Longshore Union to file suit over new Seattle arena plan
»Play Video
SEATTLE - The Longshore Union has announced its intent to file a legal challenge to the proposed new sports arena in the industrial area south of downtown Seattle.
David Mann, an attorney for Local 19, said a lawsuit will be filed against the plan after Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine sign a memorandum of understanding with Chris Hansen for the $490 million arena. That is expected to happen on Monday.
"If the mayor and county executive sign this (memo), we do fully intend to challenge it," Mann said.
The union says the memo is itself a proposal that fixes the arena site and should have been submitted to the environmental review process, including a careful study of alternative sites.
"This is going to be a publicly owned facility, and if we're going to spend this kind of money ... we have to stop and look at alternative sites first," Mann said. "The city and county are making commitments, and it's far too premature."
Mann also denied that the lawsuit was just a delaying tactic to stall the arena plan.
But King County council member Joe McDermott said the county and city fully intend to look at alternative sites using proper procedures spelled out under environmental law.
"The county and the city together have done careful diligence and a thorough review of the proposal, and it includes a full environmental statement, including a comprehensive traffic impact analysis and study of alternative sites, and we've added an economic impact analysis as well," he said. "I believe we have solid information coming back to the council to make good decisions, and we're poised for our vote on Monday."
McDermott said he is not concerned about the union's looming lawsuit. "I'm confident we're on solid footing," he said.
Seattle City Attorney Peter S. Holmes said approval of the memorandum of understanding would launch a thorough vetting process of multiple factors, not preordain that any complex will be built in the SoDo area.
He said the memo mandates the completion of “a full SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review, including consideration of one or more alternative sites, a comprehensive traffic impact analysis, impacts to freight mobility, port terminal operations and identification of possible mitigating actions, such as improvements to freight mobility, and improved pedestrian connections between the arena and the International District light rail station, the Stadium light rail station, the SoDo light rail station and Pioneer Square.”
Also required as part of the SEPA review, Holmes stressed, is consideration of “a ‘no action’ alternative and an alternative site at Seattle Center.”
The King County Council is scheduled to vote on the arena proposal Monday. That will be followed by a vote of the Seattle City Council, which has already approved the arena proposal once before, and is expected to do so again.
The union, however, says building another sports venue in the Sodo area will erode maritime, manufacturing and warehousing businesses and threaten the livelihood of union and other workers.
David Mann, an attorney for Local 19, said a lawsuit will be filed against the plan after Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine sign a memorandum of understanding with Chris Hansen for the $490 million arena. That is expected to happen on Monday.
"If the mayor and county executive sign this (memo), we do fully intend to challenge it," Mann said.
The union says the memo is itself a proposal that fixes the arena site and should have been submitted to the environmental review process, including a careful study of alternative sites.
"This is going to be a publicly owned facility, and if we're going to spend this kind of money ... we have to stop and look at alternative sites first," Mann said. "The city and county are making commitments, and it's far too premature."
Mann also denied that the lawsuit was just a delaying tactic to stall the arena plan.
But King County council member Joe McDermott said the county and city fully intend to look at alternative sites using proper procedures spelled out under environmental law.
"The county and the city together have done careful diligence and a thorough review of the proposal, and it includes a full environmental statement, including a comprehensive traffic impact analysis and study of alternative sites, and we've added an economic impact analysis as well," he said. "I believe we have solid information coming back to the council to make good decisions, and we're poised for our vote on Monday."
McDermott said he is not concerned about the union's looming lawsuit. "I'm confident we're on solid footing," he said.
Seattle City Attorney Peter S. Holmes said approval of the memorandum of understanding would launch a thorough vetting process of multiple factors, not preordain that any complex will be built in the SoDo area.
He said the memo mandates the completion of “a full SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) review, including consideration of one or more alternative sites, a comprehensive traffic impact analysis, impacts to freight mobility, port terminal operations and identification of possible mitigating actions, such as improvements to freight mobility, and improved pedestrian connections between the arena and the International District light rail station, the Stadium light rail station, the SoDo light rail station and Pioneer Square.”
