WHEREAS, public employees at the federal, state, county and municipal levels of government include teachers, doctors, scientists, nurses, laborers, social workers and countless other occupations, providing vital services with professionalism and integrity, and making our communities good places to live, work, and raise our families; and

WHEREAS, Washington public employees are talented, skilled, and hard-working neighbors and family members; and

WHEREAS, the labor movement has been central to Washington's history and Washington has a proud record of supporting and passing worker protection laws ensuring workplace safety and honoring and safeguarding living wage jobs and many of our public employees are members of unions; and

WHEREAS, the City of Seattle employs more than 10,000 public employees who provide professional, dedicated service throughout their employment, and many of whom are union members; and

WHEREAS, public employees throughout the nation have lost their jobs and have experienced reduced wages and benefits as a result of the devastating recession; and

WHEREAS, labor unions and employees around the country have stepped forward to voluntarily participate in wage and benefit reductions, furloughs, and other cost saving measures to preserve the jobs of their fellow employees and assist in managing the impacts of the recession on governmental budgets, and have developed creative ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies; and

WHEREAS, we should honor and respect the work of all of our public employees, and will continue to call on them to carry out their duties and be creative about making government more efficient; and

WHEREAS, in Wisconsin and other states, the rights of hardworking public employees are under threat with proposals to curtail public employees' right to bargain collectively; NOW THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THAT:

Section 1. The Seattle City Council reaffirms our support for public employees to organize and to bargain collectively. We oppose any attempt to restrict or eliminate collective bargaining in the State of Washington; and

Section 2.The City of Seattle is committed to a fair and respectful process and to bargaining in good faith with our public employees; and

Section 3. In the City of Seattle, Tuesday, March 8 is proclaimed as

"PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION DAY".

Adopted by the City Council the 7th day of March, 2011, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this 7th day of March, 2011.

________________________________________

President Richard Conlin of the City Council

Filed by me this ______ day of _________________, 2011.

________________________________________

City Clerk

(Seal)

RC,JG,BH:tvb 03/01/11 Honoring Public Employees (Ver. 6) 1