Archives West Finding Aid

The SeaTac Seattle Minimum Wage History Project is a research, archival documentation, and oral history project co-directed by University of Washington political science professor Michael McCann and University of Washington labor archivist Conor Casey.

Beginning in 2015, the project members--McCann, Casey, and graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Washington--collected articles about the SeaTac and Seattle camaigns and then peformed dozens oral history interviews. As well, some hard copy archival collections were collected for the Labor Archives of Washington, websites were archivally captured, and some materials were digitized relating to the campaigns.

The resulting digital web archive documents the stories of those involved in the campaigns, as supporters and opponents, in or affected by the struggles over a $15 minimum wage at SeaTac and in Seattle as well as the broader, ongoing effects and efforts at a national level. Interviews include a broad coalition of labor union officers and members, politicians, nonprofit community partners, and small business owners in support and against the initiatives.