May 11, 2018

Local 174 favors finding a regional solution to the problem of homelessness, rather than penalizing only a few companies within the City of Seattle

Wednesday afternoon, representatives from Teamsters Local 174 joined hundreds of other union members from within the Building Trades at Seattle’s City Hall to send a clear message to the Seattle City Council: NO HEAD TAX.

The protest was against the Council’s proposed “head tax,” a tax on job creation which would saddle Seattle’s largest companies with millions of dollars in additional annual taxes. Revenues from the tax would be intended to combat homelessness within the city – a crisis Seattle has already spent billions of dollars attempting to solve, with little success.

In response to the proposed tax, Amazon has already halted work on a massive new building that was being constructed in the middle of downtown Seattle. The construction halt has displaced thousands of workers within the Building Trades: workers from the Ironworkers union, the Electricians union, the Painters, the Plumbers and Pipefitters, and dozens of others – including, of course, the Teamsters.

Teamsters Local 174 represents hundreds of workers in the Building Trades, many of whom would be directly impacted if Seattle’s biggest companies decide to move construction out of the city to avoid paying this tax. It is in support of not just Local 174 members, but all union members and the men and women in the Building Trades, that Teamsters Local 174 opposes this proposed tax.

“We recognize that homelessness is a massive problem throughout the region, and we agree that more needs to be done to solve this problem, but this tax is simply the wrong approach,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “This tax may sound progressive on its surface, but with Amazon’s construction halt, we can already see its negative impacts on Seattle’s working class. If this tax is passed by the Council, we can look forward to even more devastation within Seattle’s construction industry.”

“It is naïve to believe that the companies who will pay this tax will not pass the cost of the tax on to their employees,” Hicks continued. “Whether that is in the form of slashed medical or retiree benefits, lower wage increases, or companies choosing to leave Seattle entirely, it will be hardworking union members who wind up paying the price here.”

Instead of this tax, Teamsters Local 174 would be interested in pursuing a more regional approach to addressing the homelessness crisis, which extends far beyond the borders of the City of Seattle.

“We hope to work with the City Council, the Mayor, and other stakeholders within the region to achieve a solution that will work for everyone, rather than this head tax which will disproportionately harm the well-paying middle class jobs held by union members in the construction industry,” Hicks concluded.

Founded in 1909, Teamsters Local 174 represents 7,200 working men and women in the Seattle area. “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamstersLocal174.