Good morning.
Today is Thursday, April 14th, 2019. The Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee will come to order.
It is 9.33.
I'm Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the committee.
I'm joined by Councilmember Gonzalez.
I'm very excited to have you here, also co-sponsor of some legislation that we'll be considering today.
We have two items on the agenda for today, all focused on workers' rights.
The first is a discussion of the hotel employee issues, and the second is a discussion on paid sick and safe leave time for Seattle school district employees.
Very excited to have with us the honorable school board member, Zachary DeWolf, to talk on a section related to that issue as well.
We're going to start with public comment, and as a reminder for those who are in the audience and are viewing public, there will be two minutes accepted for each person who's here to speak.
We would like you to begin your comments as usual by introducing yourself and the item you wish to speak to.
There was some confusion in the last few meetings about what our council rules actually say about public comment, so I want to use this opportunity to clarify.
According to our public comment council rules item 3 council committee shall accept public comment at a standing and select committee meetings public comment at committee meetings shall be limited to matters within the purview of the specific committee item or Listed on today's agenda and the presiding officer at the committee meeting shall ensure that all public comment is accordance with rule 6 c 3 a Just to clarify and remind folks So the first person that we have here to speak is Mr. Zimmerman.
Your time has started.
Behild, my duty, Fuhrer.
A Nazi pig from animal farm.
My name Alexander.
I want to speak about the hotel worker problem that we have right now.
Yes, all my life I've been fighting against discrimination and sexual harassment.
And because my experience is extremely big, you know what it means.
So I can share my information about my experience, which is absolutely identical to how this hotel is working.
I have discrimination and sexual harassment from this chamber every day for many years.
And who give me this?
A woman, like Gonzalez, like a virus, or like a mosquito, you know what I mean?
Please keep your comments specific to items on the agenda.
Exactly, absolutely.
I talk about sexual harassment.
Regarding hotel workers.
I have experience with sexual harassment care in this chamber.
I give you my experience, so you supposed to be support these people, you know what I mean, who work for a because what happened here in this chamber is only show how deep sexual harassment and discrimination we will have.
So these three women, it's all only brown, it's all Catholic, and it's all...
Madam Chair, I don't think that this public testimony is relevant to an agenda item.
Mr. Zimmerman, you've been warned.
No.
That's exactly what I said.
I give you my experience.
You know what it means.
This and this chamber.
So when this chamber, we have our discrimination and harassment...
You can turn the microphone off.
Mr. Zimmerman, I warned you to keep it two items on the agenda.
That was not a public comment related to the items on the agenda.
Your time is up.
The next person that we have to speak Thank you.
The next person that we have to speak is Charlie Lampom.
I'm sorry if I pronounced her name wrong, Charlie.
Our friends from Martin Luther King County Labor Council.
Okay, if we see them come back, we may go ahead and let them know they were called and if they have a few minutes they'd like to share, we'll do that.
Anybody else here would like to share something specific to today's agenda item?
So, we will close public comment for today.
Thank you very much, sitting in Vice Chair, Member Gonzalez, for your help today.
Let's go to the first item on the agenda.
The first item on the agenda, Farideh Cuevas, could you read into the record for us?
And while she's doing that, could we have our friends who are going to be participating in today's conversation, Abby Lallor and some of the workers from the hotel industry join us at the table.
Agenda item 1 hotel employee issues for briefing and discussion Welcome come on up
Antonio, are you going to be translating today?
Okay, very good.
So for our viewing audience, we also have Antonio Rufin, who's going to be consecutive interpreting for one of our panelists today.
Hola y bienvenidos aquí.
Estamos aquí a hablar con ustedes hoy sobre la tema de su trabajo en hoteles.
Y gracias por la presentación que vas a presentar.
So, thanks so much for being here to share your stories.
I just mentioned that Council Member Gonzalez and I are eager to have folks at the table who speak in various languages.
We're lucky to be able to understand Spanish, so looking forward to the presentation.
We're still going to translate in Spanish, though, for our viewing audience at home.
in English for our viewing audience at home.
Thank you guys so much for being here.
Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda and members of the committee for the opportunity to join you today.
I know you had a briefing last week about the contents of the initiative that was first passed in 2016 and the current legal status.
And so I think we're really hoping today to take the opportunity to talk about where that law came from and the issues that were present in the hotel industry in Seattle.
to in particular hear some stories from workers in the industry about what their experiences have been, but really to background, you know, why that initiative was so needed at the time and why we now need legislative action to make sure that those protections stay in place for workers.
So I'll introduce the folks that are here with me today and also have them introduce and say what they would like to say, but I'm really excited.
They're both folks that I think can speak directly to some of these issues and also have been real leaders in their workplaces on a number of important organizing efforts that workers have undertaken over the last several years.
To my right is Neris Deras, and then I have Min Vong to my left, and Stelliano across the table.
Neris, is there anything else you want to say by way of introduction?
Gracias por tomarnos en cuenta y por entendernos.
Nosotros estamos acá para hablar sobre los daños o las consecuencias que a veces uno tiene trabajando en los hoteles.
En mi caso, pasó algo.
desagradable con un huésped.
Este huésped se desnudo completamente al tiempo que yo iba a entrar al cuarto a hacer la limpieza.
Y yo tenía como seis meses de embarazo, yo creo.
No me recuerdo muy bien.
Pero fue algo muy, muy desagradable.
Pero nosotros en ese momento, En ese momento no hicimos nada, pero al siguiente día nosotros sí pudimos hablar con la unión y con los managers.
Y ellos nos dieron el apoyo para poder ellos hacer algo con este huésped.
Ellos lo corrieron, porque dijeron que eso no era nada,
Thank you for having me here and for understanding me and giving me the opportunity to speak.
I'm here to talk about some of the things, the events that can happen in a hotel.
situation and the consequences that that can carry for employees.
I was actually involved in a very unpleasant case involving a guest, and when I came to clean his room, he removed his clothes.
I was six months pregnant at the time, so it was an extremely difficult situation.
Nothing really happened beyond that.
But the following day, although we didn't do anything at the time, the following day we reported the incident to my union and the management at the hotel and got the support that I was hoping for.
And the guest was dismissed, but I was pleased that something was done about this particular event.
Min, do you want to introduce yourself to see who you are, where you work?
Good morning, everyone.
I'm working in the...
Min, can you get that microphone a little closer to you?
There you go.
I'm working in the Western Hotel, 27th year.
And then I work in the housekeeping department.
Housekeeping is very hard job.
Every day we clean 15 room a day.
And then, what else I can say?
That's good to hear.
And Stelliana, can you introduce yourself?
Hi, my name is Stiliano.
I work at Embassy Suites downtown.
I am a banquet houseman.
