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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Supervisors Reject PLAs for County Projects

The county Board of Supervisors gave a thumbs down on including project labor agreements in future contracting projects last week.

The agreements generally require that bidders for public works projects use a majority of their workers that are union members.

Eric Christen, a spokesman for the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, a statewide group that has a sole purpose of banning PLAs, said the board’s vote “is sending a message that they are backers of open competition and protecting taxpayer dollars.”

The five-member board briefly entertained a motion to put the issue before voters on the June ballot, but instead voted to draft an ordinance that would exclude PLAs on future improvement projects.

Opponents of PLAs have been collecting signatures in several San Diego County cities to let voters determine whether the agreements are beneficial to the community. In Chula Vista, a measure already qualified for the June ballot, and the Oceanside City Council voted to place the issue on its June ballot. Signature gatherers are working in the city of San Diego to place a proposal to ban PLAs on the November ballot.

Also, the counties of Fresno and Orange recently adopted similar laws that effectively ban the labor agreements.

Pros And Cons Of PLAs

PLA opponents say the agreements limit the number of bidders on projects, discriminate against contractors that aren’t members of a union, and drive up the costs on projects.

Advocates for the PLAs say they permit nonunion contractors to bid on the projects, and ensure that the work is completed on time, done in a quality way, and prevent conflicts between contractors and workers.

In 2007, union labor organizers attempted to insert a PLA for the $1 billion convention center/hotel project in Chula Vista that Gaylord Entertainment planned to build at that city’s bay front in partnership with the city and port district.

Gaylord executives cited those demands along with the excessive costs associated with regulatory approvals as reasons for withdrawing from the project.

Last year, the San Diego Unified School District’s board adopted a labor pact called a project stabilization agreement that requires bidders on the district’s improvement projects to be unionized, or agree to have the workers referred by a union hall. The district has been making massive upgrades to its schools following the 2008 passage of Proposition S, a $2.1 billion bond issue, and last year’s passage of Proposition MM, which calls for spending another $1.5 billion on district capital improvements.

Bids Accepted Under New Rules

According to the district, since the PSA was adopted in July, two contracts have been bid that must comply with the PSA rules.

In the first contract, the apparent low bidder is USS Cal Builders, based in Stanton in Orange County, with a bid of $4.1 million.

George Harris, the school district’s contracts compliance manager, said the estimated cost for the work, which involves installing a number of energy-saving elements at Hoover High School, was between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

In the other contract, for Clairemont High School’s auto shop, there were nine bidders — three union contractors and six nonunion, Harris said.

The latter contract was estimated between $3 million and $4 million, and the low bidder, Straight Line General Contractors Inc. of San Diego, bid $2.6 million, Harris said.

Neither contract has been awarded as yet by the district board of trustees.

Editor’s note: The original version of this story made reference to PLAs requiring public agencies to pay workers prevailing wages. State and federal laws already mandate those contracts pay prevailing wages. Some California charter cities, including Vista, challenged that mandate. The state Supreme Court agreed to hear the Vista case last year, and will likely render a decision this year.

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