MLK Labor Council Votes To Expel Seattle Police Officer's Guild

SEATTLE, WA — The Seattle Police Officer's Guild has been expelled from King County's largest labor organization.

Martin Luther King County Labor delegates voted Wednesday night to remove the Seattle Police Officer's Guild, or SPOG, from their ranks for failing to address concerns the labor council had raised earlier in the month. On June 4, amid heightened scrutiny after the death of George Floyd and the many reports of violence by police against protesters both in Seattle and across the country, MLK Labor issued a statement asking the police guild to commit "to become an anti-racist organization" and outlined key steps they expected SPOG to follow:

• Send SPOG Executive Board representatives to meet with the MLK Labor Executive Board.
• Issue a statement confirming that racism is a structural, systemic issue in America that causes undue harm to minority communities.
• Participate in a "labor working space" to promote safety and address racism as a systemic issue within SPOG.

At the time, that call for action was echoed by many of MLK Labor's higher ups.

“There is raw pain in our community, and police are a driving source of that pain.," said MLK Labor's Executive Secretary and Treasurer Nicole Grant. "As a labor movement, we acknowledge that institutional racism exists within our organizations and we must work to dismantle these racist systems."

While SPOG's board did send a letter this week that acknowledged the existence of institutional racism, delegates ultimately decided that SPOG's efforts were not enough to meet their demands and address police racism, and voted to remove police from their guild.

After the vote, MLK Labor issued a statement confirming their vote to remove SPOG saying in part:

Any union that is part of our labor council needs to be actively working to dismantle racism in their institution and society at large. Unfortunately, the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild has failed to do that work and are no longer part of our council.

Since the killing of George Floyd, communities of color in Seattle and around the United States have spoken loud and clear that the status quo will no longer be tolerated. We have listened to our community and responded by doing the right thing.

MLK Labor represents a coalition of over 100 labor organizations working across King County, accounting for more than 100,000 local workers. SPOG represents about 1,300 officers and sergeants with the Seattle Police Department.