Life is not easy even there, but what's even harder is the medical plan, as we know.
Medical plans are expensive everywhere, and they are getting even funny.
As funny as I saw one day a commercial on a bus.
It was saying, fixing one arm and one leg doesn't always cost one.
which is very extreme, I would say.
So I have these paychecks with me, paystubs, that show how much I have paid for last year.
It was like 156. 0.41 each paycheck for my medical plan.
It's very expensive, but that's what I needed to cover my needs.
And this year, I changed it because it's very expensive for me.
I changed it to a crappy plan, which is like 50 something.
Because it doesn't cover all my needs, but it's what I can afford right now.
And for this, I'm trying to do something because we all have our medical problems.
I am alone, I don't have someone else to have a medical plan to cover me, so I have to cover myself.
And I would like something to change.
Thank you.
Thanks.
And I should also say we have Natalie Kelly here who's an organizer with UNITE here locally, a worker organizer, and may also jump in with some stories that she's heard from workers about these issues.
I guess we, with that introduction from folks, we can kind of get into the different subjects under the initiative.
And I want to say thank you, too, to the folks who were able to join us last Friday at the library to hear additional stories from our members.
We had about 50 Seattle hotel workers in the room that night, and I thought some really powerful stories about the issues covered in the initiative.
And a PowerPoint will go through today that was originally designed for that meeting.
I apologize, the font is very fun.
I just want to welcome Councilmember Herbold, thank you for joining us as well, an additional co-sponsor of the work that we're doing here.
Also want to recognize, thank you for the invitation, thank you for the invitation to the event.
Last Friday, I know Councilmember Herbold's office was represented, Councilmember Gonzalez, myself, and Councilmember O'Brien had a chance to attend as well.
So thank you first and foremost for your members' time and the folks who are working in the hotel industry for sharing their stories.
I feel like we have so much more of your stories to share today at this table, and that was just an introductory comment, so we do hope to hear more about your stories and any of the items that you'd like to share as you go through the presentation.
So with that, you know, thank you, because I know it takes a lot of courage to share those stories.
Thank you.
So we just did some intro stories.
And also, as we walk through these pieces, I want to express a huge thanks and appreciation to Puget Sound Sage for the research work that they've done over many years around the hotel industry in Seattle.
First in 2012 in their report, Our Pain, No Gain, and Our Pain, Their Gain.
And more recently through their publication of a survey that our members work to do of workplace injury and sexual harassment in downtown hotels.
I think both of those are really important resources and would be happy to provide those to council after this meeting.
And I think just two important background points to make as we talk about these issues.
First, the hotel workforce in Seattle is a majority people of color, a majority immigrants.
And housekeeping departments in particular are overwhelmingly female.
30% of Seattle hotel workers are Asian Pacific Islander, 15% black and African American, and 16% Latino.
And a substantial majority of workers in the industry don't currently have the benefit of a union contract.
And I know you did some history last week, but I think those were sort of the background conditions for in 2016, the ballot initiative that was passed with 77% of the vote to create some additional protections around workload and workplace safety, around sexual harassment, around healthcare access, and around job security.
So we'll get into workload.
In 2012, when SAGE was looking at these issues, they found that hotel housekeepers had a higher rate of injury than coal miners or construction workers.
I went back in preparation for this to see if that still held true a number of years later, and it does.
Hotel housekeeping, more dangerous than occupations that I think there's definitely a public perception of being more dangerous work.
Yeah, I would love to turn it back over to Min to have her talk a little bit more about the work that she does day-to-day and then her experience of the impact that that has had on her body.
Min, can you talk a little bit more about the work that you do every day when you go to work, what you do?
What do you like me to talk about?
Like, I have to clean the gym, I'm rushing.
Just when you go into work, what do you do during your shift to clean the room?
That's okay.
That's all right.
Making the bed and cleaning, just talk through, describe your job.
When you're starting?
What do you work when you're starting?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Can you talk more about just 15 rooms, what it takes to clean 15 rooms?
In our department, every day we housekeeping, clean every day 15 rooms.
When we have a lot of checkout and then we are very rushing, rushing to finish the room.
What about checkout rooms?
Do you have a lot of checkouts?
Well, when you have a lot of checkout, you have to make more time for cleaning the room because everything you have to completely clean when the guest checking in.
And can you talk about when you hurt your shoulder?
Yeah, when I was resting in the room, I got a lot of checkouts.
And then when I was lifting the bed, I got an injury in my shoulder.
And then, whatever.
And then what did you have to do to get better from your injury?
And then after that, I stayed home.
And then I working late for two months, and then after that I stay home.
And then I take a rest, and getting better, I return to full-time work.
And how many times did you go to the doctor?
When I go to the chiropractor for 15 times for my chiropractor doctor, And then after I feeling better, and then I go back to full-time work.
Thank you.
Thank you.
May I say something really quickly?
Mint, I just want to say thank you for sharing your story.
Gracias por compartir su historia.
I just wanted to acknowledge that this is somewhat of an uncomfortable environment.
I don't feel comfortable here very often.
If it makes you feel any better.
It's a really hard time to save for something.
Yes.
I just try how much I can share with everyone when I'm in the hotel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I just, I wanna thank you for that.
I wanna, I just, I know that this is sort of a weird space and environment, cause it's very formal and official and it's, you know, it's important to us to make sure that we have real people joining us in chambers to talk to us about some of these issues.
And I just, I wanna thank you for sharing your story and anything we can do to help you make you feel comfortable, you let us know.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And Nerys, is there anything you would want to add about your experience doing the work of housekeeping and cleaning?
Pues, como ella dijo, es algo muy difícil, muy duro.
Apenas tengo tres años trabajando en limpieza de hotel, pero yo siento que es algo super pesado.
Nosotros somos unos de los aventajados que nos tratan mejor que en los otros hoteles.
It is really hard work.
I've been doing this barely just three years.
It is extremely heavy work.
We just happen to be lucky that I have an employer who actually looks after us.
En el caso de nosotros, si son 10 cuartos checados, nos dan nada más 13 de llover más, son 13 cuartos en el día.
Y si son checados, nos dan nada más 11 para las 8 horas, que está mejor que en los otros hoteles.
Esa es una de las motivaciones de que a mí me hace querer participar en las reuniones para que los demás también tengan los beneficios que nosotros tenemos.
The number of rooms that I have to clean varies depending on whether the guests have been checked out or not.
It varies between 10, it could be up to 13. Ordinarily, it's about 11 rooms in an eight-hour shift.
It's still better than many other hotels, but one of the reasons why I want to be here is to help or to speak for the people who are not as fortunate as I am.
En el hotel a veces dicen, ah, pero tú estás joven, pero que esté joven no quiere decir que no me duela y que no me sienta cansada.
