This week the Olympia City Council restarted its work on workers' affordability and protections — the process that paused when the Workers' Bill of Rights went to the ballot last fall. Voters weighed it carefully and said no, by 893 votes. I co-chaired the campaign against Proposition 1, and here's what I heard from neighbors all fall: nobody was voting against workers. They were voting against one approach.
Because the real issue was never in dispute: Olympia has a cost-of-living crisis, and it hits all of us. The worker stretching a paycheck, the shop owner making payroll, the nonprofit serving more people with less, the retiree on a fixed income — rent, groceries, childcare, and gas have outrun everyone's math. I raised my kids here. I know that math. Last fall, both campaigns agreed on the diagnosis; we disagreed about the cure.
So how the council restarts matters. Some are already urging that the defeated initiative become the baseline for city policy. That would relitigate November — and treat a crisis that hits all of us as a fight between some of us. This crisis has two sides of the ledger, and wages are only one. A dollar a family doesn't have to spend is worth as much as a dollar earned. Childcare assistance, targeted tax relief, economic growth, and pressure on our state partners about Washington's regressive tax system belong in this work plan alongside any wage discussion.
And everyone belongs at the table: workers, organizers, and community members, and also the small businesses and nonprofits that told us they couldn't absorb the costs of Prop 1. Steady jobs come from steady businesses.
The election settled a ballot measure. It didn't lower anyone's rent. The crisis is still here — so let's take it on together, at a bigger table.
Amalie O'Connor
Olympia
The writer co-chaired the Olympia Together campaign opposing Proposition 1 in 2025.
