"Labor cool to McGinn; Constantine says 'stop the dithering'"

Construction workers and union members gather in Westlake Park for a rally to demand the 520 bridge project, the Viaduct replacement project and a convention center expansion begin as voters have asked on Wednesday March 17, 2010. Union leaders said that jobs the projects would create are needed now. (Joshua Trujillo/Seattlepi.com)

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine on Wednesday spoke to a crowd of dozens of union workers at Westlake Center.

Not surprisingly, they got different receptions.

The rally staged by the Seattle/King County Building and Construction Trades Council/AFL-CIO was designed to highlight the problems faced by the local labor community in this bad economy.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn stands by as construction workers and union members gather in Westlake Park for a rally. (Joshua Trujillo/Seattlepi.com)

McGinn said he knew people were hurting.

"The highest priority of city government has to be jobs and it will be my highest priority," the mayor said.

But McGinn, who was opposed by most unions last fall, was interrupted several times during his brief remarks by chants of "What do we want?" - "Jobs!"

McGinn said he was committed to asking Seattle voters to expand light rail in the city within two years and touted his role in getting the "Bridgng the Gap" infrastructure levy passed - projects that have and could create work.

But McGinn's reticence about replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel - and his objections to the preferred 520 bridge replacement plans - have angered labor and others, who say the projects need to be built sooner rather than later. The state and county and Eastside political leaders oppose McGinn's 520 plan, preferring a six-lane option with two dedicated HOV lanes.

McGinn talked to the crowd about 520. "We're working to get light rail over that bridge," he said. "If we're going to ask people to pay tolls to cross it, we should give people a good transportation alternative. We think if we can get a bridge that has light rail on it, that that's something that could get public support and we could get that passed. I'm going to work to get that done."

Many in the crowd booed McGinn at that point.

Constantine, who enjoyed significant labor support in his election last year, spoke after McGinn and took a not-so-subtle swipe at the Seattle mayor. Constantine wants to build the viaduct tunnel and likes the six-lane, preferred option for 520 that McGinn dislikes.

He said there were transportation projects (520, tunnel) that "address legitimate safety, transit, freight mobility concerns, but these projects sit idle."

"I believe there's always room for discussion of the details," Constantine continued. "But our economy cannot survive years of job-stopping delays. I say, let's get going....it's time to stop the dithering and hand wringing."