California Construction Unions Saved the Planet Again in 2015

By Kevin Dayton
12/30/2015
California construction trade unions continue to protect the environment from the scourges of renewable energy and infill development. A chart below provides examples of their achievements for the planet in 2015. Meanwhile, 2015 ends with the annual chatter at the state capitol that “maybe next year” will be the year that the California legislature amends the California Environmental Quality...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), CEQA, Greenmail, Project Labor Agreement, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

California Unions Masquerade as Community-Based Environmental Groups

By Kevin Dayton
07/31/2015
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a labor issue. That’s why unions are prominent opponents of any amendments to CEQA that would restrict or prohibit using the law to achieve objectives not related to environmental protection. Unions routinely use CEQA as a tool to pressure public agencies and private developers (or their agents) to sign collective bargaining agreements, project labor...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), CEQA, CEQA Reform, Greenmail

Unions Still Selectively Finding Environmental Calamity in California Solar Projects

By Kevin Dayton
01/21/2015
Out of nowhere comes a new, well-funded champion of Mother Earth. A group called “Monterey County Residents for Responsible Development” has submitted two sets of letters and exhibits to Monterey County alleging serious deficiencies in its environmental review for the county’s first large solar photovoltaic power plant, the 280 megawatt California Flats. Obviously the Monterey...

TAGS: AB 32, Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), CEQA, Did Unions Hasten Demise of California’s Solar Thermal Power Plants?, Greenmail, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

Petaluma City Council Ignores Phony Union Environmental Objections

By Kevin Dayton
07/22/2014
A coalition of Sonoma County construction unions has failed in its effort to exploit California environmental laws to discourage the Petaluma City Council from approving the proposed Riverfront Mixed-Use Project. At 1:00 am today (July 22, 2014), the Petaluma City Council voted 5-2 to approve a Final Environmental Impact Report for this project, as required under the...

TAGS: Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Greenmail

Union Threatens to Block Apple, Inc. “Spaceship” with Environmental Lawsuit

By Kevin Dayton
10/19/2013
Perhaps the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West deserves grudging praise and respect for refusing to bow to American idols. Few groups have the gumption to challenge or criticize Apple, Inc., one of America’s most admired corporations. Apple generally gets away with commercial activity that the Left would slam relentlessly if practiced by other...

TAGS: Apple, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Greenmail, Service Employees International Union- United Service Workers West

Did Unions Hasten Demise of California’s Solar Thermal Power Plants?

By Kevin Dayton
07/16/2013
Below is the first organized compilation of documents showing what appears to be an aggressive, deliberate union campaign to impede government approval of solar thermal power projects in California. (Organized documentation of extensive union interference with government approval of more traditional solar photovoltaic power projects in California will be released soon.) These innovative proposed solar...

TAGS: A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants, Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Energy Commission, California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), Greenmail, Labor Coalition’s Tactics on Renewable Energy Projects Are Criticized, Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local Union No. 1184

Finally Got It! Secret Union Deal for San Diego Convention Center

By Kevin Dayton
07/08/2013
Through relentless and tedious persistence and a willingness to disturb “the Establishment” of the country’s eighth most populous city, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (based in California) has finally succeeded in obtaining and exposing a document revealing how the office of former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders (a Republican) arranged a secret and...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, City of San Diego, City of San Diego Proposition A (June 2012), Clark Construction, Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC), Greenmail, Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, San Diego County Central Labor Council, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders

Spread the Word: Brazen Union CEQA Abuse in Napa Valley

By Kevin Dayton
05/28/2013
Throughout California, unions routinely use the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as a tool to block and delay proposed projects until the public or private developer accepts some sort of labor agreement. This is the big-time, highly-professional “greenmail.” At stake is the control of hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars. Such CEQA abuse is extensive but rarely...

TAGS: Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Greenmail, Project Labor Agreements

Persistent Pressure Compels San Diego to Spit Out Project Labor Agreement

By Kevin Dayton
04/23/2013
For five months, the City of San Diego refused to give the public a Project Labor Agreement negotiated for its planned $520 million convention center expansion. This union agreement was reportedly the result of a backroom deal involving top union leaders, but multiple requests for it under the authority of the California Public Records Act failed to dislodge it. But today (April 23,...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), City of San Diego, City of San Diego Proposition A (June 2012), Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, Greenmail, Lorena Gonzalez, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council, San Diego County Central Labor Council, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Senate Bill 829 (2012), Senate Bill 922 (2011)