We all know that Seattle is a orthodox as a liberal city can be … except, as it appears when it comes to Mayoral candidates accepting election contributions.
Enter two big corporate players: John Mackey‘s While Foods and Richard Hedreen’s “2030 District” hotel development firm. Both Mackey and Hedreen are fanatically anti Obama and anti union. Both have targeted Seattle for development with projects downtown (2030’s huge hotel) and in West Seattle. Both projects require support from the city, not only in matters like the union issue, but vacation of city property to enable the developments.
Richard Hedreen … has refused to promise union leaders that he’ll pay workers a living wage at his hotel (even though) the median non-union hotel worker makes (an unlivable) $23,000 a year. Hedreen went so far as to threaten to cancel the project if (the union even) continued agitating for a union workforce. Hedreen has, however, also contributed $10,000 to the Murray campaign thought one of those magical “independent expenditures.”
For his part, McGinn ‘s office has been being as helpful as possisble to both Hedreen and Mackey. Da Mayor has signed of on vacating a city street so Mack3ey can build another union free grocery store … this time in West Seattle.
“While the mayor has concerns about this particular developer’s practices regarding living wage jobs and benefits, that is a discussion that is not covered by the 2030 District agreement,” McGinn’s spokesman says.And here’s the even weirder part: UNITE HERE … the hotel workers union targeted by Hedreen, has gone all in for McGinn, raising $50,000 (from the national union HQ in New York) for an independent expenditure campaign on his behalf. One wonders whether they think that $10,000 is going to win Mayor Murray’s support for Hedreen’s anti union policies? How is it in their workers interests to spend this money on the losing McGinn campaign, especially against Murray a lifelong, committed liberal?
In the meantime, I have even greater doubts about the depth of Mayor McGinn’s liberalism. After campaigning on the issue of the tunnel, the mayor lost that battel. Since then he has been a patsy for Vulcan and other downtown developers, Hedreen included, who have no interest in making this city a sustainable environment for working class or even middle class people. Vulcan’s untrammeled development of SLU has become nothing more than an urban version fo the disposable industrial parks that liter American suburbs. Like the vacated land in West Seattle, the new land being created by putting the viaduct underground seems likely to go at little or no charge to developers like Hedreen and Vulcan. The best that the union’s members can hope for is servile jobs that will allow them to pay for bus fare in and out of the city.
This sort of hypocrisy makes me wonder whether there is meat in the right wing argument that union leadership does not represent the interests of union members.