Michael Wright, the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) reuse manager for the City of Concord, is doing a poor imitation of Solomon these days as he tries (per order of council, no doubt) to split the baby over ground rules for building projects at the CNWS. Wright’s plan, backed by Mayor Laura Hoffmeister and Vice Mayor Ron Leone, recommends a 50-50 split for several initial projects that will pit union workers and their allies against non-union contractors in a Test Drive. Brilliant.
Sadly, Wright’s proposal is just the latest fig leaf for ongoing local government capitulation to union demands for favoritism in exchange for electoral success for politicians. There is no denying that the City of Concord agrees with Paul Doolittle of the IBEW, that it should be in the business of, according to the CCTIMES, “lock[ing] in future jobs for union workers.” Any consideration is just that. Favoritism.
What business is it for the City of Concord to lock in jobs for anyone? Why should any government choose between local workers of any affiliation? Why do we need to set up some bogus cherry-picked “test-drive” when we already know, from countless examples that Project Labor Agreements cost taxpayers 15% or more in overhead, inflated wages, cost overruns, and a premium for industry standard work quality.
What’s to test? Even the suggestion, in the first place, is a gimme to the unions. Debbie Allen of the Associated Builders and Contractors, is correct when she asks, “Why does there need to be a PLA component,” at all?
The same should be said for the sudden appearance of California bills that favor union workers waiting to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown. SB 922—formerly concerning tuberculosis screening—and SB 436 will nullify local government bans on PLAs and earmark tax dollars to be used as incentives to municipalities to require PLAs.
Concord and California taxpayers are not in a position to throw away yet another 15% on the public dollar for what should be private sector led construction projects based on an open and free bidding process for all.
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
If the City of Concord wants to pay more for labor (under Project Labor Agreements or PLA’s), then the city ought to give residents a chance to vote to repeal the one-half percentage point rise in the city sales tax. In November 2010, Concord residents voted to raise the sales tax from 9.25% to 9.75%. The tax increase passed. On April 1, 2011, the sales tax became 9.75%. (On July 1, 2011, the sales tax dropped to 8.75%. That drop had nothing to do with Concord. Alll over California the sales-tax rate dropped one percentage point because a statewide sales-tax increase from 2009 expired.) Concord is getting a bad reputation as a place to do business. Concord is now a place where job-killing is the rule, not the exception. Concord must have a fiscally responsible city council — a council that is pro-jobs.
Richard Colman
Biomed Inc.
Concord, CA
The unions often point to the Harry S.Truman Administration as the originators of the Project Labor Agreement. That is true, he issued an Executive Order which is known as the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. This Act stated that employees were only allowed to work “30 hours per week” thereby creating job opportunities for those who were not employed. It also stated that “no employee and no one seeking employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting a labor organization of his own choosing.” Something also not traditionally known is that the Supreme Court found this original Project Labor Agreement to be unconstitutional. Chew on that Concord!
I heard from someone in the room that when Debbie Allen asked the question, “Why does there need to be a PLA?”, that neither the Mayor nor Vice Mayor gave an answer. Mr. Doolittle responded by saying that it was needed to secure jobs for union members. Why can’t the unions secure jobs on their own without a government agent mandating it for them? Is their sales pitch of union labor superiority in providing better quality, on time, on budget construction been proven false? If union labor were so superior, then they shouldn’t need the government to tie up all the work for them. The free market would do it for them.
The Concord City Council should not support PLAs. All construction work should remain open to fair and open competition to all qualified firms and workers in the industry. Anything else is called discrimination or favoritism. Controlling which special interest groups get the work has nothing to gain for the agency. Until you are able to assess the economic conditions for the next ten years, how can such a policy be adopted that could threaten the viability of the entire project? Remember, PLAs don’t make for safer workers. In fact, it is the opposite. Once PLAs are in place, labor compliance suddenly vanishes.
I read that article in the news and laugh when I hear gringos like Doolittle claim unions were here to build the country and therefore deserve a lock on all future jobs. Hiring local is code for not hiring minorities and local poor kids from the barrios. Union apprentice programs are nothing more than sending kids to picket some non-union project while political and mob no-shows play and deadbeats with seniority take 5 1-hr coffee breaks per day.