From the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce:

Ex-Seattle Councilwoman Jeanette Williams, for whom the award was named

Join the Seattle Women’s Commission to thank the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce and other supporters for making Seattle’s new Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance a reality.

Monday, October 29, 6:00 pm
Bertha Landes Room, Seattle City Hall
600 4th Avenue (enter on Fifth Avenue)
RSVP: Marta.Idowu@seattle.gov

The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce will receive the 2012 Jeanette Williams Award in the Bertha Landes Room at City Hall, 600 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle, in recognition of the group’s organizing efforts to pass the Ordinance.

Thanks to a broad coalition of supporters, including many Seattle businesses, the City of Seattle has become the third city in the United States to mandate paid sick and safe time for employees who work within Seattle city limits. A lack of paid sick and safe time disproportionately impacts women, children and communities of color. Seattle came together to implement this critical protection for workers and their families, and now it is time to celebrate everyone’s hard work.

The Jeanette Williams Award was created as part of the 2003 Seattle Women’s Summit to honor an individual who demonstrates significant leadership and service in advancing the cause of women in Seattle.

Jeanette Williams served on the Seattle City Council from 1969 to 1989. In 1971 she was instrumental in establishing the nation’s first Seattle Women’s Commission and Office of Women’s Rights with paid staff. Prior to serving on Seattle City Council, Williams overcame gender stereotypes to become the first woman elected as County Chairperson for the King County Democratic Central Committee.

A tireless advocate for women’s issues, Jeanette Williams helped establish the first shelter for battered and abused women in Seattle, helped create the City’s Division on Aging, developed policies to address early childhood education, and sponsored critical legislation that for the first time prohibited discrimination in housing and employment in the City of Seattle