Hay días que son tan agotados porque si son diarios, diarios, once cuartos checados, cuando viene a ser el día que descansas, tú estás molido o llegas a tu casa y quieres dormir porque es demasiado el cansancio.
Y tengo compañeras que han trabajado ahí durante 40 años.
So it's really hard work.
Sometimes I'm told, well, you're young, you can handle it.
And that really makes really no difference and shouldn't be a factor.
After you have to clean 11 rooms, you are absolutely destroyed.
It's really, really a lot.
I know some people who've been doing this for 40 years and their bodies really show it.
Their bodies are often deformed by the stress.
Their shoulders, their fingers, their knees, especially get really swollen.
So it's just really hard work.
Just to pick up on a few of the pieces that Nurse mentioned in the survey that we did of housekeepers in Seattle hotels, 97% reported pain as a result of their work.
And for a majority, they said that pain caused them trouble sleeping, made it hard for them to complete routine tasks like eating, walking, exercising, or taking care of their family members.
And that pain workers attribute both to the volume of work that they do, so the number of rooms that they're required to clean, and also the pace, the speed at which those rooms are required to be completed.
Housekeepers are typically assigned a quota, a number of rooms that they need to complete before the end of their shift, and that can range significantly from hotel to hotel.
And there's often a lot of fear around rebuke or discipline if you don't complete your rooms in the time that's allotted to you.
And that stress and anxiety rate also contributes to some of the physical problems that workers are experiencing as a result of their workload.
And it's something that's damaging to overall health.
And I think as also came up in Min's story, is a threat to a family's economic security when workers are forced to take paid or unpaid leave, have additional medical costs, some of which are covered by workers' compensation, some of which are not, are no longer able to do their jobs because of injury that has, you know, not only an impact on their health, but has an impact on the economic security of their families.
So I think looking at the survey results and the stories that we've heard, there was sort of a clear need for some limitation to the overall work that's being assigned to housekeepers.
I'll stop there and see if there's any questions on workload or on the stories that folks shared before we move into talking about sexual harassment.
Thank you, Abby.
And thanks to both of you for sharing your stories and for you sharing your story earlier.
I want to reiterate that this is a safe place.
You all have your union representatives as well here with you.
But we want to make sure that you feel safe in telling your story.
So thanks again for your willingness you know, relive these experiences with us, we know that it's not easy.
One of the things that I heard that really stuck with me from the presentation last week was the conversation around the type of stress that is caused both for mental stress and physical stress and how that had induced miscarriages.
I think it is a trend that we're seeing in a lot of precarious positions, unsafe working conditions, from hotel working to Amazon warehouse work.
We hear repeated stories of miscarriages being reported, and we also know that those are underreported.
Do you mind reiterating some of the stories that you've heard or the one that was shared with us from last week?
Because I think as women, as people who are fighters for workers' rights and as, you know, a healthcare champion, this is also something that I think is a really important trend that we continue to expose because it has a direct connection on people's health and the health of women and the health of future babies.
So do you mind just repeating for us the story that one of your members shared about miscarriages?
Sure.
Yet, you know, when you're, there are really specific limitations about what kind of physical labor you should do while you're pregnant.
Lifting limitations, I think sometimes it's like 10 pounds is the maximum you should lift.
There's virtually no part of the housekeeper's job that requires lifting less than 10 pounds.
And so something that union housekeepers have fought for is a workload reduction during pregnancy.
And last Friday, a worker from the Embassy Suites Hotel shared her story of having multiple miscarriages on the job at a job she's been at for a year.
She suffered a miscarriage.
Meanwhile, another of her coworkers was pregnant.
And while she was in her third trimester of pregnancy, was being given extra rooms every day beyond the 5,000 square foot limit.
And she only had a room reduction when there was an outcry of her coworkers and from her union representatives to get her workload reduced.
She got her workload reduced.
The woman who spoke on Friday then Tried again to have a baby and was pregnant and once again lost it because there was no workload reduction for her.
And she's trying to figure out what she should do because her mother and her husband are both saying, you have to stop this job.
It's really hurting you.
But this is the job that she uses to support her family.
So something powerful she expresses that she knows she should quit.
She knows she shouldn't do this work, but she feels like she doesn't have a choice because this is how she supports her family.
Thank you for sharing that.
As someone who also had a miscarriage last year, I know that it is extremely painful.
And to think about suffering through that multiple times, especially knowing that your workload is contributing to that stress physically and mentally, is not only tragic, but it is something that demands attention and demands to be stopped.
So please reiterate our appreciation for her sharing that very tough story.
And I think a lot of people can understand that pain, but a lot of people cannot imagine having the pain be repeated multiple times and have it be in part due to the workload.
So thank you for sharing that with Seattle as well, as we think about why it's so important for not just the health of the local economy and the health of individuals' stability, but the health of our population.
I think it's an important critical connection, especially in this committee as we have health and labor connected.
Thank you very much for the pause, Abby.
Any other questions, council members?
I have a question about compliance with the initiative as it has been enacted despite the fact that it's being challenged.
What are we finding generally in hotels with compliance as it relates specifically to the square footage rule?
I mean, I think we've seen a whole range of different approaches to implementing that piece of the law, some of which are compliant, some of which are not.
I think a particular piece that we would want to flag and think more with you about as a we think about the future of this policy is whether or not additional, if a worker cleans additional square footage beyond the limit in the law, if that's something that is done voluntarily or is that something that can be required by employers.
I think the language in the original initiative was clear that that's a voluntary decision that a worker makes, that they have the capacity to clean additional rooms.
I think we saw some examples where workers were not actually given that free choice to decide that they wanted to do additional rooms, but were told that they had to do that.
So that's a particular compliance issue we've seen that we would like to think about how to address.
Okay, I guess we can move into talking about sexual harassment.
By way of background, I'll say, you know, there are a number of reasons that hotel workers in particular are at risk for workplace sexual harassment and assault, some having to do with the environment in which they work, some having to do with the demographics of who works in the industry.
According to the EEOC, those risk factors include cultural or language differences in the workplace, workplaces with significant power disparities, workplaces that rely on customer service or client satisfaction, and isolated workplaces.
And then we also know socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, gender identity, these other factors also put workers at particular risk of a workplace sexual harassment and assault.
Yeah, I will pause for a second and see, Neris, if there's anything else that you want to share from your experience, why you think that One, that that happened to you, and then sort of what factors influenced the outcome for you.
Sí, yo he hablado mucho sobre este caso.
En parte porque sé que sucede en muchos hoteles y hay muchas mujeres que no quieren hablar porque les da miedo, porque les da pena, porque no tienen un estatus migratorio.
¿Por qué piensan que nos van a correr?
¿Por qué tal vez es el único empleo que tienen?
