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Recent local Workers Rights Victories that
Washington State Jobs with Justice is Celebrating
(July, 2005)
Roll Call of Victories
Dogged by a sketchy ethics track record raised by his 2004 Pierce County Scrooge award, Tacoma City Councilmember Kevin Phelps has resigned from his position mid-term. Pierce County JwJ activists voted Phelps Scrooge of the Year for:
- trying to strip affordable family healthcare from city workers
- recruiting a Patriot Act privatized Federal Detention jail to be built on a Tacoma Tide Flats Superfund toxic site with low-wage jobs thus increasing Bush's potential to imprison hundreds of innocent residents swept up by Ashcroft-style "anti-terrorist" raids
- personally benefiting from renting the prison-privatizing company space at his Landmark Convention Center to train guards
- trying to change the name of our beloved Tacoma Dome to the corporate unionbuster "Comcast Dome"
Phelps first publicly had said he would gladly accept the Scrooge award but then when presented with it, he ran away in front of his City Council peers.
We do applaud Phelps for tending to his family long-term illnesses. As he indicated in his resignation letter, his family needs his services far more than the working people of Tacoma where his policies have been mean-spirited and driven by elite profiteering. It's a shame that Phelps' published resignation letter had to take more Scroogy pot shots like blaming city workers for sky-rocketing healthcare costs. Hey Scrooge Phelps: pick on somebody at your own greed level like the drug or insurance companies causing these higher costs. No city worker is getting rich asking for affordable family healthcare. It seems you are the one getting rich while trying to cut budgets on the backs of hard-working Tacomans.
Will media or government investigate Phelps' scandalous legacy of conflicts of interest?
Phelps has helped bring many poverty wage jobs to Tacoma along with developing his pretty buildings. So far we've seen media backslapping for a businessman who during his Council term raised his personal fortune while paying low-wages, attacking the right to healthcare, conducting unauthorized developer negotiations, and manipulating deals that benefit him but not Tacoma.
Earlier this year, hospital workers at St. Joseph's organized with SEIU 1199NW to get some of the strongest union contract protections against discrimination in any hospital in the state. The Tacoma Ministerial Alliance and JwJ activists also helped organize community involvement in this campaign. The members of local 1199NW wanted to address a history of racist treatment at the hospital. Several St. Joseph's workers filed discrimination complaints with the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In the last few weeks, the federal EEOC has come down with an indictment of St. Joseph's Hospital management, finding merit with the complaints and committing to prosecute this case. The Tacoma Ministerial Alliance has now offered to partner with St. Joseph's Hospital management to address a culture of systemic racism. St. Joseph's CEO Wilczek accepted this offer at a meeting called with him by the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance last week. We hope that we can all work collaboratively to make changes that show management respect to workers.
In the last two months, Washington State Jobs with Justice has committed significant resources to expanding our activity in the South Sound. From a ten year track record of victories and action, South Sound JwJ activists have launched an ambitious program to address regional burning issues of the day: Social Responsibility at Wal-Mart, Living Wage Job Standards, Supporting Workers Organizing Impacted by War, Job Exporting, and Immigrant Worker Rights. To resource this plan, we are recruiting new member organizations to voting seats in the JwJ coalition, organizing more "I'll be there" pledge card activists, and fundraising.
If you live in the South Sound and would like to get more involved, please contact us at: South Sound Office of Washington State Jobs with Justice, (253) 459-5107, southsound@wsjwj.org, 3049 S. 36 St #201, Tacoma 98409-5801. All activists are welcome to participate in our Pierce County Organizing Committee that meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday at 6pm at 3049 S. 36 St in Tacoma.
While we celebrate these victories, we have much organizing before they are secure. We need our combined volunteer activism and funding to continue to build a better world.
Please support WA State JwJ!
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