Appeals court approves SeaTac minimum wage ballot measure
Sep 6, 2013, 3:38 PM | Updated: 5:03 pm
Voters in SeaTac will get to decide whether workers at Sea-Tac Airport should get the nation’s highest minimum wage, after the Washington State Court of Appeals ruled Friday SeaTac Prop. 1, the “Good Jobs Initiative”, can be on the November ballot.
The controversial measure would raise the minimum wage for some airport workers to $15 an hour. Alaska Airlines and the Washington Restaurant Association have sued to stop it from getting on the ballot.
Alaska and the WRE challenged the validity of some signatures on petitions to qualify the measure and sought to invalidate them. But the appeals court denied their claim.
“This is an important victory,” said Heather Weiner, spokesperson for Yes for SeaTac. “We want good middle class jobs back at the airport. Over the last ten years or so it’s really declined. People who have worked there for 20 or 30 years are still making minimum wage with no paid sick leave and no job security.”
A number of airport business owners have complained the measure would force them to shut down.
“The $15 an hour minimum wage would – I’ll tell you right now frankly, and I’m not exaggerating – it would put us out of business. It would absolutely put us out of business,” Quiznos owner Brett Habernicht told The Dori Monson Show in July.
