The ad Sound Transit doesn’t want to run

The ACLU of Washington has joined a lawsuit against
Sound Transit, which has rejected an advertisement about
low-wage airport worker jobs.

The ad (below) features champagne being served in the
first class section of an airplane, coach class where most
of us fly, and Hosea Wilcox representing the “poverty
class.” He’s been a skycap at Sea-Tac airport for 31 years
making minimum wage, according to the ad.

Ad photo courtesy ACLU of
Washington

The ad is sponsored by a group called Working
Washington. It’s described as a “non-profit coalition of
individuals, neighborhood associations, immigrant groups,
civil rights organizations, people of faith, and labor
groups united for good jobs and a fair economy.”

The group spent $6,300 seeking to display the ads on
Sound Transit trains running between Westlake Center and
the airport, but the money was refunded last month after
the ad was rejected.

Sound Transit said it tries to maintain a safe and
welcoming environment for riders on the trains.
Ultimately, the ad was rejected because Working Washington
violated a rule requiring sponsors to be clearly
identified in the ad.

The transit authorities’s guidelines include
“political” messages among the 18 categories of restricted
materials. They define political ads as anything that
“promotes or appears to promote any candidate for office,
any political party or promotes or implies position on any
proposition, referendum, proposed or existing laws, or
other ballot measures.”

The ACLU says Sound Transit’s refusal to run the ad is
censorship.

“The Working Washington ad does not fit any of the
grounds Sound Transit gives for prohibiting political ads.
In rejecting it, the agency is mis-applying its own
policy,” says the ACLU’s Sarah Dunne in a statement.

The civil liberties group also points out that Sound
Transit has run a wide variety of ads on issues of public
interest, including ones by Working Washington in 2011
with taglines “Our Bridges Need Work. So Do We.” Sound
Transit also has approved an ad by Planned Parenthood
promoting condoms that said, “Where Did You Wear It? Be
Proud to Wear Protection.”

Ironically, the Port of Seattle, is running the
advertisement inside Sea-Tac airport.

By LINDA THOMAS