Y a veces es difícil conseguir otro, más si ese no tienen un seguro bueno, piensan, ¿debo quedarme aquí y no decir nada?
En mi caso, como hace un rato les dije, yo tenía cinco o seis meses de embarazo.
Yo vi que venía un huésped de desayunar y le preguntó si quiere que yo le limpie su cuarto.
Y él dijo, sí, yo necesito limpieza, pero yo voy a salir.
Entonces, él dijo que iba a salir y yo voy al carro a recoger las cosas que ocupo para limpiar.
Y le tocó la puerta una vez y él no contesta, tocó otra vez y él no contestó.
Pero él sabía que yo iba a entrar, porque él mismo me dijo que él ya iba a salir.
Entonces, cuando yo dentro, él está completamente desnudo, parado sobre una toalla.
Y le digo, oh, lo siento, regreso al rato.
Y él me dijo, no, no tengo ningún problema con que tú dentres a limpiarme el cuarto.
Y yo le digo, no, regreso luego.
Y cierro la puerta y me voy.
Pero ahorita ya no siento lo mismo como en ese entonces.
Un miedo, como un nervio.
Yo no sabía qué hacer.
Y yo no le dije a nadie.
Me quedé callada ese día.
por unas horas, por una media hora o una hora, me fui a limpiar otros cuartos, pero yo sabía que tenía que limpiar ese cuarto porque tenía que reportarlo.
Entonces, la compañera que está en el mismo piso dice, Nuri, ¿alguien te anda buscando de tal cuarto?
Dice que ya puedes entrar a limpiarlo, que él ya se va.
Y entonces yo me quedé así, ¿pero qué hago?
Si voy y ese hombre está adentro otra vez.
Entonces le hablé a mi supervisora y le dije lo que me sucedió y dijo, no, dijo, ahorita vamos a ir las dos y vamos a entrar a ese cuarto y lo vamos a limpiar juntas.
Y ella fue conmigo, lo limpiamos y él ya no estaba ahí, pero ella no comentó nada ni yo tampoco a los managers, nos quedamos así nada más con eso.
Pero el siguiente día, Olga de la Unión andaba ahí en el hotel, y salió el tema sobre eso, y dijo, ¿y ustedes no comunicaron nada?
Dijo a los managers, no.
Y dijo, eso no puede pasar.
Ese hombre sigue aún aquí, dijo, después de lo que hizo, y les va a volver a ocurrir lo mismo o tal vez una cosa peor.
Entonces, ella habló al jefe de nosotros, y él puso, So, I want to speak about my case because this is something that happens a lot, especially to women.
And little is done often because they are afraid about many things.
They are afraid that they may lose their job.
They are afraid of their immigration status.
Maybe it's their only job.
Maybe it's hard for them to find another one if they are dismissed as a result of this.
They have little or no insurance.
So usually they just simply stay and say nothing.
The, in my particular event, I was, as I mentioned earlier, five to six months pregnant.
And I was, I came to clean this particular room.
The guest, a male guest, said that he was back from breakfast.
And when she went into the room, inquired if he needed the room cleaned and He said, yes, sure, no problem.
I'm just going out.
So as she went back to the car to retrieve her cleaning supplies, the guests closed the door.
And so when she came back, she knocked on the door a few times.
He would not reply initially.
He knew she was coming back.
So this was really deliberate.
What happened next, he finally opened the door.
He was completely naked except for a towel.
I said, don't worry, I'll be back later, I can clean your room later, and closed the door.
She continued her shift, had other rooms to clean, so she worked about maybe another half an hour or an hour.
But she kept thinking, I'm really shaken by this.
I need to come back and clean that room that is in my schedule.
So what is going to happen?
Are we going to have a repeat of the same situation?
So she spoke with her supervisor, and she said, no, this is totally unacceptable.
Let's go back in.
I'll go in with you.
The two of us will deal with this.
We'll clean the room if necessary.
When they came in, the guest was already gone, and so they completed the cleaning and left it at that.
But the following day, the issue came up again, and she spoke with Olga, who's her union representative.
And she said, oh, this is just totally unacceptable.
Did you ask anything?
I'm sorry, did you report this event to anyone?
And she said no, or I said no.
So keep in mind, this guest is still at the hotel.
And this could repeat, the situation could repeat itself, or we could have an even worse event.
So we really need to speak with the manager, which they did, and the case was dismissed.
And just reiterating that last point, and you said the case was dismissed.
¿Qué nada pasó después?
Puedes hablar en el micrófono, por favor.
Gracias.
El siguiente día que llegó Olga, como lo dije, ese mismo día ya llamó a nuestros managers y el dijo, nuestro jefe dijo, ¿cómo es posible que ustedes no me hayan dicho esto?
Ustedes saben de que para mí, ustedes como trabajadores son muy importantes.
Muchas veces se dice de que el huésped siempre tiene la razón.
Y en este caso yo no puedo decir lo mismo, porque ustedes tienen tiempo trabajando con nosotros, y para mí ustedes son prioridad.
Y él me dijo, ¿te sientes bien?
¿O quieres tomarte el resto del día que falta, dice, para irte para tu casa?
¿O crees que necesites ir a algún lado, a un psicólogo o algo?
Y digo, no, yo estoy bien.
Y dice, el huésped ya fue sacado del hotel.
A él le dijimos que no puede regresar más.
Él aceptó de que él hizo algo indebido.
Y pues, me sentí muy bien de que nuestro jefe haya reaccionado de esa forma.
Porque antes de yo hablar, por mí, a mí se me ocurrió eso.
Y dije, ¿y si no me creen?
¿Y si ellos piensan que yo me estoy inventando algo así?
So the following day, after I spoke with Olga, my union representative, as I mentioned, we spoke to the manager.
And his reaction was immediately, you should have told me immediately how come that didn't happen.
or reminded me that employees are extremely important to the business.
That although it's common to say that the guest is always right, in this case the employee is someone who's been working there for a long time, who's well known.
and that clearly the situation was not right and that it should have never happened.
He asked if I was feeling okay and whether I would want to take the rest of the day off.
or need any professional help, psychological help, to deal with the event.
She said no, that that was okay.
He also pointed out that the guest was dismissed, thrown out of the hotel, and told to never return.
And the guest, apparently, faced with the situation, accepted that he had done something improper.
So I felt really good that my boss reacted, my employer reacted in this way.
And part of the reason especially is because she feared that if she came forward with this story that she might not be believed and told that maybe she was inventing something, it was all in her head.
But in this case, she was immediately believed without question and the issue was dealt with.
De lo que es de mi historia, pues eso sería todo.
Pero me gustaría hablar de otro tema que le sucedió a una compañera.
Que ella fue a tocar la puerta de un cuarto.
