Priority Hire is such a significant effort in the Puget Sound region the knowledge of its origins must be known and endured. So that you won’t forget and strive in your own right to keep knowledge of this alive, Priority Hire was birthed in Rainier Beach in 2010 Hire Power when the Rainier Beach Community Center was demolished and rebuilt and there were no workers from the neighborhood or the City of Seattle on the construction project. 

 

 This kicked off an organizing effort that resulted in an ordinance in the City of Seattle where every one of its capital construction projects must now have 25% of the workforce come from underinvested zip codes in within Seattle’s City limits. A result of this is an additional $32M in the pockets of construction workers from said zip codes. See this link that has data with this data among other important information.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKWLgB9RwnjlMhfSSyO9vUBjFcERkA2B/view?usp=drivesdk 

 

While this is great news, there is still work to be done. You will note an area of improvement needed is the share of work going to women. In 2015 15% of the share of Priority Hire work went to women, in 2024 the amount is only 8%. The Priority Hire Advisory Council, of which yours truly is a member, has prioritized focusing on turning this around. Standby, we will keep you posted on our success.

– Gregory Davis

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