Working Washington

Our mission is to build a powerful workers movement that can dramatically improve wages and working conditions, and change the local and national conversation about wealth, inequality, and the value of work.
Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 minimum wage. We successfully drove Amazon to sever ties with the right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses. We helped lead the winning campaign in SeaTac for a $15 living wage. And we made history once more when Working Washington baristas and fast food workers led the successful fight for secure scheduling in Seattle.
Working Washington is a 501c4 nonprofit organization. For more information, visit www.workingwa.org.
New Campaign Campaigns
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Starbucks: Don't kick anyone off your healthcare plan because of the coronavirus crisisNobody should be losing their healthcare benefits during this crisis. It's good Starbucks has added mental health benefits for baristas and new a “catastrophe pay” policy for people who get sick. But the hours cuts from this crisis are hitting us all hard. Starbucks would normally be kicking people off of healthcare in July for not having enough hours, but a lot of people are going to be really low the first half of the year because of the crisis. We need them to commit to not kick anyone off in their July audit, no matter how many hours they are able to work during the coronavirus crisis. We need Starbucks to be a leader here and commit to preserving workers healthcare. They need to make sure they don’t do any harm to the benefits their workers already have. Sign on to call on Starbucks to protect our health by protecting our healthcare.2,993 of 3,000 SignaturesCreated by Working Washington
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Darden: We need 2 weeks notice of our schedule, not 4 days.Some cities and states have already passed legislation requiring large food and retail corporations to have better scheduling practices. The main parts of these laws are: -Advanced notice of our schedules -Additional compensation for when our schedules get changed after they’re posted -The right to have input in our schedules for better flexibility -Access to more hours for those that want them -The right to rest between closing and opening shifts Where these laws exist, Darden is already following them! With these laws, shift swaps between employees and requests made by employees would still work the way they do now, and Darden already has software that lets us do this. There’s no reason they can’t follow these basic things to give us more stability and flexibility to live our lives, whether that’s taking care of kids, going to college, or anything else. Please sign the petition to demand that Darden implement secure schedules in ALL of their restaurants!4,751 of 5,000 SignaturesCreated by Misty Brown
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Instacart: Here's our 22 cents — no more tip theft, low pay, and black-box pay algorithmsWe are Instacart workers. Some of us work buying and delivering groceries full-time, and some of us work part-time. Some have been on the platform for just a few months, and some for years. But since November, all of us have seen dramatic cuts in our paychecks. Some of us have seen wages lowered by 30-40% overall. Some of us have had to work twice as many hours just to make ends meet. Now, we’re speaking out to demand that Instacart address these issues by agreeing to a predictable, transparent pay structure. Until Instacart implements these changes, we're asking that customers tip just 22 cents up front in the app (then add your tip after delivery or tip in cash) to show that you support workers. Instacart has changed their pay structure from a predictable system where we knew what each gig would pay and why to a new model where it seems they pay as little as they’re able to get away with, and even use customer tips to get away with paying us less. This means they're offering very low wages that can even fall under the equivalent of the minimum wage. The company claims their new model is more "transparent," but in reality, the new model gives no indication of how pay is actually determined. The pay per job is now inexplicable — and much lower. Under the old model, shoppers were paid a specific base rate per delivery (e.g. $9.25 in Tacoma) and then an item incentive (40 cents per item we picked up). Under the new model, there’s no breakdown of how pay is determined. Shoppers often reject jobs only to see the same jobs re-appear minutes later with slightly higher pay, indicating that Instacart is simply trying to sell the job to the lowest bidder with no other obvious standard for how a given job should be paid. ***THE INSTACART TIP PENALTY*** Instacart is also practicing a sneaky form of tip theft by using customers' tips to subsidize their own costs instead of passing those tips directly on to the workers. Under the new model, Instacart pays less to workers for gigs where customers have left higher tips, so customers' tips are essentially being paid to Instacart rather than to the workers ourselves. If customers don't tip up front, Instacart pays more. This essentially works like a tip penalty, where instead of being "extra," tips are just used to make up for not paying workers decently in the first place. Using tips to subsidize Instacart's costs hurts workers and customers alike. Led by Instacart workers of Washington state: Mia Kelly (Seattle); Corrinne Pettitt (Tacoma); Ashley Knudson (Tacoma); Phoenix Di Corvo (Bremerton); Mark Moran (Seattle); Lori Tripp (Gig Harbor); Hannah Leighton (Bellingham); Ryan Munsell (Lynnwood); Samantha C. Sanabria (Tacoma); Terri Harstad (Bremerton); Julia Mascarella (Seattle); John LeMaster (Lakewood); Austin S. (Bellingham); Josh Siliaga (Seattle); Theresa Herstad (Bremerton); Renee Cable (Federal Way); Kris Sanderson (Mountlake Terrace); Patricia M. (Montesano); Rick Flickenger (Seattle); Rachel Jenkins (Vancouver); Ethan Bendorf (Port Orchard); Caitlin Santos (Steilacoom); April Cipriano (Tacoma); Rhonda Kirkes (Spanaway); Janssen Sartiga (Seattle); Jackie H. (Shoreline); Jaimee S. (Des Moines); Deanna Brewer (Seattle); Dawn Sabatella-Burnam; Jessica Habbe (Seattle); Jessica Clark (Edmonds); Anna Butler (Kent); Eva Skillings (Vancouver); Kristin Klatkiewicz (Kent); Martina B. (Lake Stevens); Michelle Padilla (Marysville); Jamilyn Salas (Tacoma); Alviena Ross (Olympia); Rachel Ross (Spokane); Chelsea Ward (Spokane); Lee Holland (Kent); Angela Sumers (Tacoma); Andrew Lincicome (Monroe); Bryan Sanford (Snohomish)541 of 600 SignaturesCreated by Working Washington