Some good news for ABC leadership in California: this week, the Merit Shop advanced “Operation Permanent Offense” in one city and stopped a union-backed apprenticeship requirement at a community college district.
1. Proposed Oceanside Charter Contains Unprecedented Protections for Taxpayers Concerning Fair and Open Bid Competition, Local Government Power, and Worker Freedom of Choice
On Wednesday, December 16, the Oceanside City Council voted 3-2 to place a proposed charter on the June 2010 ballot for Oceanside voters to consider. This charter includes a ban on Project Labor Agreements! If it is approved, this charter would be the first in the state to contain a provision that ensures fair and open bid competition for city-funded construction.
The charter also includes a provision giving the City of Oceanside power to determine its own prevailing wage policies for purely municipal construction. Finally, the proposed charter includes a “paycheck protection” provision which requires city public employee unions to get approval from their members to take money from their paychecks for political purposes. (You may remember Proposition 226 in 1998 and Proposition 75 in 2005 were statewide ballot measures for paycheck protection.)
Read the proposed charter here and consider promoting such a charter in your town. Below is a link to a newspaper article that includes comments from Bill Baber, Government Affairs Director of the ABC San Diego Chapter.
OCEANSIDE: Council wants June vote on charter city idea – North County Times – December 17, 2009
2. College District Ditches Union-Backed Discriminatory Requirement for Bidders
In 2004, an IBEW organizer was elected to the board of trustees of the Allen Hancock Community College District in Santa Maria (in Santa Barbara County). He is now chairman of the board. A PLA threat there died in 2006, but the unions are still advancing schemes to cut competition and increase costs on college construction.
Shortly before a bid deadline of December 17, the college district issued an addendum to bid specifications for the One-Stop Student Services Center. The addendum added “Enhanced Safety Requirements” which required 75 percent of the workforce of the general contractor and all subcontractors to be a graduate of a California state-approved apprenticeship program. Contractors immediately began calling ABC to complain.
ABC sent an email and made phone calls to the college facilities staff requesting the bid deadline to be extended and the “enhanced safety requirements” to be removed through a new addendum. ABC also coordinated with the Santa Maria Valley Contractors Association and the Western Electrical Contractors Association. On December 17, the college issued two addenda removing the union-backed requirement and extended the bid deadline to December 22.
3. The Merit Shop Will Bring Trouble to Elected Officials in Riverside County Who Supported PLA
The board of trustees of the Riverside Community College District voted 3-2 on Tuesday, December 15 to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement for future construction funded by a bond measure. There was an outstanding turnout of contractors, workers, and local business and association representatives to oppose the PLA, but the three votes were solidly locked up to support the PLA. The board was bombarded with emails funneled through the ABC Southern California Chapter’s Voter Voice grassroots system, but to no avail. A plan is now in place for various contractors and associations to make the college and its board of trustees accountable to the taxpayers as negotiations begin with the unions for the PLA.
This is the fourteenth local government in California to vote for a government-mandated PLA in 2009.
Kevin Dayton
State Government Affairs Director
Associated Builders and Contractors of California
(916) 439-2159