In The News
The News Tribune, 1/13/2016
“On Tuesday, Douglas revealed that, as of Feb. 1, he will eliminate gratuities at three of his best-known restaurants, replacing traditional tipping with a mandatory 20-percent service charge.
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“Now restaurant owners are trying out different approaches that lift up workers and are customer friendly. They'll figure it out, and we'll all be better off for it.” Working Washington Spokesman Sage Wilson
Quartz, 1/7/2016
Seattle just made history. On Dec. 15, and over the strong objections of industry behemoth Uber, the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance permitting for-hire drivers, including those that drive for Uber and Lyft as well as taxi drivers, to organize and collectively bargain with the companies they work for.
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Second, Seattle has established that the arrogance and power of the on-demand economy can be overcome by the collective power of workers and their communities.
Real Change, 1/6/2016
Working Washington created a simple tool to help employees answer questions that may arise from the phased-in plan: whatsmywage.org.
The site is a clean and easy-to-use resource for understanding the new minimum wage. By answering a series of questions (“Do you receive tips?” “Is your place of employment located in Seattle?”), employees are able to see the minimum wage they should be receiving, as well as future phases of the plan.
The Stranger, 12/7/2015
However, the survey doesn't answer other major questions about the working conditions for drivers—questions that are at the heart of the unionization debate in Seattle. Among them: How much are drivers making?
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Working Washington, the labor-backed group pushing for the unionization bill, also takes issue with the way Uber presented today's survey data. Sage Wilson, a spokesperson for the group, says in an e-mail that the company pulled a "statistical trick" because it packaged the results of the survey based on the number of drivers rather than hours worked by those drivers.
Federal Way Mirror, 11/11/2015
"What do we say in Federal Way? Low pay is not OK!" rang out from a crowd of protesters just outside of Federal Way's The Commons mall on Tuesday.
Organized by Working Washington, the group who launched the Seattle fast food strikes in 2013 for the $15 minimum wage, the rally was part of the statewide "It's Our Time" day of action. Similar rallies took place in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima and Olympia as well as more than 250 locations nationwide.
Yakima Herald, 11/10/2015
About 40 workers gathered in Millennium Plaza Tuesday in support of a $15 per hour minimum wage.
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Advocates are looking to get the minimum wage issue on top of political agendas in the wake of last week’s elections. The rally and march in Yakima was one of several events statewide organized by Working Washington, a coalition of unions, faith groups and grass roots organizations.
As part of Tuesday’s activities in Yakima, the group marched from Millennium Plaza to Yakima City Hall to provide more than 1,000 signatures from community members who support a $15 per hour minimum wage.
Business Examiner, 11/10/2015
The South Sound saw a series of rallies today organized by employee advocacy group Working Washington, an effort to raise awareness for living wages and rights on the job for workers statewide.
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The $15 minimum wage continues to be a rally cry for the movement. In Federal Way, shouts of “Show Me 15!” could be heard while demonstrators paraded through the mall carrying green “It’s Our Time” signs.
KOMO, 11/10/2015
In Seattle, the demonstrators blocked traffic during the morning commute downtown on First Avenue, even forcing at least one bus driver to do a three-point turn in the middle of the street to get out of the gridlock.
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"People are getting one or two days notice on their schedules changing sometimes - and that's just not acceptable. We have lives, too, and we have families that we need to take care of. We need to fight for better scheduling," said Tyler Klein, a former Starbucks barista.
These workers also say they just don't get enough hours to support a family - that they're essentially punished for taking sick leave.
KNDO, 11/10/2015
Protesters all over the country took to the picket line today. In Washington, workers rallied in Seattle, Olympia, Spokane and Yakima to demand a raise in the minimum wage.
Dozens of minimum wage workers from all over the Yakima Valley protested here in millennium plaza this afternoon, armed with a petition with over 1000 signatures. The Working Washington protest marched to city hall to encourage city council leaders to support them in raising the state minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour.
Seattle Times, 11/5/2015
In an indication of how much traction the minimum-wage movement has gained statewide, the Washington Restaurant Association, which has opposed immediate citywide minimum-wage hikes to $15, said Thursday it now actively supports raising the state’s minimum wage.
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Working Washington, a union-backed advocacy group pushing for increased minimum wages, called it “an extraordinary development” that the restaurant association “has now been compelled to publicly support higher wages,” and “perhaps the strongest indicator yet of how much our state’s politics have changed since fast food workers first went on strike for $15 an hour.”
KING 5, 10/8/2015
While candidates' individual campaigns have maximum contribution limits of $700 in Seattle, independent expenditures have no limits. However, the IE spending cannot be known or made in cooperation or in concert with the candidate's campaign, or so they've sworn.
