In June of 2020 we, rank-and-file workers across industries and trades, came together to expel the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) from the Martin Luther King County Labor Council (MLKCLC).  We understood that the police are not working-class.  Their role in a capitalist state is to punish, surveil, brutalize workers, and to protect the power and property of the wealthy.  And so, in the middle of a global pandemic and the #Justice4GeorgeFloyd protests, we organized.  We let the MLKCLC know that if they allowed SPOG to remain, they would have to do so in front of us.  We refused to participate in their top-down, exclusionary bureaucracy and instead daylighted them to the Movement for Black Lives.  And we won!

Now, two years later, some labor leaders are working to bring SPOG back into the labor council.  Using the language of “public safety,” they are calling for a partnership between labor and the Seattle Police Department.  We, the rank-and-file, cannot let this happen.

The uprisings of 2020 put forth a different vision of what safety and security can mean--inviting us to build systems of care and mutual aid together.  It is a vision of a world without police; a city that uses its resources to provide basic human needs to the working-class.  The Movement for Black Lives showed us that a world built on care - where all people can thrive - is possible if we organize a collective push from the grassroots and the frontlines of the crises.  Our successful efforts to expel SPOG from the MLKCLC is in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, as well as a call for a democratic, antiracist, and anticapitalist labor movement.

We, rank-and-file workers of King County, must continue our solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and push our labor council to do the same.  We write this petition with the following demands to the Martin Luther King County Labor Council:


1. Keep SPOG out!  The police are not working-class and are not in solidarity with the working-class.  We can not give the people who brutalize, police, and kill us access to our collective bargaining power.

2. Defend the Defund!  We are the only city in the country to defund the police two years in a row.  As SPD enters contract negotiations, we must continue to be in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and the demands to defend the defund and redistribute those funds to community-led social services.

3. Support social housing!  Working-class people keep Seattle running, yet fewer of us can actually afford to live here. It is outrageous for the labor council to even consider working with a racist and violent institution to criminalize working-class, BIPOC communities.  Instead, the labor council must follow the lead of the working-class, BIPOC organizers whose transformative vision for change will help build a city where all working-class people can thrive.  Support for democratically controlled, social housing is a step in that direction.  

4. Support funding basic needs! Working-class, BIPOC communities fought tirelessly to defund SPD and to redistribute those funds towards community-led social services because we need safety and well-being through care, not cops.  Instead of working to bring SPOG in, the labor council must use its resources and influence to support the campaigns that will meet all working-class people’s basic needs.

We are calling on all working-class King County residents to remind the labor council that it was us, rank-and-file workers, who organized the effort to expel SPOG from the labor council.  To bring SPOG back into the labor council  is a slap in the face to the rank-and-file, and undermines the antiracist, feminist, and anticapitalist labor politics that will liberate us all.

To rank-and-file workers, sign the petition to say “No!” to cops in our movement, and to support our demands for a city in which all working-class people can thrive.