Y el huésped empezó a forcejearla, a quererla entrar a la fuerza al cuarto.
Y se estuvieron forcejeando por un momento.
Y ella empezó a pedir ayuda.
Pero no pudieron, no hay avanzito.
to push the guest or do something because they know that afterwards it can have consequences, right?
A lawsuit or something like that.
My point when talking about this is because she was on the first floor where she was close to other people and they managed to see her.
The police arrived and managed to get the guest out.
But in another point of view, if that had happened to her on a fourth floor where there is no one who sees her, Ahora en día como está de que andan armados o son muy violentos y si nadie hubiera habido con ella, hubiera estado en un piso más arriba, ¿qué hubiera pasado?
Entonces esas son una de las cosas por las cuales también nosotros pensamos que un botón de pánico sería Muy bueno, pero algo que sea efectivo.
No algo que solamente haga una alarma y solo suene, pero nadie te va a escuchar.
Algo que sea efectivo como que pueda alguien tener como la localidad o saber en qué piso estás.
Another, so thank you for letting me share my story.
This would be all, but I also want to refer to another very troubling incident that happened to another fellow employee of mine.
In this particular situation, the employee knocked on the door of a particular room, and the guest, another male, tried to actually pull her in.
And for a few instances, there was actually a physical struggle between the guest and the employee.
She cried for help.
But fortunately, she was on the first floor where there were other people about and police were summoned and the guest was dealt with, thrown out, and the issue was resolved.
Her concern is that if, in this case, she was lucky because she happened to be on an area that was accessible and with some foot traffic.
But if she had been in the fourth floor, maybe she wouldn't have been so lucky.
One reads about also people being armed, and so the concern of physical aggression, assault, is a very real one.
Panic buttons are good as a good starting point, but I would hope that there's a better, a more effective way of doing this, maybe something that also notes the location of the employee, another particular, so the right amount of help can be summoned immediately.
Thank you very much, de nuevo, gracias de nuevo.
I just wanna remind us we have about 15 more minutes.
And thank you again for incorporating these stories, really appreciate it.
So I'll just quickly provide some quantitative data about sexual harassment that came from the survey we did of members.
We had 53% of housekeepers reporting some experience of sexual harassment or assault over the course of their work.
By far the most common incidents was being flashed or exposed to nudity from a guest.
Other workers reported being groped or cornered, hearing lewd remarks or comments, being propositioned or offered money for sex.
And 51% of workers surveyed said that they wouldn't or didn't report sexual harassment that they'd experienced.
And again, this is also an issue of economic security for families.
According to data from the National Council for Research on Women, women are nine times more likely to quit their jobs, five times more likely to transfer jobs.
and three times more likely to lose jobs because of workplace sexual harassment.
And 80% of women who have been harassed leave that job within two years.
So it's, again, both a workplace safety issue, but also something that has an impact on the ability for women hotel workers in particular to be able to support their families.
And I think we've seen from the stories and from that data a clear need for additional tools both to prevent workplace sexual harassment and then to allow workers to respond to harassment when it does occur.
And with that, I'll move into talking about health care access.
Great.
Stelliana, do you want to start us off and talk a little bit more about the challenges that you face being able to access health care for yourself and your family?
Not me personally, but there are some people on the banquets who work on several places, on call or part-time.
That means that they don't get medical insurance on any of them, doesn't matter if they work 80 hours or 120 hours or more.
And that's an issue too.
I personally don't have that issue but I still have some issues even as a full-time that I am.
Sometimes I don't get full-time hours at that place because the business depends on seasons, depends on the weather and so on.
Sometimes there are risks that if you don't work a certain amount of hours, you might lose your medical insurance anyway for a month or two.
It's complicated.
And I guess that's all.
Do you want to describe the kind of plan you have now?
It has expensive.
Deductible, yeah.
I pay less and it covers less, obviously.
And I haven't used it yet, even though I'm paying for it.
But it's not really what I need because I have a lot to do with my body.
And I hope I'll be okay.
What is your deductible on this plan?
3,500.
Wow.
Wow.
Deductible.
Yeah.
How much do you pay per month for that plan?
Right now it's like 54. Per check?
Yeah, because I choose a cheaper one because the expensive one was very expensive for me.
It's an almost impossible decision to choose which health plan.
I really like the foundation that was earlier set in the conversation around the initiative because really we know that the gold plan is the best plan that folks could choose but having to think about how You can afford that just on your own in the exchange, for example, is almost impossible.
And so I totally hear you.
A lot of people make the decision to pay less per month, but then if something happens, then it's so much more expensive and that's just scary and stressful.
Yeah, because there are two things here.
If you don't have a medical plan, in the end of the year, when you pay the taxes, you'll still pay for it, even though you didn't have it, you didn't use it.
And there's another thing that other employees say too, that if you have an expensive one, you will pay a lot.
And you will not use it, all of their benefits.
I was about to say something else, it ran out of my mouth.
I hate it when that happens.
Especially when you're live.
I think that the thing that you're saying is really the access issue is the most important.
It's one thing to say, hey, you have insurance, but if it's not accessible, then it's really not a peace of mind or a safety net.
Thank you for sharing that and for bringing your example of pay stubs.
That's very helpful, yes.
Yeah, if we look at Bureau of Labor Statistics data nationally about worker access to employer-offered healthcare, workers at accommodation and food service establishments have the lowest rate of medical care access, the lowest rate of participation in plans when they are offered.
and the lowest rate of take up.
So it means those workers are less likely to have access to a plan and then less likely to take it when it is available.
I think for a lot of the reasons you just heard, either premium costs are too expensive or deductibles and other costs.
are so high that it just doesn't make sense or folks are unable to take those costs on.
And I think there are also, unfortunately, some real limitations to the extent to which the ACA has expanded access for workers.
We see challenges in particular where employers offer minimum value plans that then mean that workers are unable to access subsidies, tax credits when they go to the exchange to purchase either a higher level of insurance or insurance for their families.
And so they're sort of stuck in this position where the plan that's available to them through their employer is not one that actually creates healthcare access because the associated costs are too high, but they're also not able to get help to purchase a different insurance plan.
So I think, you know, we see a clear need for some additional compensation for workers to be able to actually access care.
Thank you.
Council Member Gonzalez.
Yeah, on this issue, I think that the value in which the provisions of 124 that are rooted in improving access to medical care is super important.
In my reading of the now legislation, it doesn't seem to have a requirement that the money actually be used to purchase healthcare.
Can you, and to me, it makes sense to try to figure out how to marry the two.
In particular, because I think that I get concerned about there being readily available money And when you are already making not a lot, it's tempting to take the money.