Also required as part of the SEPA review, Holmes stressed, is consideration of “a ‘no action’ alternative and an alternative site at Seattle Center.”
The King County Council is scheduled to vote on the arena proposal Monday. That will be followed by a vote of the Seattle City Council, which has already approved the arena proposal once before, and is expected to do so again.
The union, however, says building another sports venue in the Sodo area will erode maritime, manufacturing and warehousing businesses and threaten the livelihood of union and other workers.
So let the Longshore thugs file all sorts of lawsuits and picket all they want.. Then when the stadium is finished, hang a big sign on the front doors that says "Longshoremen Not Welcome Here".
Don't these guys got anything better to do? Like work maybe? The longshore union is in the news way too much.
An already unpopular, violent union...making trouble for everyone. I've seen that port operate firsthand. The whole place shuts down for their breaks. Their 15 minute breaks are a half hour. Half hour lunches stretch to nearly an hour. Meanwhile all the trucks sit. No private sector business could operate this way and be profitable. Time for the longshoremen to be replaced by hardworking immigrant workers. It's not rocket science.Â
 @bagsofdirt "Time for the longshoremen to be replaced by hardworking immigrant workers."
Â
No just hard working workers, no test for immigrants or non immigrants needed. You willing to bust your butt and work hard for a decent wage? you get the job.
 @bagsofdirt I hope your job is given to a "hardworking immigrant"... to wish job loss on anyone is so anti American, this is the problem with our country these days. Don't be jealous that they are treated well and paid well. The construction/labor industry has changed for the better since the unions have mandated breaks and lunches, deaths and injuries are way down. Its not like they work in a pillow factory, their work is dangerous, and if an extra, or in your eyes a "stolen", 15min of break time allows them to maintain a safer work environment then so be it. How much do you think on the job injuries cost Americans? How much public assistance do these "hardworking immigrants" receive and how much does that cost? Your ignorance must be bliss...
wow the longshoreman actually doing something, they get paid by the hour to sit mainly on their backside, realy good pay while our trucks sit and wait to b looked at
Anyone who utters the words "alternative site" with respect to this plan is an idiot. Chris Hansen owns land in SoDo. He did many months before he made this proposal initially. It was either accept this plan for this site, or squash it and hope some other bagillionaire steps up to the plate with a proposal for Bellevue or some other part of Seattle. Considering other sites was NEVER even an option. So you're gonna sue because someone didn't explore something that was an impossibility? Don't forget, this plan is bringing millions upon millions to improve roads and traffic flow in the neighborhood. Also don't forget the 13 freight traffic flow improvement projects the city proposed in July (with an offer to share in the $25 million cost) which the the Port basically spat at. It's never good enough apparently.Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
So the 'union' workers won't get home 15 minutes earlier a couple days a week for a few months?
And everyone else should suffer for it.
Â
Par for the course. Self outweighs the masses. Â
Union .. Union .. Union...
Blahh .. Blahh .. Blahh...
Â
'nuff said.
LOL good luck with that.
It sounds like the Union is just P-hurt.
Just so I get this right...
Â
It's ok to have 25 businesses that produce 5 days a week year long, yet bad that 1 in the same footprint produces 3 days a week during the season(s).
Got it.
Â
A non-union firm moved the Hood Canal Bridge hundreds of feet in record time with cash incentives.
I wonder how fast the roads could be improved with that model.
Imagine, incentives for doing the job right and fast - more money in the worker's pocket, and none out for union dues! Better for the economy? Certainly... Unless you listen to union mouthpieces.
Leave it to the unions to screw everything up. I was part of a union with one of my old jobs and I felt they did absolutely nothing besides take my union dues. I guess this lawsuit gives them a reason for existing.Â
"The union, however, says building another sports venue in the Sodo area will erode maritime, manufacturing and warehousing businesses and threaten the livelihood of union and other workers."
Â
So the lawsuit is merely a delaying tactic to drag out the approval process with frivolous legal actions. Seattle has seen this enough times to recognize it for what it is. Hopefully a judge will quickly rule on this and award attorney fees to the city.
Yeah, you guys go right ahead and file a suit. Its going to cost you money from your union dues, and its going to cost the city money; which comes right out of your own pocket in taxes. When the time comes for you to sign a new contract with the port of seattle, and you want more money because your union dues have gone up, remember this. Arrogant and conceded thats all you are.
What a bunch of crooks, these bozos are already bleeding the Port of Seattle dry with their average  100K plus salaries... ILWU is a bunch of spoiled brats who need a reality check!Â
Longshoremen are nothing more than overpaid warehouse workers. Leave our arena alone!
I'm a port trucker and i drive the crumbling roads in Sodo everyday. They SUCK and the PORT SUCKS and the RITCHIE RICHS suck and the ILWU sucks and for that matter, SEATTLE SUCKS! No one in this rotten mess ever considers the TRUCKERS. Want to see what i'm talking about? Hitch a ride with any port trucker for about half a day and you will be pleading to get out at the next corner! Back to the ILWU lawsuit, they remind me of an old slogan - "International Union of Loafers, Dopers and Drinkers, no beer, no work."Â
Sounds like you would be happier somewhere else.
@Suspishissofu
 If you have an issue with the roads, then you should contact the Port or the City. The roads have problems for years due to neglect by SDOT.
Now comes Chris....who has given about the best arena deal ever given to a City, and they have no limits in trying to extort any last penny they can.Â
The longshort men are thugs...which is the teamster mentality. The Port officials are ingrates.
If feces like this continues, I would not blame Mr. Hansen at all if he gave up, gave y'all a proverbial middle finger, sells the property he has at a loss, packs up and leaves.
Then this City will NEVER get a team back.
So go to the shore of the Duwamish, cry into the river, and get another career if driving a truck is making you so miserable.
Calm down there super trucker.lol Me too. I always tried to avoid the area as much as possible when I was trucking. Its not even suitable for the normal car traffic much less when events are going on down there. Just a complete waste. If they want these ridiculous sports stadiums build them out in the cheaper land areas with better freeway access. But the tax payers are going to get soaked on this stadium just like they have the other stadiums. @Suspishissofu
@Blindman @Suspishissofu I completely agree with you two. I am from the southwest, and granted the weather is dryer and more predictable there, but you also see evidence of the city and county actually improving and maintaining roads. Here, nothing ever gets done. If road projects are started, it takes them unbelievably long to finish the job. For the most part though, its nothing more than potholes being filled in. The roads here are the worst I have ever seen.
Look at alternative sites??? Does Chris Hansen own other locations because this is what the memorandum is all about - what Chris Hansen owns. This is HIS deal. I don't get it. Sounds like the Unions will cost Seattle infinitely more tax money than the arena (which is none!)!Â
LOL good luck with that!
Why don't you guys do the mature thing and wait to hear what the lawsuit is all about before going on your predictable anti-union diatribes.Â
@caphillkid ..last sentence in the article (although I have my doubts about KOMO's reliability wrt the facts)
@caphillkid Dude, you know how the process runs in Western Washington. From 2000 until the end of the decade, the State spent half a billion dollars ($500,000,000) on studies, planning, red tape, and beaucracy, without breaking ground or laying a single brick for the new 520 bridge. This lawsuit, is how things like that, always begin
What it's all about? Did they start whining about something different than what they have been whining about for the past six months?
 @caphillkidÂ
Â
"What the lawsuit is all about" is described in the article.
...nothing less than an attempted shakedown of Sugar Daddy Hansen. I am sure there is a back room collaboration and collusion between the good ole boys of Local 19 & the Port officials.
It will be announced later that Sugar Daddy Chris has put up another $50 Million to alleviate traffic concerns of the Union & Port, and the law suit will be dropped.
The Local 19 should be brought up on racketeering charges for their extortion attempt.
Uh oh...sounds like somebody's payoff envelope was a little light this month.
When the NBA arena is built, the laborers will have to paid a prevailing wage, but if there is a way, it should be built by non-union labor and teach these whining crybabies a lesson
 @seacougr Except why should we punish the other unions for the idiocy of one?
