On Wednesday, March 18, a crowd of about 50 Space Needle employees and members of the Unite 8 union, protested outside the Seattle landmark. Workers alleged they had gone more than 1,000 days without a raise and disagreed with the anti-union attitudes of their employer, the Space Needle Corporation. Employees said the last raise they received was a 35 cent bump more than three years ago. Seattle councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata were also present.
Shortly after the initial rally, the crowd marched to the Space Needle Corporation office on Sixth Avenue where they hand-delivered a petition to Dave Mandapat, the corporation’s director of public relations. The petition called for better pay and treatment of union organizing.
The protestors also claimed that the corporation is planning to hire temporary summer employees and pay them more than long-standing unionized workers.
Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board found that the Space Needle Corporation violated federal law by engaging in practices that discourage union organizing.