And then if there isn't an actual requirement to purchase healthcare insurance, then I think that the intent, the underlying intent of the law, which is to create access to healthcare is potentially being undermined in a way that wasn't intended.
So can you talk a little bit about sort of a potential gap there between the intent and the actual letter of the law?
for, folks can disagree about whether it's fortunately or unfortunately, but I think there are some limitations around what the city can stipulate in terms of healthcare provision.
I think a clear objective of the original initiative was to make sure that workers were receiving additional compensation that genuinely reflected the amount of money they would need to actually go out and purchase a health care plan.
Because if workers were to get an additional $2 or $3 an hour towards health care, that's great, but that maybe doesn't actually get them that far in terms of actually accessing the healthcare that they would need for their families.
So I think we certainly tried to address that concern in that the payment is structured to actually reflect the cost that folks would face based on their insurance needs.
But I think we would be very open to thinking more about on the worker side what could be done to make sure that folks are actually using that money to access the care.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not calling into question the valuation around the cost of the insurance, but I do have concerns about making sure that we're connecting the amount of dollars that are being provided to workers to actually allow workers to be able to purchase health insurance in whatever market they choose.
And so I think, you know, I think for me there's a little bit of a disconnect currently around verifying that the employee actually utilized the money to access health care.
And ultimately I think that's That's the shared goal, right?
Is we want a healthier workforce.
It helps to address some of the work injury issues that we've been hearing stories about and that you highlighted in your presentation.
And we're not really truly allowing workers to address those fundamental physical mental health issues with insurance if the money is going to be used to purchase other stuff that meet basic needs but aren't healthcare insurance.
I guess the other thing I would say is just looking at other cities that have thought about these issues and taken some kind of action, thinking of San Francisco in particular.
It did involve some significant infrastructure from the city in order to establish a system where folks were more directly accessing care.
Yeah.
And I think in the minimum wage context, there was a slightly different kind of rubric to create greater incentive amongst employers to just provide that more affordable insurance directly to employees and so that might be a potential for us to explore as well in terms of a model here.
I'm going to do a quick time check.
We have about two minutes.
This last one can do very quickly.
I think folks tend to think of hotels as businesses that make money through operations.
I think they also serve as real estate assets and are bought and sold from that perspective.
pretty frequent turnover either in the entity that owns a hotel or the entity that's operating that hotel.
Often those two are different entities.
And either of those changes can be very disruptive to the workforce at that hotel, can result in folks who've had 5, 10, 20 years of experience losing their jobs because the new operator wants a clean slate, wants to bring in workers at a lower wage and benefit level.
And folks, I think, have borne witness to some of the fights that our union has had in these situations to make sure that an existing workforce is able to retain their jobs during a change of ownership.
So there's just a quick list over there, and the industry probably has better data than us on this, but this is our record of the hotel sales just in the last three years in Seattle and the number of workers impacted.
So I think the last piece of the initiative and the piece where we really saw action needed for workers was to make sure that there was worker retention so that folks were able to maintain their jobs, maintain their economic stability when their hotel was bought or sold.
And I will end there and turn it back to you.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Gracias de nuevo.
Thank you once again for all of your time and your stories.
As we've talked about at the last meeting, this is just one of a series of meetings that we plan to have through the spring and early summer.
Let's see if any of my colleagues have any comments before I wrap up on this section.
No, no.
I just really appreciate you joining us at the table and helping us craft good policy that replicates the initiative that y'all worked so hard on getting passed and making sure that the city is supporting your efforts to be safe and secure and have access to healthcare and your jobs.
Thank you.
I'll reiterate that again.
Please tell all the folks that we did meet on Friday and before that On Christmas Eve.
I think I saw a number of people when news was coming out About the lawsuit.
So, you know, we really appreciate people being willing and able to come to the table again We apologize for the formality of this but it's very very helpful for us to hear those stories directly just a few reminders before we wrap up this section and We are definitely interested in tracking some of the news that will be coming out, we believe, later today about the ruling on initiative 124. We know that we're supposed to hear back on the Supreme Court's decision on the appeal later today if not.
We also know that some of the current protections included in initiative 124 are not currently being enforced.
It is great to hear some of the good examples of some of the employers enforcing elements like making sure people are getting kicked out if they are behaving poorly and harassing or intimidating, assaulting people.
So we are very interested in continuing to hear additional information that comes from you, from folks at Unite Here, from other workers that you work with, specifically elevating the voice of women, of people of color, of folks who are immigrants, predominantly working in this hotel sector.
We really want to make sure that that voice is clear and present in our conversations around I want to reiterate that we are definitely going to have some of our friends from the hotel sector as well come in May to share some perspective.
This is part of what we did during the domestic workers bill of rights discussion.
Having employers and workers at the table helps us in the end come up with really solid policy solutions.
that will be forthcoming in May.
And I just want to close by saying thank you, gracias, to the workers.
Thank you to my council colleagues.
We're working hand-in-hand with the mayor's office as well and we'll be having additional conversations with the hotel folks and we'll continue to engage with you as the representatives and the direct workers in the hotel industry.
To make sure that we put some very commonplace protections back in place and in statute in our city So thank you.
And with that we will close this section and move on to item 2 Before we do that.
I did see that there was one other person who I called earlier Charlie We did have a time for public comment here I will open that up if you're still interested in making a few comments and before we get into item number two.
So we are opening back up public comment for the record.
Charlie Lampham from the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, welcome to the microphone.
Thank you, and I'm sorry I missed it earlier.
I'll be really brief.
You know, I just came out today because I wanted to thank all of you.
For working on this issue, we all know voters overwhelmingly passed I-124, just like they've passed so many other worker protections, because the city cares about protecting our workers, especially our most vulnerable workers.
And so, you know, we all know it's an injustice that this law is being held up in the courts.
And so, again, we just wanted, on behalf of the whole labor community, from hotel workers to janitors to security officers, We want to just thank you for really taking this on, righting the injustice, making sure that these workers get cemented in law just like the voters intended in 2016. Thanks.
Thank you very much, Charlie.
Is there anybody else who came for public comment that would like to add at this moment?
Okay.
That will close our public comment round officially for today.
Thank you, Charlie, for sharing that.
And Farida Cuevas, could you read the second item of business into the record?
And while she's doing that, could I please be joined by Dave Westberg and Mike McBee from IUOE Local 609 for our first panel?
Oops, I don't think your microphone's on.
Sorry about that.
Agenda item two, paid sick leave and time off for Seattle School District employees for a briefing and discussion.
Well thank you so much and it's good to see you Mr. Westberg.
It's been a while.
Thank you for being here as well.
Too long is right.
I had the honor of working with Dave Westberg in the halls of Olympia for a number of years as we worked on labor protections when I was with the State Labor Council and it's a good segue.
