Dawna Bell is only one of 36 people being laid off from their family wage jobs on January 14, 2002. On September 13, 2001 the Port of Seattle voted to privatize crane maintenance at the Port of Seattle to Stevedoring Services of America, a multinational corporation.

Bell naturally opposes the layoffs because she, as a laid off worker, is directly affected. "But I am actually offended as a tax paying citizen," says Bell, a single mother who lives in Seattle. She is one of only two women, and the only woman of color, who is losing her job to privatization. "The Port of Seattle is giving these cranes that the taxpayers have bought and maintained, and the future revenue that these cranes will generate, to a private company. And I really have a problem with that. There are a lot of social service programs that need the money a lot more than Stevedoring Services of America."

The Port of Seattle, run by elected commissioners representing the people of King County, is in charge of controlling publicly owned properties from the airport to the docks in the best interest of the public. The agency was founded in 1919, and given its own, independent taxing authority, to stop the exact practice the Port Commissioners are now pushing: corporate monopolies taking control of the Port and its harbors.

The current decision to privatize the container crane maintenance is only the latest installment in a 15-year history of decisions by port commissioners to turn over control of Port operations to private corporations. Since 1986, the Port of Seattle has spent more than a half of a billion tax dollars in infrastructure upgrades and improvements to Terminals 5 and 18. After completing the upgrades at the public's expense, Port Commissioners turned around and awarded 30-year leases to private companies to manage operations at both terminals.

Tyree Scott, a retired crane electrician, works with a new initiative to challenge the corporate giveaways at the Port of Seattle: the Port Profits for Human Needs Campaign. "Most people can figure out that a 30-year lease is in effect a sale of public property to private enterprise. Using a half billion dollars of taxpayers' money to build up the Port's infrastructure only to then sell it off amounts to corporate welfare at its worst ... The issue of contracting out the maintenance of the container cranes looks like a labor dispute, but the real issue is the privatization of public property, or welfare for the rich."

The Port of Seattle receives $35.6 million levied from King County taxpayers each year. In 2000, the Port budget showed a $67 million profit, and the 2001 budget projects an increase in that amount. The current King County budget crisis resulted in the slashing of millions of dollars in basic human services as part of an overall $44 million deficit, a continuation of several years' worth of county social service cutbacks.

In August of 2001, The Port Profits for Human Needs Campaign was founded by community activists, human services providers and recipients, and crane maintenance workers (union electricians and mechanics). The Campaign formed out of concern for cuts in basic human services at King County coupled with privatization and layoffs at the Port of Seattle. It asserts that the profits from the Port, since they belong to the public, should be used to provide basic services to those most in need in our community. The Campaign is looking to the State of California, which in the early 1990s was facing huge budget shortfalls. In order to help, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach turned over $44 million in revenue to the cities for human needs.

"We have been amazed at how little we, and the public, know about the Port of Seattle." says Michael Woo, an activist with the campaign. "The Port Commissioners are giving away millions of dollars in public property and profits, and the public doesn't know it. We are working to hold the Port of Seattle Commissioners accountable for not looking out for the public's best interest."

--Scott Winn

Please call the Port of Seattle at 206-728-3034 and demand they stop the lay-offs of crane maintenance workers. The Port Profits for Human Needs Campaign can be reached by calling Michael Woo at The Northwest Labor Employment Law Office (LELO) at 206-568-1781.