Last Friday, the Teamsters Local 117 warned of an imminent strike at Pike Place Market. The union represents about 16,500 workers in the region, including roughly sixty workers in the Market (security guards, parking attendants, housing managers, and the janitorial and maintenance staff). They have been laboring without a contract since 2008, and after a contentious extended negotiating process with the Market’s Public Development Authority (PDA), the workers voted to authorize a strike Thursday, January 28.

“It’s a vote to get the ball rolling, should the workers decide to go on strike,” says Paul Zilly, a local 117 spokesman. An authorization vote gives the union time prepare—setting up strike benefits, establishing sympathy within the community, and contacting other unions to ask that they honor the picket line—if the members vote to proceed. Over 90 percent of the Market’s organized workers voted for authorization. It can be assumed that a formal strike vote would garner similar support levels.

The PDA has not returned numerous messages seeking comment on its side of the conflict.

There are a number of reasons behind the unrest, says the union representatives. “The PDA has been curiously stubborn and resistant to some pretty appealing offers made by the union,” Zilly says. He is referring to the deal local 117 tried to strike for the elimination of an unpopular merit-based pay system. The program offered workers between two and four percent additional pay, depending on performance. The workers believe the system is unfairly implemented, and offered a $40,000 wage cut to be spread over three years, in exchange for its end. The PDA refused.

Other sticking points include 2009’s lack of holiday pay, which the workers at Pike Place have been receiving for the last nineteen years. This year it wasn’t included with their December pay, and no explanation or advanced warning was given. Maintenance workers at the market are also upset by the available opportunities to advance up the pay scale. The point of contention is the PDA’s implementation of a three-step pay ladder that will make advancing from step one to step two (requiring 4,000 apprentice hours to get an electrical license) significantly harder than advancing from step two to step three (a few days of classes to get a boiler license).

The parties are expected to be in a mediation session for most of today. Further updates will follow when I hear more.