Thank you Charlie from the CLC for your comments around labor protections and making sure that we're protecting those because One of the things that we worked on right here in Seattle a very long time ago was paid sick and safe leave.
And we know that some of the workers who are around some of our most vulnerable populations, being kiddos, need to have access to sick leave and appropriate and robust sick leave.
So this is one of the first issues that I had the chance to talk with you about when I got elected.
And I will admit, it's been far too long in the making that we're getting to this day.
But I'm really excited to be working with you to I think correct some small pieces, technical fixes that we need to put into place to make sure that your workers are kept whole.
So I invite you to introduce yourself at the table here so folks have your name for the record and then we'll get started.
My name is Mike McBee, I'm business manager.
Mike McBee, business manager, Local 609. Thanks for having us.
And if it's green, then it's on.
David Westberg, 619 Retiree Club president.
Really?
OK.
I just elected myself.
Congratulations.
Well, 10 minutes ago, we didn't have a retiree club.
Now we do.
Good.
There you go.
Well, thank you for, oh, go ahead.
Dave told me a couple weeks ago that although he's retiring, he's not leaving until this issue is buttoned up.
Well, we don't want people to jump on the bandwagon for that reason.
There you go.
When you believe in something, it's hard to retire.
You just move on to the next chapter.
And this is an unresolved chapter from my years with the union and representing classified school employees at Seattle School District.
We have about 650 to 700 members, depending on how many vacant positions we have in a particular week.
Our members and other workers at Seattle schools don't get coverage for paid safe and sick time.
And we're not asking for safe and sick time.
We're asking for a means of enforcing and having a place where we can go to complain.
Equal protections under the law is what we're seeking.
And in a And I know I'm doing all the talking so far, Mike.
I'll stop in just a moment.
But in an organization that's highly stratified, a hierarchical organization like the school district is, that values education primarily and values having matriculated in education, we sometimes often overlook those people at the lower end of the economic scale.
And I think that's what happened here.
For one reason or another, we're not down here often.
We generally handle our own problems, and that's how we prefer to do it.
However, there are times, and we've had this in the last couple years, primarily with women, immigrants, minorities who make up the bulk of our second largest group of 200 in nutrition, they get very unsettled by the way they are treated at the school district when they have serious medical conditions.
I can rattle off names, but I'd rather not.
We didn't bring a group here today.
They'd have to take off the job.
And we have not lost anybody, but we've had to call upon offline workarounds, if you will, to protect these women, and I have four women and one man names to remind myself of their stories, but they get very upset, and they're told, well, if you run out of leave, will you just have to quit and resign?
and come back as an entry-level person.
And when you've worked for an organization for 20 years or more, that's not how you expect to be treated.
You had some pride.
One of the ladies that Lisa met here a few weeks ago, she, I didn't get a chance to tell you, but she lives right across the street from the school.
She's so proud of that little...
is it High Point?
High Point, house of hers, and that she can walk across the street and walk her dog.
And she thought about getting back in there and getting back to work from September until March 7th when she came back.
often, and it's hard to avoid that when it's right outside your house.
And as part of it, we want to give people the incentive to get through medical emergencies and come back to work without the threat of losing their jobs over it.
And that's the problem in a nutshell.
Thank you, David.
Just for some context here, I want to remind folks this is related to an effort that's been in the works for a very long time, right?
Seattle passed its paid sick and safe leave ordinance in 2012 to ensure all employees in the city have access to paid leave and time to care for themselves or their family.
And really excited that our city continues to get national attention for leading the way on the sick and safe leave effort.
We use this momentum in the initiative 1433 effort to really take statewide the commitment that every worker should have access to paid sick and safe leave.
But we also know that without adequate enforcement, Those words can just be pen on a piece of paper.
And we need to make sure that workers both know their rights, can access their rights, and also that you have a place to go to in case those rights are being violated.
Unfortunately, we see some discrepancy with how the classification or categorization of school employees are being applied in this situation.
So today we're really excited to hear from you.
As you think about the work that's to come here, we have some, I think, opportunities to have some technical fixes to make sure that we're applying paid sick and safe leave to the school district as well and as you heard we'll also hear an opportunity here from school board member DeWolf who's interested in this issue as well.
So before we get there though go ahead and tell us more about what's on on your to-do list here for us and looking forward to working with you.
Well, as Dave said, we're excited to get the opportunity to get the Seattle School District under the umbrella of the city ordinance.
We think it was an oversight and it's something that we can rectify and we should.
As Dave said, you know, we've got sick leave.
Our members accrue.
There's federal and state access that they can take time off.
But the loss, the lack of enforcement is what's really hurting us.
There's also the ability, as Dave said, we're a very large percentage minority, a large percentage immigrant.
The ability for the union to bring issues forward on behalf of our members is lost to us at the state level.
And we look forward to that opportunity at the city level.
Investigatory processes that are covered under the ordinance, as well as penalties.
We oftentimes see the school district, see the employer as, you know, yeah, they may have to give some back pay here and there, but it hurts when, you know, there's a finding against them.
We're a small local, and we represent our members very well.
Take them to an unfair labor practice, grievance arbitration, and whatnot.
But another opportunity, another avenue to rectify these wrongs is always welcome for our members.
Not every case is something that you want to take to arbitration.
Not every case is an unfair labor practice.
But that doesn't mean that those sick and safe time days aren't critically important to our members.
And the ability to have an agency assist the worker in rectifying those wrongs that they may be subjected to is critically important to us.
I do see also a representative from the Office of Labor Standards in the audience if we do have questions as well.
I want to thank you for being here and you're always welcome at the table.
You know I think one of the things that you just said is really important as we think about our lessons learned from labor standards enforcement specifically around wage theft.
Obviously it's impossible to be in every industry or in every business but just the ability to know that there is an enforcement mechanism to fall back on often deters violations from occurring.
And so I think that it's not just education and enforcement, it's the fact that this will now be something that you can refer to.
So hopefully it will be a preventative measure.
I love that you brought that up.
Comments or questions?
I just appreciate the clarification that you are receiving, your employees are receiving the legally mandated sick and safe leave.
That said, it occurs to me that some of the exemptions in the ordinance were out of an understanding that other regulations were in place that required that employer to provide sick and safe leave.
But without the understanding at the time, that the ordinance served two purposes, not just to require the employer to provide the leave, but also to create the mechanism for the enforcement locally, because sometimes it's more difficult to get other jurisdictions to enforce those obligations.
So I really appreciate you guys bringing this forward.
I appreciated meeting with the teacher at West Seattle High.
Vera.
Vera, yes.
Kitchen manager.
Thank you.
And I'm just wondering if there are other exemptions that were put in the law that might have the same problem for their workforce.
Go ahead.
I've looked at it a lot.
