Union speech
A lawsuit that started in Washington state over the political use of union dues has gone all the way to the Supreme Court, thanks to an anti-union legal group backed by Wal-Mart billionaires.
Last week, attorneys from the Virginia-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation argued that the Washington Education Association shouldn’t be allowed to use non-member dues to pay for its political activities. The WEA, which represents teachers, gets to collect fees from non-members to pay for its contract negotiations with schools.
In a decision last March, the Washington State Supreme Court said that was acceptable and struck down a 1992 campaign-finance law that was the basis for the lawsuit. Right to Work is counting on President Bush’s new Supreme Court to rule in its favor.
Trolleys: high rollers
Developer Greg Smith has gotten his way in Pioneer Square: The City Council is letting him build a 130-foot hotel and office tower at the parking lot next to Occidental Park.
The council’s Planning Committee, led by Peter Steinbrueck, voted unanimously last week to let the project surpass a 100-foot height limit because it will provide a home for King County’s waterfront streetcars — and Smith had said he needed the extra height. The vintage trolleys haven’t run since their old service shop was torn down in November 2005 to make way for the sculpture park.
The city and Port of Seattle are each paying $1 million for the facility, but King County had threatened to withdraw its $7 million if the city didn’t get moving on a project. To ensure the tower fits into the historic district, the committee passed a resolution that it gets the last say on the design before Smith gets the city’s money. The full council is expected to approve both measures this week.
Boxed in
When the Legislature opened Jan. 8, Sen. Ken Jacobsen (D-Seattle) introduced amendments to the act that would help tenants facing a condo conversion in their building. Senate Bill 5031 would increase notice from 90 to 120 days and allow cities to make developers pay more in relocation assistance (today’s cap is $500). John Fox of the Seattle Displacement Coalition says something was left out of the bill: its teeth.
Without a clause giving cities the right to set limits on condo conversions, which topped more than 1,500 in Seattle last year, Fox says condos will continue to eat up rental housing — and swallow the 700 new, low-income units the city subsidizes each year.
—Cydney Gillis
For copy of actual issue, go to https://www.realchangenews.org/2007/01/17/jan-17-2007-entire-issue