Monterey County Water Officials Abandon Bill After Unions Reshape It

By Kevin Dayton
07/29/2014
Any California local government seeking help from the state should know that union lobbyists won’t let the legislature pass anything unless unions have their own interests satisfied in the process. The Monterey County Water Resources Agency learned this lesson the hard way: it has now withdrawn support for its own bill after the State Building...

TAGS: Assembly Bill 155 (2014), Luis Alejo, Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Monterey/Santa Cruz Building and Construction Trades Council, Project Labor Agreements, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Santa Barbara County Jumps On Project Labor Agreement Bandwagon

By Kevin Dayton
07/08/2014
Today (July 8, 2014), the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement (disguised as a “Project Stabilization Agreement) with the Tri-Counties Building and Construction Trades Council for Phase II of construction of the county’s North Branch Jail and for the Sheriff’s Transition and Reentry (S.T.A.R.) Complex. These would...

TAGS: Project Labor Agreements

"Staggering" Cost of New High School in California: Project Labor Agreement Blamed

By Kevin Dayton
04/08/2014
UPDATE – July 29, 2015: According to a Facebook post of the Ventura County Star “VCS School Watch,” “about 140 workers are on site six days a week, preparing the $78.2 million Rancho Campana High School for its opening Sept. 2.” And according to a July 29, 2015 Ventura County Star article (“Frantic Pace Kept...

TAGS: Measuring the Cost of Project Labor Agreements on School Construction in California, Project Labor Agreements

How a Basketball Arena Would Expand the Unionized Workforce in Sacramento: Part 1

By Kevin Dayton
02/25/2014
Proponents of a proposed $447 million new “entertainment and sports center” in downtown Sacramento for the Kings professional basketball team claim the arena itself would generate over 4,000 full-time jobs, including employees hired temporarily for construction, employees for operations of the arena, and other outside service jobs related to arena events and activities. Proponents also...

TAGS: Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC), New Sacramento Kings Arena, Project Labor Agreements, Senate Bill 922 (2011)

Sabotaged: North Bay Business Journal On-Line Poll on Project Labor Agreement

By Kevin Dayton
01/28/2014
On January 22, 2014, the North Bay Business Journal (covering Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties in California) began an on-line “Pulse Poll” asking readers to vote on whether they supported a proposed government mandate for construction contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement with unions as a condition of working on Sonoma County projects over...

TAGS: Project Labor Agreements, Sonoma County

Unions Virtually Alone in Love with California High-Speed Rail

By Kevin Dayton
01/21/2014
Even close observers of the California High-Speed Rail Authority have struggled to track developments for the state’s planned bullet train. The debacle began in November 2008, when 52.7% of California voters approved Proposition 1A and triggered serious planning for what could be the most expensive construction project in human history. With that kind of money...

TAGS: AB 32, California bullet train, California Governor Jerry Brown, California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Community Benefits Agreements, Federal Railroad Administration, Fresno Bee, Governor Jerry Brown, Jerry Brown, Project Labor Agreements, Proposition 1A (November 2008), State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Will California Union Officials Get to Discuss Project Labor Agreements in Closed Session?

By Kevin Dayton
11/26/2013
A September 17, 2013 article in www.UnionWatch.org reported on “the end of public deliberation and votes for Project Labor Agreements in the legislative branch of state and local governments. Instead, backroom deals are made in the executive branch to give unions control of the work.” Now another union strategy has been discovered for evading public scrutiny:...

TAGS: Los Angeles/Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council, Project Labor Agreements, Rancho Santiago Community College District, San Diego Unified School District, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Union Backroom Deal on Convention Center Pays Off in San Diego

By Kevin Dayton
10/12/2013
Only a few advocates of fiscal responsibility and limited government have comprehensively and widely engaged in the business of state and local governments in California over many years. They recognize with dismay that union leaders and their cronies have become adept at evading the constraints of republican constitutional government. Unions have learned how to circumvent...

TAGS: Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion

California Construction Unions Circumvent Public Scrutiny of Project Labor Agreements

By Kevin Dayton
09/17/2013
A common and enduring complaint of the political Left is that constitutional structures established in the country’s republican form of government hinder progress and subvert the democratic will of the people. According to such thinking, those constitutional structures need to be reformed and modernized so that government can be more “democratic.” A few astute political observers...

TAGS: California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, New Sacramento Kings Arena, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion