A foil of development, SEIU firebrand joins URA board

Williamson has stood up for local workers

For years, Sam Williamson has seized megaphones and podiums to demand a seat at the table for some of the lowest-wage workers.

He has organized security guards in Downtown buildings and chided employers for laying off union workers — most recently, at the Ellis School, PNC Park and Heinz Field. He has criticized developments that have displaced people, such as the demolition of Penn Plaza apartments in East Liberty.

Now, Mr. Williamson, a regional leader with the Service Employees International Union, has a more-than-proverbial seat at the table.

In January, Mr. Williamson, 41, joined the board of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, the city’s economic development agency tasked with overseeing one of the largest building booms in recent memory. With 11 years representing Pittsburgh service industry workers — building janitors are a core of the union — Mr. Williamson brings a different perspective to the six-member board. During prior mayoral administrations the board had heard from a representative of the building trades. All URA board seats are unpaid volunteer positions lasting five years.

“We want to make sure that every investment of public dollars in a development project actually creates good jobs from beginning to end, from shovel to broom,” he said in a recent interview.

Tall, slender and a thunderous figure at rallies, Mr. Williamson was soft-spoken sitting in his office at SEIU’s Pittsburgh

Antonella Crescimbeni/Post-Gazette Sam Williamson, a regional leader of the Service Employees International Union, sits in front of a mural made by a Schenley High student for the 2000 SEIU International Convention on Feb. 14 in his office, Downtown.

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Mr. Williamson addresses protestors outside of the Station Square office of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Feb. 7, 2017.