Model Union Resolution to Defend Seattle's Historic Minimum Wage Victory

by Workers Strike Back

The Seattle City Council is considering legislation from District 3 Democratic Party Councilmember Hollingsworth to make a lower-tier minimum wage permanent, robbing over 200,000 workers of their right to the full minimum wage. We cannot let the City Council get away with this because this won’t be the last attack. The labor movement needs to fight to defend the gains we have won in wages, renters’ rights, and taxes on big business.

If you are a rank-and-file union member, please consider putting this resolution forward in your union, and help us fight back! Contact Workers Strike Back for more information at solidarity@workersstrikeback.org.

WHEREAS: Ten years ago in 2014, Seattle became the first major city to win the historic $15/hour minimum wage. With inflation adjustment, Seattle’s minimum wage is now at nearly $20/hour, making it the nation’s highest major-city minimum wage. This unprecedented victory was made possible by a united coalition of the labor movement, working people, socialists, and the 15 NOW movement, led by socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant;

AND WHEREAS: This sparked movements for a $15/hour minimum wage across the country, which led to gains at city and state levels in a breakthrough for low-paid workers, benefiting tens of millions of workers nationwide; 

AND WHEREAS: At the time, big business won a phase-in period of ten years for businesses with 500 or fewer employees, who have received a lower-tier minimum wage. This corporate loophole was opposed by the 15 NOW movement, which advocated for raising all workers’ wages at the same rate, and tax big businesses like Amazon to subsidize small businesses who needed support;

AND WHEREAS: Current City Councilmember, Joy Hollingsworth, has brought forward a bill that would permanently enshrine the lower tier wages. If this bill was allowed to pass, it would be a continuation of the divisive corporate assault on working-class living standards. The creation of two-tier wage scales has been a scourge to the labor movement that workers at UPS, the Big Three automakers, and elsewhere have fought to end, including by waging historic strike action;

AND WHEREAS: Seattle businesses have known this was coming for ten years, and in those ten years, the cost of living for working people on the one hand, and profits for the wealthy, on the other, have skyrocketed. David Rolf, former President of SEIU 775 when $15 was won, recently said, “These guys got 10 years to get their act together, and if they haven’t figured out how to run a successful business without screwing workers, shame on them. They don’t deserve to be in business;” 

AND WHEREAS: This legislation, if it becomes law, will rob over 200,000 working people in Seattle of at least $3/hour in wages. This includes workers in construction, food manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, educational services, food service & hospitality, personal & laundry service industry, healthcare & social services, nursing home industry, and social assistance. Many of these are highly exploited workers, and disproportionately Black, immigrant, and female;

AND WHEREAS: If Seattle City Council truly wanted to protect small businesses they would have passed and fought for commercial rent control in Washington - which was brought forward by Councilmember Sawant in 2023, but was voted down by the City Council;

AND WHEREAS: Working-class solidarity is a founding principle of the labor movement, as our banners proudly declare: An Injury To One Is An Injury To All;

AND WHEREAS: It is imperative that the labor movement fight to defeat this bill because if it passes, it will embolden big business and corporate landlords to attack other crucial gains won by Seattle’s working people. Current City Councilmembers have vowed to go after renters’ rights laws won over the last decade, including the winter and school-year eviction moratoriums, which Seattle unions helped fight to win;

AND WHEREAS: It is especially troubling that Councilmember Hollingsworth, the sponsor of the bill, was endorsed by the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council in the 2023 City Council election, and also received financial donations from labor unions. The labor movement needs to hold elected officials accountable to working people.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: _________ will stand in solidarity with minimum-wage workers and call on the City Council to vote “No” on this shameful attack on Seattle’s working people;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: _________ will endorse, and mobilize our members to, the rally to defend the minimum wage on Sunday August 4th at 1pm at Seattle City Hall alongside Workers Strike Back and Restaurant Workers United; 

AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED: ________ will publicize on social media and send an email to members, urging members to speak in City Council public comment, in person or remotely, on Tuesday August 6th at 2pm.