RALLY FOR AMAZON WORKERS AND TENANT RIGHTS
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH, 2 PM
MEET AT THE MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING ASSOCIATION
711 POWELL AVE SW, STE 101, RENTON, WA
MARCH TO THE AMAZON FLEX WAREHOUSE
1101 SW 16TH ST, RENTON, WA
RSVP HERE
Organized by Seattle DSA and co-sponsored by:
Labor for Black Lives, MLK Labor Council, UNITE HERE Local 8, Tenants Union of Washington, 350 Seattle, Be:Seattle, Cancel Rent WA, and many more
Saturday, February 20th is a national day of solidarity with the Bessemer, Alabama Amazon workers who are fighting to become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the country. The effort is being led up by the majority-Black, majority-women workers—and they need our support!
If this unionization effort is successful, the impact will reverberate across the country, inspiring countless workers in other cities and industries to take up their own struggles for dignity, fair wages, and fair conditions. But Amazon is fighting back with all their might, even forcing formerly incarcerated workers—who can’t even vote in the election—to campaign for a no vote.
Greater Seattle, the hometown of Amazon, must show up and send the loudest possible message of solidarity with these workers. As a company town with over 50,000 Amazon employees in our city, we know firsthand the impact that Amazon has had on working class people: turning Seattle into a playground for the rich, giving preferential housing to its wealthiest workers, while working class communities, particularly BIPOC and immigrant communities, are pushed out. And Amazon has fought tooth and nail to stop every popular effort to tax big business to fund the affordable social housing and social services we need.
Housing justice is intimately linked to workers rights. Thousands of Amazon employees are working double shifts throughout COVID just to make rent, while COVID cases are rampant in the warehouses and social distancing is a fanciful myth, discouraged by unattainable work-rate demands from the company. Meanwhile Governor Inslee seems ready to let the eviction moratorium, which has been a lifeline to so many, expire on March 31st. With nearly 225,000 households behind in rent across Washington, an “eviction tsunami” is predicted, which will disproportionately impact low-wage BIPOC workers.
That’s why on Saturday we’ll be marching from the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, a vicious landlord lobby opposed to vital tenant protections, to the Amazon Flex warehouse less than a mile away.
We are demanding:
No Economic Evictions Until Affordable Housing is Available to All. Governor Inslee should immediately extend the eviction moratorium for another year. The legislature should make “just cause” eviction protections permanent and extend the provision in SB 5160 banning evictions for back-rent until enough affordable housing is built to fully meet the need. All back-rent debt should be cancelled. A rental assistance fund should be established, paid for by taxes on big business and millionaires, and made available to small landlords on the basis of proven need.
Rapidly Build Enough Affordable Social Housing to Fully Meet Our Needs, including 50,000 new units in Seattle. Funded by progressive taxation, a massive statewide green jobs program is needed to rapidly build quality social housing – publicly owned, democratically managed, and permanently affordable – on a scale designed to ensure no one is homeless and no household pays more than 30% of their income on rent.
Immediate Shelter For All. Seattle, King County, and other local authorities need to immediately authorize funding to provide safe, private, low-barrier shelter for everyone who needs them, with wrap-around healthcare and substance abuse services. We could start, this year, by building enough tiny homes in Seattle to shelter the roughly 5,000 currently sleeping in the streets each night.
Pass Statewide Rent Control and Lift the Ban on Local Governments. A GQR poll last March showed 71% of Washingtonians support for statewide caps on rent increases. In cities like Seattle, where rents have risen over 90% in the last decade, local governments must be allowed to implement rent control to prevent the systemic economic displacement destroying our diverse communities.
Pass the PRO Act & Force Amazon to Quit their Union Busting Campaign. Workers have a right to collectively organize, but it’s no surprise that Amazon and other companies stoop to the most vulgar levels to stop these efforts. We need to pass vital workers’ protections, and build a militant labor movement to enforce it.
Tax the Rich But Don’t Water Down the Seattle Amazon Tax. As part of a progressive statewide business payroll tax bill, legislators in Olympia, including leading progressive Democrats, are discussing a poison pill that would phase out or gut the Seattle Amazon (Jumpstart) Tax that we won last year, out of fear of “double taxing” big business. We need every progressive tax we can get. Join the Tax Amazon movement for a car caravan / bike brigade at 5:30pm following the Rally for Amazon Workers and Tenant Rights - let’s demand: don’t water down the Seattle Amazon Tax!
RALLY FOR AMAZON WORKERS AND TENANT RIGHTS
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH, 2 PM
MEET AT THE MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING ASSOCIATION
711 POWELL AVE SW, STE 101, RENTON, WA
MARCH TO THE AMAZON FLEX WAREHOUSE
1101 SW 16TH ST, RENTON, WA
RSVP HERE
We know that the Renton location of the rally might be a little further out than folks usually travel for a rally. But it’s so important that Seattle show solidarity with working class communities who can’t afford to live in Seattle. We hope Seattle DSA and supporters can turn out and show up!
Solidarity,
Seattle DSA
