From Sarah Harvard at The Huffington Post:
Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant was arrested Wednesday night while protesting workers’ wages at Alaska Airlines’ Seattle headquarters.
A reverend and two airport workers were also arrested on disorderly conduct charges. The protesters spent about five hours in jail before Working Washington, an organization that advocates for equal pay, posted the $500 bail for each of them, according to The Seattle Times.
Sawant and those who joined her in the protest want the airline company to pay its Sea-Tac Airport employees $15 an hour, according to Puget Sound Business Journal.
Although the protest drew almost 100 people, Sawant was not pleased with the lack of attendance by elected city officials.
“With elected officials being here, it brings the limelight on the issue,” Sawant told KIRO 7. “I think it’s a duty for every elected official to fight for the workers in this way and it’s a pity that I’m the only one here.”
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From a Socialist Alternative email blast:
In November 2013 in SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, a majority of voters passed Proposition 1 establishing a minimum wage of $15/hour for airport related workers. Alaska Airlines and other corporations have strongly resisted implementing the democratic decision of the voters. Socialist Alternative Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant issued this statement after she was arrested yesterday defending SeaTac airport workers’ right to a $15/hour minimum wage.
“It was the courage of SeaTac workers and their victory at the ballot that made $15/hour possible in Seattle. I’m proud to stand with them today against Alaska Airlines’ attempted robbery. First, Alaska Airlines said the City of SeaTac doesn’t have the right to enforce $15/hour for airport workers; only the Port does. Now Alaska Airlines is leading the charge on a federal lawsuit claiming the Port has no authority to raise wages. Which is it? What’s clear is they’d rather spend millions trying to overturn democracy than pay low-wage workers what they’ve earned.”
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Sawant is up for re-election in 2015.
Can’t disagree with any of the comments above.
I think we see more “left” leaning protesters going to jail because they choose to do so. In other words, they keep going until they’re arrested. Its an effective publicity generating tactic that activists have used for decades, at least.
And, yes, its a near certainty that Steve M is correct – 5 hours in jail because of the state, not because of Working Washington. I’ve been bailed out, and I’ve bailed people out of jail before. These experience lead me to believe that the state is intentionally slow in both intake and release processing. Add that to the standard government inefficiency, and 5 hours falls on the short end of the spectrum.
The police state will not tolerate dissent, from the left or the right. Sawant is seriously misguided, but that does not mean she should be imprisoned for asserting her beliefs, no matter how silly they may be.
The point is that, no matter how much one disagrees with her views, she has the right to them and the right to peacefully protest. Unless she was initiating violence or in some other way impeding on another’s rights, this arrest was unwarranted. A disturbing number of political activists, most from the left, are being arrested these days for protesting.
Who can live on $15 per hour? That’s only $31,200 per year. That’s no “living wage”! Why go to jail for that?
“The protesters spent about five hours in jail before Working Washington, an organization that advocates for equal pay, posted the $500 bail for each of them”
Why do I suspect that it wasn’t “Working Washington” that was the delay in posting bail? perhaps this should have read…
“The protesters spent about five hours in jail before Working Washington, an organization that advocates for equal pay, was allowed to post the $500 bail for each of them”