"Accountability is really important here," said Sage Wilson of Working Washington.
Wilson started a political website, "runforthemoney.org" to highlight who is contributing to campaigns.
Puget Sound Business Journal, 9/29/2015
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, baristas at the company's global headquarters in Seattle distributed leaflets to customers and wrote #OurTimeCounts on cups to "generate conversation about the campaign for weeks that work," advocacy group Working Washington said in a release on Tuesday.
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Yet in the Working Washington release on Tuesday, workers claim they have yet to receive schedules more than five days in advance while they are required to submit vacation requests three weeks in advance.
The Stranger, 9/23/2015
Sage Wilson, a spokesperson for Working Washington, the group that helped organize workers for the $15 minimum wage and is currently working on the campaign to let Uber and Lyft drivers unionize, says concerns about scheduling are common among baristas and fast-food workers in Seattle. Working Washington doesn't hear as much about "clopenings," he says, but hears plenty from Starbucks baristas and other low-wage workers about the insecurity caused by unpredictable scheduling.
Publicola, 9/17/2015:
The union-backed group Working Washington is circulating a bill of rights for “Uber Economy” drivers (and passengers) complaining that $51 billion companies like Uber “exploit” contract workers by, for example, not paying the $15 minimum wage and not allowing drivers to organize. (Check out Working Washington’s driver and passenger bill of rights, which also highlights passenger privacy.)
Citing the city’s regulatory powers over the ride share industry, progressive council member Mike O’Brien recently proposed legislation that would give contract drivers the right to organize.
Working Washington has reached out to candidates (and current council members) through social media, receiving some enthusiastic responses (Kshama Sawant retweeted the effort with a shout-out in support, and her opponent Pamela Banks favorited the campaign), but only seven of the 18 candidates and one of nine council members have officially signed the document.
KPLU Radio, 9/10/2015:
Labor groups are criticizing Alaska Airlines for taking this legal step. The head of the union-backed group, Working Washington, said in a letter to Alaska’s CEO, Brad Tilden, that the company has a strategy of “delay for delay’s sake.”
"The stalling tactics have gone on long enough," Working Washington Executive Director Sejal Parikh wrote. "Many workers at Sea-Tac will get their paychecks Friday. They expect to see their $15.24/hour and backpay on those checks."
In a statement, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said what the plaintiffs want is "clarification" from the court.
"As is, we don't know how tenants and vendors can comply with the Supreme Court decision, so Filo Foods and Alaska are seeking clarification," she wrote.
Seattle Times, 9/9/2015:
Sejal Parikh, executive director of Working Washington, which advocated for Proposition 1, called the move by Alaska Airlines a delaying strategy.
“At this point it is clear that you don’t have a legal strategy,” Parikh wrote in an open letter posted on Working Washington’s website. “You have a strategy of delay for delay’s sake.”
Real Change, 9/9/2015:
Sejal Parikh, executive director of Working Washington, was similarly optimistic. She acknowledged Uber’s success in silencing its critics in other cities, but was unfazed, saying,
“This is our city, Seattle isn’t like other cities. Workers and passengers in this city will prevail."
KIMA-TV, 9/2/2015:
YAKIMA, Wash.-- Workers in Yakima are fighting for higher wages.
Dozens of low wage workers gathered today to start a campaign to raise Yakima's minimum wage from the state's $9.47 an hour to $15 an hour.
Guest speakers from the community spoke to the group and answered questions about the need for a wage hike.
The rally is organized by Working Washington, a group that helped raise Seattle's minimum wage.
The group hopes their campaign will help make similar changes in the Yakima Valley.
The Stranger, 9/1/2015:
All this lack of clarity about what happened, why, and what the protocol is shows exactly why drivers like Gobena should be able to bargain over working conditions, argue O'Brien and other supporters.
Working Washington spokesperson Sage Wilson says it’s particularly relevant that as an employee Gobena would have the explicit right to organize with coworkers and not be fired for it, but that as an independent contractor, Uber isn’t bound by those same rules. “It’s as if Uber wanted us all to have a teachable moment on arbitrary discipline and the right to organize,” Wilson says.
Gobena says that if he could bargain, he'd ask for a more clear policy explaining how the company warns drivers about issues like expired insurance before it simply deactivates their accounts.
Drivers, O'Brien said yesterday, "live in fear of waking up and seeing they have been deactivated."
Seattlish, 8/26/2015:
Add Working Washington to your RSS reader. They are doing some of the best work highlighting the numerous benefits of the new minimum wage.
Working Washington | 719 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98104, United States
