If you agree with I-1644 and want to help collect signatures to get it on the ballot, here's what you need to know.
At this time, AFSCME Council 28 has not taken a position on the initiative, but wants to make sure our members are informed.
The following is from the One Washington Coalition for Equality:
OLYMPIA (June 26, 2018) — Since its founding in 1957, the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO has been fighting on the front lines for the rights of all of our members to receive equal opportunities in employment.
Last month, at the WSLC’s 2018 COPE (Committee on Political Education) Convention, delegates representing more than 600 WSLC affiliated unions and more than 450,000 members from across the state voted to endorse Initiative 1644, which would reverse I-200, Tim Eyman’s deceptively titled 1998 “Washington State Civil Rights Initiative” that killed Affirmative Action as we knew it by banning the use of race and gender in public employment, education and contracting.
According to Washington’s Office of Minority & Women Business Enterprises (OMWBE), since the passage of I-200, small, women and minority owned businesses have lost up to $3.8 billion in state public contracting opportunities. This represents a 20-year loss of nearly $4 billion in livable wage jobs for hundreds of thousands of working men and women in our state.
Twenty years is enough.
Initiative 1644 would give voters the opportunity to correct this injustice and enact new inclusive Affirmative Action policies that protects women, the disabled, minorities and all honorably discharged veterans — without using any quotas. But time is short. This is the final week to collect signatures!
TAKE A STAND — Please print and sign this I-1644 petition as an 11″x 17″ two-sided document. If you don’t have access to a printer capable of doing this at home or your local union, go to your nearest FedEx Office, give them CODE 1644 and they’ll print your I-1644 petition for free.
Once you’ve printed your petition, follow these three steps:
- Sign the petition and get 19 other registered voters to sign it;
- Make copies of your signed petition; and
- Mail your original signed petition to the campaign by no later than FRIDAY, July 6.
Thanks for signing I-1644. If you have any questions about I-1644, please call 206-701-4188 or visit www.Yeson1644.com.
