California High-Speed Rail Business Plan Misrepresents Project Labor Agreement

By Kevin Dayton
03/18/2014
Before submitting its business plan to the state legislature every two years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is required to produce a draft and encourage public comments. Its new 2014 draft plan includes a deceptive paragraph touting the union Project Labor Agreement added to bid specifications without any public deliberation or vote. This deserves public...

TAGS: California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Community Benefits Agreements, Community Benefits Policy, Federal Railroad Administration

Unions Await Fantastic Return on High-Speed Rail Political Investments

By Kevin Dayton
01/22/2013
It’s a heady time to be a top construction union official in California, as the California High-Speed Rail Authority presumably now holds proposals from as many as five design-build consortiums to build the first segment of the $68 billion project. If this project moves forward, it will become part of the pantheon of huge American infrastructure projects...

TAGS: California Construction Industry Labor-Management Cooperative Trust, California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Community Benefits Policy, Gray Davis, high speed rail, Labor-Management Cooperation Act of 1978, Northern California District Council of Laborers, Project Labor Agreements, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Watch Union Official’s Rude Antics at California High-Speed Rail Conference

By Kevin Dayton
01/15/2013
On January 11, 2013, a video camera recorded a stunning public tirade by Fresno’s top construction union official at a conference about supposed local contracting opportunities for the first segment of California’s High Speed Rail. Below is video footage of the beginning of a panel discussion about Project Labor Agreements, and below that is the...

TAGS: Associated Builders and Contractors, California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, Community Benefits Agreements, Community Benefits Policy, Gray Davis, Project Labor Agreements, Proposition 1A (November 2008), San Joaquin Valley, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, U.S. Department of Labor