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| News
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| February
22, 2001 |
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Yesler's
future
First, there were no plans. Then, it was 10
years away. Now, says Yesler Terrace resident
Kristin O'Donnell, redevelopment of her home
may happen much sooner than she's comfortable
with. Seattle Housing Authority Commissioner
Harry Thomas sent O'Donnell and the rest of
SHA's 1,200 Yesler Terrace residents notice
that SHA's "long-term goal is to redevelop
Yesler Terrace into a new, mixed-income community"
within three years.
It would follow on the heels of big redevelopment
at the Holly Park, Rainier Vista, and High
Point public housing projects. SHA spokeswoman
Virginia Felton says Yesler Terrace, on the
rise above Pioneer Square, will probably go
through a more gradual facelift. Instead of
the wholesale demolition, street-realignment
and reconstruction of Holly Park, 25 or 30
units may be renovated at a time. And SHA
says it won't have a plan until 2003.
What's happening before then? SHA needs the
housing. Next month, it will begin relocating
residents from the 481-unit Rainier Vista
complex out to Yesler Terrace and other properties.
Demolition is expected to begin this fall.
Families at High Point will begin relocating
early next year. Yesler Terrace and SHA's
other properties will house these tenants,
while renovation lasts about five years.
Another reason: the federal Department of
Housing and Urban Development money that fueled
prior redevelopments might not be around in
the coming years, says Felton. Since Holly
Park's redevelopment in 1996, SHA has gotten
HOPE VI grants to redevelop Rainier Vista
($35million), Roxbury Village ($17 million),
and High Point ($35 million). SHA is uncertain
whether a Republican-led executive office
will continue to make these funds available.
An aide to City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck
attended a February 14 community meeting,
where SHA Commissioner Thomas assured residents
that they'd be kept abreast of plans. The
aide says Steinbrueck wants to see residents
involved in the planning process, and he wants
to ensure no loss of low-income housing at
the site.
O'Donnell, past president of the Yesler Terrace
Community Council, says she wants any development
to provide for those still on SHA's waiting
list. She doubts whether SHA's planning process
will remain low-key. "The official line is,
'You shouldn't upset people before anything's
decided,'" she said. But the planning timeline
looms. "They say they have no plans. In planner
talk, I think that just means the blueprints
aren't ready yet."
-Adam Holdorf
Labor Ready under fire
Unjust ATM fees, low Worker's Comp payments,
unpaid hours worked... these days, Labor Ready's
taking it on the chin, in the stomach, and
against the knees.
Oakland construction workers are the latest
to file a class action lawsuit against Labor
Ready, the Tacoma-based temporary employer
that's also undergoing a class action suit
in Georgia and a state audit here in Washington.
The Oakland suit seeks payment for workers'
time dispatched to a job site, plus time spent
waiting at the Labor Ready office for their
daily assignments. Company policy doesn't
start the clock until its workers have reached
the job site. Workers arrive at the Labor
Ready dispatch center around 5 a.m., wait
for an assignment, spend hours traveling back
and forth to the job site, and come back for
their paycheck.
California law requires employers to pay time-and-a-half
to anyone working more than eight hours a
day. The suit contends that virtually anyone
who's worked for Labor Ready in California
over the last four years is eligible for back
pay.
The Washington state Department of Labor and
Industries (DOLI) is nearly finished preparing
an audit inquiring into Labor Ready's workers
compensation payments. The AFL-CIO documented
that in 1998, Labor Ready classified nearly
half of its workforce as clerical "office
services" workers. The classification allowed
the company to pay DOLI $2 to $5 million less
than would have been required for an employer
of manual laborers. If the audit finds that
Labor Ready underpaid its workers comp insurance,
the state could order back payment, penalties,
and fines.
Meanwhile, the company practice of providing
ATMs that assess fees of $1-$2 to get their
pay from cash machines is being challenged
via class-action suits in California, Georgia,
and New York. Each suit is being launched
by the national headquarters of the Building
and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
- Adam Holdorf
Hospital help
Washington hospitals are required to subsidize
costs for low-income pa-tients seeking health
care. When patients hit financial straits
to pay their medical bills, they can petition
the hospital for relief. Yet half of the 17
non-profit hospitals in King County fail to
tell their patients of the so-called "charity
care" policy.
This according to health care advocacy group
Washington Citizen Action, which has met with
numerous patients who were never informed
of the financial assistance. WCA is in negotiations
with two Seattle hospitals to clarify their
policies.
One important element in the charity care
law is its debt relief provision. Eligible
patients can get the debt collectors to stop
pursuing them. And they can apply for relief
at any time - even after paying their bills,
when, if the hospital accepts their application,
they will be reimbursed.
- Adam Holdorf
Penney-wise, pound-foolish
The department stores have all polished off
last year's inventory with those giant after-Christmas
sales. What happens to the leftover clothing?
Some of it is donated. Some goes to the shredder
or the incinerator.
A J.C. Penney's employee told Real Change
that when she asked what happens to clothing
after a sale, her manager replied, "We burn
it."
Inquiring into the store's official policy,
we learned that while "99.9 percent of the
clothing sells," the Northgate Mall J.C. Penney
store manager says whatever's left over gets
carted off to a Tukwila warehouse. Its fate
depends, as usual, on corporate headquarters'
policy.
When contacted at the Plano, Texas, Penney's
headquarters, company spokesperson Stephanie
Brown says one of three things happens to
leftover clothing: it's returned to the brand-name
supplier, sold to a liquidator, or destroyed.
Company policy prohibits donations to charity.
"You have got to be kidding me," responds
Angela Toussaint, director of Dress for Success
Seattle, which provides appropriate clothing
for women to wear to job interviews. Toussaint's
organization dresses about a dozen women per
week; she says they would gladly take such
clothing. She also has an answer to corporate
concerns about donated clothing being returned
for money: Dress for Success simply removes
the brand-name tags.
Redmond-based clothing maker Eddie Bauer has
a policy of destroying clothing returned by
its customers, only if the item can't be sold
again. Often, company spokesperson Lurma Rackley
says, Eddie Bauer sends returned clothing
to local charities. Rackley stated the company
policy in response to a California customer
who was told that a returned garment would
be "shredded."
In completely unrelated news, a December 2000
federal Department of Labor report documented
routine violations of workers' rights at a
garment factory in American Samoa, where 300
mostly female Vietnamese workers were beaten,
paid less than the $2.60-per-hour minimum
wage, and fed a watery porridge of rice and
cabbage. "This was one of the worst sweatshop
cases I've seen in 15 years," a New York-based
labor rights activist told the New York
Times. The factory made clothing for J.C.
Penney.
- Adam Holdorf |
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