“This is not just a landmark: This is historic,” proclaimed longtime community organizer Michael Woo after the Seattle City Council’s unanimous passage of a “Priority Hire” ordinance.
On Jan. 20, close to 40 advocates packed City Hall wearing green hard hats and wielding “I ❤community jobs” signs in support of the ordinance, which requires that construction workers from low-income neighborhoods contribute a growing percentage of labor hours for Seattle public construction projects. With all councilmembers in favor, the ordinance passed with a resounding huzzah from those present.
As defined by the legislation, a percentage of new hires for building projects must hail from “economically distressed zip codes,” which “are indicated by high concentrations of people who are unemployed, without college degrees and living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.” Qualifying projects will cost $5 million or more. Initially, 20 percent of the labor hours for a project must be completed by people from designated areas, but the goal is that by 2025, priority-hire hours will increase to 40 percent.
The requirement will provide jobs for skilled construction workers in Seattle who are unemployed, and it will offer an opportunity for young people to enter a career in construction.
Additionally, the ordinance supports pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in order to create a “pipeline” for quality careers in the construction industry. The ordinance will benefit young people eager to enter the trade, such as members of YouthCare’s YouthBuild, a certified pre-apprenticeship program for homeless and low-income youth, whose members were the most vocal at City Hall.
Jamony Young, a student with the group, said the ordinance “will give us a chance to get our foot in the door. Working on community projects will help me and my family; it is definitely a positive thing.”
The push for a greater representation of disenfranchised construction workers on city projects began decades ago when Washington banned affirmative action. In 1998, state voters passed I-200, which prohibited government entities from granting preferential treatment based on gender, ethnicity, national origin or race.
Since then, Woo, founder of the community group Got Green, and other organizers have tried to foster equity through creative legislation such as priority hire. Seattle’s tendency to outsource jobs became apparent during a 2013 protest directed at the construction of the Rainier Beach Community Center. Rainier Beach community members were infuriated that while their neighborhood was burdened with a 7.6 percent unemployment rate, higher than the city average, a $25 million building was being constructed by workers from outside of the community (“Higher priority,” RC, Oct. 8, 2014).
The inefficient outsourcing of Seattle construction jobs was highlighted by multiple reports, including a UCLA study, which found that from 2006 to 2011, only 6 percent of workers on 33 large public projects were from Seattle and only 25 percent were from King County. The economic and environmental impact highlighted in the reports led the city to seek solutions. Former Mayor Mike McGinn summoned a committee to research and resolve the issue. For the council vote, the committee flew in consultants from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Minneapolis to discuss how priority hire has been successful in other municipalities.
Councilmember Sally Clark, sponsor of the ordinance and chair of the council’s Housing Affordability, Human Services and Economic Resiliency Committee, worked with community members over the past two years to draft the bill. “It took a wide community effort,” Clark said. “This is about expanding access to economic opportunity, addressing unemployment in our community, [and] increasing the construction, employment and labor pool.”
Councilmember Mike O’Brien, co-sponsor of the ordinance, appeared visibly giddy about priority hire. “This was a process that started with community members,” O’Brien said. “While it’s been a long process, I know, it’s really exciting to see a great step forward that’s driven so strongly by community.”
Councilmember Kshama Sawant echoed the importance of community involvement in this process. “We as working people only get what we fight for,” Sawant said, “and especially when we fight for it in an organized manner.”
The city will reevaluate the ordinance every two years.
The priority hire plan will be implemented through a project-labor agreement — a contract between the city and labor unions — which will allow for greater recruitment, training and dispatch, Clark said.
Critics voiced concern over increased costs for tax-funded construction projects, but Clark qualified the cost increase as “marginal” and noted that the costs of unemployment, homelessness and poverty far outweighed the marginal cost inherent in the ordinance. Union involvement was also a point of contention, but supporters predicted labor union assistance will make the process easier and more equitable.
Pastor Lawrence Ricky Willis of United Black Christian Clergy, an active proponent of the bill, reiterated the sentiment that this was a “historic moment for the community and Martin Luther King County.” He then quoted King: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”