. It passed 4-3 – notching another Spokane Alliance success.

The new hiring rules for publicly funded projects over $5 million will require that a quarter of the labor force is hired from low-income communities. They will have to be graduates from a state-certified apprenticeship program, veterans, women, people of color, people with past criminal convictions, formerly homeless or people living in a low-income area.

Councilman Paul Dillon, who sponsored the ordinance, dismissed complaints from non-union contractors that the law would make projects less competitive and increase costs, drawing a parallel with an earlier Spokane Alliance organizing project.

He noted that many of the people present in the chamber had also turned out a decade ago to support the city’s proposed “Sick and Safe Leave” law. Opponents falsely argued then that providing paid sick leave to local low-income workers would cause businesses to leave or suffer. Instead, paid sick leave has become widely mainstream and has “led to people wanting to come work here in Spokane,” Dillon said.

Many thanks to the UUCS members who turned out Monday to support the community workforce agreement … you are working for justice!

Karen Dorn Steele
Spokane Alliance – UUCS Liaison member