LOCAL
Petition urges hotels to honor Seattle voters, Initiative 124
The following is from UNITE HERE Local 8:
SEATTLE (Dec. 4, 2017) — Coinciding with the first anniversary of the Seattle Hotel Employees Health and Safety Ordinance (I-124) being signed into law, UNITE HERE Local 8 launched a petition last week to call attention to the hotel industry’s ongoing attempts to overturn I-124, which was passed in 2016 with 77 percent of the vote. The petition has already been signed by a number of women leaders in Seattle, including Seattle City Councilmembers Lorena González and Teresa Mosqueda, King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and former state legislator Jessyn Farrell, along with housekeepers and other hotel workers.
TAKE A STAND — Sign the petition!
Other prominent women to sign on to the petition include Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the M.L. King County Labor Council Nicole Grant, Gender Justice League Executive Director Danni Askini, current and former City Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Lisa Herbold, and Kirsten Harris-Talley, and Puget Sound Sage Executive Director Nicole Vallestero Keenan.
Local 8’s petition, directed at the Seattle Hotel Association, calls on local hotels to take the problem of harassment and assault seriously and protect their workers by implementing I-124 and abandoning their appeal. Recently publicized board documents from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) indicate a deliberate strategy to attempt to defeat I-124 through legal challenge rather than at the ballot. Internally, the AHLA described panic buttons as “a solution in search of a problem.”
“Despite findings that sexual harassment and assault are widespread and vastly under-reported, the industry’s legal arguments have sought to discredit housekeepers and recast hotel guests accused of harassment as victims,” said Warren. “We cannot let the focus shift away from women and the responsibility of employers to provide for their health and safety at work.”
Local 8’s petition states:
“To our city’s hotel employers: you are on the wrong side of history. Believe women and protect your employees. Recognize the damaging impacts sexual harassment and assault have on victims and the tremendous barriers they face in coming forward. Do your part to create consequences for guests who harass and assault women on your watch. Be accountable for your role in supporting your employees. Seattle voters have given you a framework to follow. We expect you to follow it.”
On June 9, 2017, Superior Court Judge John Erlick dismissed the industry associations’ lawsuit challenging I-124. They have since appealed the ruling to the Washington State Supreme Court.