People will vote on Tacoma’s ‘Workers’ Bill of Rights’ — just a matter of when

Tacoma’s “Workers’ Bill of Rights” faces an uncertain future.

Initiative 2 would, among other things, raise the city’s minimum wage to $20 an hour and enforce certain labor standards for workers.

Because the initiative garnered enough signatures in July, the City Council had 30 days to make a decision: adopt the initiative as-is, reject it and send it to a vote of the people, or do nothing and also send it to a vote of the people.

On Friday, a day ahead of their deadline, the city council had a special session to discuss the measure one last time. Both Mayor Victoria Woodards expressed “deep concerns” with the bill’s impacts as-is. So did Council Member John Hines.

“This is a broad policy that impacts every single person doing business in the City of Tacoma,” Hines said. “And I don’t quite know if it reflects. I don’t think it reflects the actual nuance of the different types of businesses that do work here in the city and the different requirements. Up to and including some of our own workers in the city.”

And I have some real concerns about some of our employees and services that require people to be available at a moment’s notice, on a short-term, and what impacts this has on our ability to deliver critical services to people in their time of need,” he added.

Ultimately, the council passed a resolution calling for a special election in November, where Initiative 2 could go to a vote. But the deadline to submit any legislation for a November vote was on Tuesday, according to the county elections manager.

Next vote on Workers’ Bill of Rights would be in February

The next opportunity for the Workers’ Bill of Rights to have a city-wide vote would be in February. But the city council will have to vote on a new resolution with a corrected date for a special election that can be submitted to the auditor’s office, which runs elections in Pierce County.

Meanwhile, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards has called for a task force to study the labor issues raised by Initiative 2.

“It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. We really need to address some of the concerns that were raised about the labor standards, and they really warrant further discussion and consideration,” Woodards said in the special session.

Each council member would be able to nominate one representative, with the goal of including representatives from large and small businesses, nonprofits, and labor groups.

This story was originally published on August 7. It has been updated and republished since then.