This is one lawsuit of many to come. Bet on it.Â
Â
KOMO is looking for controversy and couldn't even wait until the lawsuit was filed.Â
 @caphillkid That's how things work in Seattle.
Â
Decide to build arena/stadium
Lawsuits filed
Put to public vote
Public votes no
Builds arena/stadium anyways
Â
I've seen this movie before. Just skip to the end and get it built.
no you forgot some relevant steps:
1) Exploration Committee
2) Request for Proposals
3) Public input period
4) Committee vote on selected plans
5) Lawsuit filed by citizens's group
6) Impact study begins while legal action proceeds
7) Injunction issued by court to halt all work and analysis of project temporarily
8) Motion to overturn injunction and proceed with impact statement granted
9) Rare snail species discovered during impact study, evidence of prehistoric landfill site  found, work halted.
10) Lawsuit by citizens group is dismissed without merit
11) New lawsuit filed to stop project on current site on basis that it will cause more noise and scare indigenous feral cats in the area away from SODO.
12) Injunction issued once again to halt all work on project.
13) Hidden footage of city employees drinking beer on jobsite after work hours surfaces, City goes on defensive
14) Chris Hansen has had enough withdraws petition to build new arena.
15) Unconfirmed reports that Chris Hansen is courting the City of Bellevue to build a new Arena surface, which are later confirmed.
Â
This is typically how things go, here in seattle
@stamperzann YUPÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/Investigators-520-bridge-118221934.html
Â
I wonder if KOMO will delete this post?
 @northwestsurfer I think you need to add about 10 more lawsuits and 5 more environmental impact study.
Â
Oh, and the timeframe to completion will be 15 years from now. Â Maybe 20.
@Maynard G Krebbs I'm one of them. But I also observe limits; if due process has been done and the courts dismiss the suit, I dont go finding another reason or way to stop it.
 @northwestsurfer You forgot all the environmental wackos filing complaints and lawsuits.Â
 @Hachee_Bungwhy No kidding. I just find it hilarious that KOMO is already stirring the pot, getting people riled up before we've even seen the lawsuit.Â
Â
Â
 @Hachee_Bungwhy That was funny... Does the movie include mafia tactics employed to support Union wishes.. I think I saw that one... Ha!
 @caphillkid Yeah... I could totally see where Komo maliciously reported this story... plz. A two year old could figure out that this is a Union tactic that smells... nothing more, nothing less. Komo? whatever.
 @Funky-Munky What the hell are you talking about? You comments are so random...
Â
All I said was that KOMO should have waited for the lawsuit to be filed. That way we can get actual facts about their claims.Â
Â
Sorry that I have an opinion. Now please continue with your "union tactics" rant that I never even brought up...
I would still like to hear a rational reasoning as to how this new arena would affect the port. Â There isn't much traffic from the port during the operating hours of the existing venues, and the new venue would operate in roughly the same timeframe, so where is the conflict. Â The venue is also close to mass-transit, and Freeway Connections (including the new SR99 Tunnel), so it won't affect much in the way of surface streets. Â Just a single rational argument would be nice.
@Thomas Gill , you are asking way to much, for a single rational argument..
the longshore union needs to quit making up things. If they don't like the roads and say something else will cause congestion, then they should be putting up the money to improve the roads..
The people having tantrums are the ones that want this stadium. When someone with common sense objects, the name calling starts. There is better things to do with our tax revenue than support privately owned sports teams.
 @Schmidiot Still waiting on that tax revenue you speak of.
 @Schmidiot LOL! Oh you say what you want about the supporters, but at least they get the facts about the arean. You clearly don't!
 @Schmidiot What tax revenue?
 @Hachee_Bungwhy  @Schmidiot What do you think will pay off the bonds ? This is another King County scam for the rest of the state to pick up the tab. Since the "Sports Authority" will get a waiver on turning over sales tax revenue.Thus the money that would have been used by the state will not be there.
 @Maynard G Krebbs  @Hachee_Bungwhy  @Schmidiot Tax revenue that wouldn't exist without the arena. In other words, there is no tax revenue that would be diverted from other things to pay for it.Â