From Sejal Parikh, Working Washington Executive Director:
On Tuesday, at about 7:00 in the morning, coffee and fast food workers kicked off a statewide day of action by forming a human clock outside Pike Place Market, chanting “It’s Our Time” and calling for reliable schedules and access to hours. An LA Times reporter asked me if it all had something do with the last days of the gum wall, but other than that the message seemed to get out pretty clearly. Already, people are saying that scheduling is likely to be the next big workers issue in Seattle. (We going to make sure they’re right.)
That was just the beginning. For the rest of the day, as workers rallied in malls in Federal Way and Lakewood, marched down Spokane streets, and converged at City Halls in Yakima and Olympia to call for $15, paid sick days, and fair schedules.
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donate to Working Washington today.
We livestreamed the whole day of action on our website, and more than 5,000 people watched workers rising up, live as it happened across the state. From Seattle, I got to listen when Yakima workers delivered their petitions calling for $15. When they told the City Hall staffer who accepted the petitions that they had 1,000 signatures, he quietly replied:
“A thousand? Wow.”
That’s the sound of political change, live as it happens.
After the landmark $15 victories in SeaTac in 2013 and Seattle last year, about the only thing we could do for a follow-up is to build a powerful, sustainable statewide workers movement. We just got a taste of what that movement looks like, and it’s going to change our state for good.
Would you give $15 today in support of the statewide workers movement we’re growing from Olympia to Yakima, Seattle to Spokane, and everywhere in between?
Thanks,
Sejal Parikh, Executive Director
Working Washington
P.S. I think the gum wall is gross