Signed,

Whitney Kahn, Seattle Education Association
Carolina Forero
Katy Dichter, AFT1789
Dave Ellenwood, AFT 1789, Labor for Black Lives
Anna Hackman, AFT 1789, Labor for Black Lives Collective
Renee Agatsuma, Highline Education Association
Tomás Madrigal, AFSCME Council 28, WFSE 443
Clare Thomas
Aleksandr Rollosson Halbhuber
Jesse Hagopian NEA
Amy Richards
Alison Underdahl
Chris Lambertz, Seattle Education Association
Jennifer Quick UFCW21
Jonna McCurry
Evan Gerthoffer IBEW Local 46
Nathan Murphy
Aaron Shay
Charles Smith
Sam Conard, SEIU 1199nw, Socialist Alternative member
April Hichens, Seattle Educators' Association
Deva Bluemoon
Todd Bohannon, LWEA Union Rep
Julianna Dauble Renton Education Association
Tracey Drum, Highline Education Association
John Rios, SEIU 1199NW Union Delegate
David Helde, SEIU 1199NW
Amanda Kim, Former Board Member of Workers for a Just Transition
Althea Lazzaro,  AFT 1789
nikkita oliver, community organizer
Andrew de Jong, Highline Education Association
Dylan McKinney, SEIU 1199NW
Alaina McCallum, Seattle Education Association
Emily Lofquist, AFSCME Local 1857
John Hessburg, RFPU-NW
Steven Pace
Michael Reagan, AFT
Kayleigh Wall, HEA, WEA.
Courtney Scott
Leah Montange,  SEA member
Benjamin Folgers, Highlife Education Association
Mikah Kuspa Local 1857
Lucas Smith, PROTEC17, MLK Labor Delegate
Rosa Palumbo, former member of SEIU 6.
Nic Figley with local 2083 AFSCME
Enrico Doan, UFCW 3000
Christopher Arellano UFCW 3000
Stan Strasner, Seattle Education Association
Courtney Yasunaga
Grace reinke, UAW 4121
John Clinton McClung WFSE 1488
Patrick King, UAW 2865, Transit Riders Union
Alex Skinner
Michael Williams, HEA
LéTania Severe, IAFF 726
Rebecca Haberkorn
Cari Johnson
Heather Barnett, RFPU-NW union
Isaac Lord, ATU587
Charles Gaston SDSA
Joshua Matney, IATSE local#15
Deborah Fremer
Keyara Demers
Chelsea Grace
Brandy Sincyr
Alex Witt
Bean Yogi, Local 2083
Jean Kallas, OPEIU
Michael Mellini
Nicole Zeller, Local 2083
Jesse Malinowski IBEW local 46
Brenna Stroup - staff @ Resident & Fellow Physician Union - Northwest
Kevin Steehler, RFPU
Carter Renee Fisk
Kendra Spurling
Anne-Marie Hunsaker, PROTEC17 union member, City of Seattle employee
Genesee Rickel, Local 1857
BJ Last
Renee Lamberjack, PROTEC17
Pennie O’Grady, community member
Peter Condit
Christina Yiannakos AFSCME local 1857
Daniel Christensen IBEW Local 46
Lindsay Welker AFSCME Local 1857
Gabriel Zeus Kaguras IATSE local #15
Bob Barnes
Angeline Zalben, Seattle Education Association
Eila Strand
Jack Crow UFCW 3000
Ian Schmidt, IWW
Grace Zhang, USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation
Annie Pham
Charlie Lang, Teamsters
Janae Choquette
Isaac Richter
Kristi Boes
Michelle Peterson
Isabel Cunningham
Selene Russo
Cait Nold
Codi-Ann Hindes, HEA
Daniel Felde
Carrie Freshour, UW Faculty Forward, SEIU
Ella Shahn
Meredith Ruff, OPEIU
Tamaso Johnson, PROTEC17
Maggie Block Seattle Education Association
Sophia Reynolds, past UFCW-21 worker
Iris Seiwerath
Hayden Bass, AFSCME Local 2083
Alyssa Kaufman, Renton Education Association
Marc Mazique
Ross Kirshenbaum ATU587
Claude Laude, Seattle Education Association
Grace Whitney, Highline Education Association
Morgan Nichols
Joseph Hann IBEW46
Jeff Paul, Seattle Education Association
Naomi True, Highline Education Association
Micaela Lieseke
Shayla Chandler
Ekaterina Mitrofanova
Zoe Hawley
Kelsen Caldwell, ATU 587
Sean Case, Seattle DSA
Caitlin Honig, Seattle Educators Association
Mai Pham, Seattle education association
Omid Bagheri Garakani AFSCME Council 28, WFSE 443
Mai TAKAHASHI @SPL/Local 2083
Danielle Jennings, AFSCME Local 2083
Jane Singer, Local 2083
Leslie Gascon, SEIU Local 925
Gianna Gargiulo
Amy Olson AFSCME Local 2083
