The hard hats union dues paid for the election of the current councilmembers. Update to this story.
Via KOMO:
Construction workers shouted down Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant on Thursday as she attempted to speak in favor of Seattle ‘s proposed new “head tax” at an open-air news conference.
The construction workers shouted “No head tax!” each time Sawant tried to speak in favor of the measure, which would charge Amazon and other large Seattle employers 26 cents per hour per employee to fund a homeless initiative.
The conference, held outside Amazon’s Spheres, was intended to show support for the head tax and opposition to Amazon’s announcement of a construction pause on a massive downtown construction project.
But the group of about 20 contruction workers showed up and drowned out Sawant’s message.[…]
Sawant showed evident frustration at the workers and eventually handed the microphone over to one of the construction workers, who praised Amazon for providing well-paying jobs to thousands of Seattle-area residents.
“They have provided more than 1 million man-hours in the last year alone to provide family wage jobs for people in and around this community,” the worker said. “Homelessness is an enormous issue – not just an Amazon issue. It needs to have a regional approach that is fair and reasonable.”
HT: JCM