Thanks to the WSB’ers whose texts and calls brought news of this picketing at the Admiral Safeway construction site. You’ve seen similar protests at other project sites (we recall at least three in West Seattle in the past few years) – this time, it’s the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters claiming site subcontractor Marquise Drywall is not paying “area standard” wages, according to their signs and according to what one of the protesters told WSB.
Then we found there was more to the story than the picketing itself: The drums, whistles, and bullhorns the protesters were using had drawn a different kind of protest: Lafayette Elementary, across the street, had called the police. Principal Virginia Turner explained they are not opposed to the protest – but the protesters had been using drums and other noisemakers, and that was disrupting classwork. Much louder than the ongoing construction work, she and office manager Connie Wicklund explained. While we were talking with them in the Lafayette office, SPD Officer Barnes came in to explain that the protesters had agreed to stop using the drums, but, he said, there wasn’t much more police could do than talk to them, which they had done. Turner said she had gone over to talk with the protesters too. If the drums started up again, the officer advised the school administrators, give them a call. (In our video, shot from the Lafayette side of the street, you will see and hear the protesters, minus the drums, and you also see the police who responded to the California/Lander corner.)
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