Sam Sumpter, UAW 4121
Hannah Lewis, UAW 4121
Natalie Wellen, UAW 4121
Jeremy Beckford, UAW 4121
Darrin Hoop, Seattle Education Association
Emily Hellenkamp, Seattle Education Association
Helen Larson, UAW 4121
Vern Harner, UAW 4121 ASE Unit Chair
Amal Nanavati, UAW 4121
Anthony D'Amico
Craig Erstad, Seattle Education Association
Biraj Pandey, ASUW
Emily McGowan
Joseph Seaver
Sulan Mlynarek
Alma Gottlieb-McHale
Ada Lin
Rachel Erstad
Emilia Barnecut
William Livernois, UAW 4121
Jorge Torres, IBEW Local 46
Danielle Rosenberg member of Seattle educators association and Washington educations association
Nicel Mohamed-Hinds, UAW 4121
Levin Kim, UAW 4121
Erin Angelini, UAW 4121
Soohyung Hur, UAW 4121
Maxine Wright, UAW 4121
KL Shanon
Mike McGowan
Ellen Koukel UAW4121
Luci Baker, UAW 4121
Julia Buck, 350 Seattle
Adi Stein, UAW 4121
Dane Nakagawa, Seattle DSA
Anthony English, UAW 4121
Alex Fay
Taylor Leatrice Werner, IBEW 46
Katja Janelle
Sean Raymond, UFCW 3000
Gillian Fulford
Betsy Andrews Seattle Education Association
Lee Webb, taxpaying citizen
Michael Lebeis LU 46
Chris Franco, former Teamster (Local 117)
Andy Slabaugh, OPEIU Local 8
Paula J Lukaszek   Local 1495 WFSE
Bethany Tate, Highline Education Association
Jordan Hoerth, local 1857
Sharlyn Santiago, Kabataan Alliance
Jenna Rheuben, PROTEC17
Sweller Weller, ATU 587
Kelsey Hopkins PROTEC17
dani hurula, PROTEC17
Emily Neeleman
Max Garnet
Sharalee Stephens
Shaun Scott, Campaign Workers Guild
Denise Sterchi, Seattle DSA
Chris Dunkle
Scott Patterson
Miranda Marti, AFSCME 28 (WFSE)
Barbara Bengtsson
Doug Cole
Laura Gibbons
Robert Lambertz
Mary Dimond
Meghan O'Hara, 350 Seattle
Alyssa Jocson Porter, AFT 1789
Sunny R, former UAW 4121
Eric Ross
Stefeny Anderson, Renton Education Association
Andrew Hill, Renton Education Association
Satprit Kaur, Highline Education Association
Joe Boyer, Highline Education Association
Sarah Brown, Seattle Education Association
Hazel Pemberton ILWU LOCAL 19
Elizabeth DeRooy SEIU and AFL-CIO
Anne Thureson
Sarah White Kimmerle, SEIU 1199NW
Jimmy Hirschbeck, SEIU 1199nw
Tori Westman IBEW LU 46
Kalena Crafton - Bellevue Education Association
Emily Evanson Bellevue Education Association
Rich Coker, Highline Education Association
Kiana Fukuyama
Kristin Plischke, HEA, NEA
Zayd Humsy, SEIU 1199NW
Alejandro Mena, IBEW Local 46
Arthur Guilford
Alicia Finch IUPAT 116
Leith Kahl, rank and file member of ILWU Local 19
Brock Grubb
Sage Walund
Jenny Chang
Jesse O'Dunne, Local 2083
Haley Fidler HEA
Camille Gix
Matthew Mitnick - House Our Neighbors, Be:Seattle, Transit Riders Union
Ronnie Rodriquez / SEIU 1199NW
Alex Bacon, Steward, WFSE 304
Prahlad Bethell Collen
Dominic Zinsli, PNWSU, Seattle DSA
Rizelle Rosales, Anakbayan South Seattle
Henry Luke, Anakbayan South Seattle
Noah Ajeto, Anakbayan South Seattle
Linda Rigor, Anakbayan South Seattle
Kashmier Anquillano, Anakbayan South Seattle
Kelsey McGrath, Seattle Education Association
Dominick Ojeda, UFCW, PNWSU
Candice Luth
Eli Duffy / Reckoning Trade Project
Troy Deck
Leah Perlmutter, UAW 4121
Stephanie Becker, UAW 4121
Joseph Schafer, UAW 4121
Lorin Gardner, UAW 4121
Justin Applegate, UAW 4121
Avi Matarasso, UAW 4121
Damien Quartz, Seattle DSA
Audrey Seo, UAW 4121 Head ASE Steward
Ramy Khalil, Seattle Democratic Socialists of America, Seattle Education Association member
Jillian Allibone
Steven Pestana, UAW 4121
Laurel Trammell, WFSE
Scott pattison, UFCW 3000
Lauren VanWormer, UFCW3000, PNWSU
JR Manaois, Anakbayan South Seattle
Anna Shaver, AFT1789
Peter Baker AFSCME
Rebecca Leisher, Seattle Education Association
Anna Nollan
Dani Rowland, SEIU 925
Lindsey Heiller, PROTEC17
Jennifer Nye, Whole Washington
Alyndra Stohl - DSA
Veronika Pshenytska
Declan Mullin