Dear Residents of Richland

The City of Richland is exploiting the pandemic to avoid paying fair wages to our LOCAL Line Crew in an attempt to either force them to leave their jobs and search for work elsewhere or have these men work for less as the 2nd to the lowest paid line crew in the state of Washington. If they succeed, the City will bring in contracted line crews who are paid an extremely higher hourly rate than our own City employees, plus a 5-10% mark up.

The City has also received over $7.3 million dollars in the American Rescue Plan ("ARPA") that is encouraged to have some funds be passed along to employees in the hopes of rebuilding local economies.

Contracted crews create longer restoration times, cost the City more money, and cause rate increases for both residential and business customers. When these contracted crews leave, they take the money the City paid with them, instead of putting it back into our LOCAL economy.

These men will be forced to find employment out of town and uproot their families. This could also eliminate local jobs for our future generations here in Richland forever.

Please tell our City of Richland officials to keep our jobs LOCAL for our hard working men, their families, and future generations. Tell them you stand with your LOCAL LINE CREW.

A moment of your time means a lifetime to these families.

Thank you,

I STAND WITH THE RICHLAND LINE CREW