I don't think there are the same characteristics as the Seattle School District, which is wholly and completely contained within the city of Seattle.
I can understand how the university or the county or the port, any of these things, these are external entities to the city.
Every one of our members works in the city of Seattle, and that's the point of equal protection.
As far as the fabric of other laws, don't get me started, but the nature, listening to the other workers here today, the nature of this work, primarily in nutrition, where food services, you're working just the school year, you're working perhaps short hours, perhaps more than short, but there's so many pitfalls to fall through.
The Family Medical Leave Act coverage, 1,250 hours per year worked.
That's a lot of hours for a school-year person.
Full-time is 2,000, so you have to work more than half-time to qualify there.
Washington law against discrimination, a very, very stringent law.
that we got in Olympia here a few years ago doesn't apply to dependents.
So I have one lady that right now who has an adult son with colon cancer, stage four.
She's trying to take care of him as long as her leave will last.
Unfortunately, we tried to use an argument of Washington law against discrimination doesn't cover dependents.
And so, you know, there's a number of different pitfalls.
I'm not aware of those other exemptions in the paid safe and sick time, but there's sure a lot of exemptions in other laws that need to be fixed after we do this one.
And our friend from OLS Office of Labor Standards had to go, but there is this ongoing conversation about harmonizing at the macro level.
On this micro example, because of the narrow scope of the correction we're trying to include, my hope is that we will be able to circulate to you all draft legislation before the end of the week so that we may consider this at our next meeting in two weeks.
Are there any other things that you all would like to share?
No, that's what I wanted to ask about introduction.
OK, great.
Next steps.
And at that meeting in two weeks, would you like us to bring an example of one of the ladies that has been harmed by this?
Definitely.
We will follow up with you on that if that's something that folks are comfortable with.
We always welcome those voices of direct workers at the table and appreciate union representative leaders as well, because we know you bring their voice as well.
Any other things you'd like to add?
Well, that should cover it.
Okay.
Well, we really appreciate you being here, and we do have one more panel, so we will thank you and we'll follow up with you with the legislation and the specific time in the next meeting.
Thank you both.
Thank you.
Yes.
At this time, we'd like to welcome board member Zachary DeWolf, who has been very kind to engage with us on this topic.
I really appreciate his ongoing commitments to labor standards, lifting up workers, especially workers of color, women, the LGBTQ community, and immigrants and refugees.
So, Zachary, it's great to see you again.
Board Member DeWolf, thank you for being at the table with us, Council Member Gonzalez and I.
We're thrilled to have the opportunity to see you almost every other night in 2017. And haven't got the chance to see you as much lately, but I'm glad you're here.
Thanks for being here.
And go ahead and introduce yourself for the record and tell us your perspective on this issue.
Cool.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Honorable Mosqueda and Council Members Gonzalez and obviously Departing Herbold for inviting me today.
My name is Zachary DeWolf, Board Director with the Seattle Public Schools, and I represent District 5, which covers Capitol Hill, downtown, International District, Central District Leschi, so basically the lake to the...
the sound, I guess you could say, and then the cut to the 90 about.
So first, I actually come to you today with some exciting news.
Last year in 2018, in September, I was grateful to connect with some of our labor partners, particularly from the Building and Construction Trades Council, as well as some other folks from the labor community to begin exploring ways that our Seattle Public Schools might join partners from the city, the county, the port, and Sound Transit and their commitment to workers, our communities.
and mostly folks furthest away from economic justice by implementing our own community workforce agreement.
So last night we officially brought CWA conversations to Seattle Public Schools and we will look forward to bringing more light to this with a resolution and hopefully a task force to see how CWA might be strengthened by what we see as the one resource that we have at Seattle Public Schools, which is students.
And so we're trying to figure out ways that CWA might be enhanced or supported by having that really great resource.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, and as far as our both our 609 partnership, but all of our labor partners that contribute to Seattle Public Schools, they are some of our greatest ultimate contributors to our student success.
And so we do strongly support our workers and unions as part of the patchwork of folks who make our school district run smoothly.
As I understand it, you have, you just mentioned it a minute ago, there is work ongoing on language or an amendment.
And I think we would, obviously, I would want to make sure we had some staff here, particularly from HR and finance, to be able to have some deeper conversations.
But we are eager to work with you on ways that we might ensure our workers are supported and can really rely on their employers like us at Seattle Public Schools.
for support when it comes to paid sick leave and time off.
So we are looking forward to being a partner in that work.
Great.
I appreciate you saying that.
I also recognize that you are a different jurisdiction, so this partnership is really critical.
I have really appreciated your interest in this topic and your interest in, I think, what we're trying to do as well, which is lead by example as public employers.
I think it's really important for us to show the rest of the city that it is important to implement the rules and policies as we pass them at the city level.
And in fact, when we've done so, especially around sick leave and minimum wage, quite literally, the sky has not fallen, as people were concerned about.
The headline actually said that in the Seattle Times.
And we've seen greater economic activity.
So as employers, I think we're in the business of showing that this is not only good for the workers, but it's also good for the business.
And as public employers, we need to show that this is absolutely the right thing to do.
And when we do that together, I think it shows a unified force.
So I'm really excited that even though you're in a different jurisdiction and we really can't tell you what to do.
It's really critical that we do have harmony, that we standardize these application of the rules.
And as you heard from the earlier panel, that we're not creating carve-outs or exclusions for workers in our city.
So it's exciting to see you here.
Any other comments?
Seems pretty straightforward.
Yeah, I mean, a lot of folks, that work in our union jobs are also parents and family members, and they're right in our schools.
So obviously we do want to ultimately support them.
Excellent.
Great.
We're really excited about that.
And I know you guys have had the chance to work on the implementation of the education levy recently.
So it's just a continuation of this strong partnership.
Anything else that you want to give us an update on in your world at School Board?
We have a lot of stuff we're working on.
We just passed our strategic plan.
Probably, I would say, one of the most innovative with a real strong centering on students of color, particularly black and African-American males.
And so kind of our target universalism philosophy, we think we're going to do some really great work.
So we're looking forward to that.
excellent great good good note to end on so thanks to you thanks to our earlier panel from the leadership of 609 and we will be bringing this legislation forward to our meeting on April 18th we'll get a draft out to folks to look at ideally by the end of this week and then we should be able to have that on the agenda for our next meeting along with a high-level briefing on yet another housing and land use issue for Lawton, we will have a chance to have a comprehensive overview of the plan and land use proposal.
And that should be a pretty full agenda.
That's true, yes, we do need more schools as we consider additional density.
With that, today's meeting I think will go stand adjourned unless there's any other comments.
Seeing none, the meeting is adjourned.
Thank you all for being here today and thank you Farideh for staffing us today.