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Home My WebLink About9/21/2021 Item 8a, Halls Wilbanks, Megan From:Leslie Halls < To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Comments for Tuesday's meeting Item 8A This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. My name is Leslie Halls. I have been a resident and property owner in San Luis Obispo city since 1979. I am now retired. I am very much opposed to the current policy of CWAs also known as Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). I would remind you that Cuesta College rejected this in 2016 following a board meeting described by then college- President Gil Stork as the most attended meeting he had ever been to. I would encourage you to follow Cuesta College’s lead in this. A few reasons not to implement a PLA are: 1) It drives up the cost of the project by as much as 30% due to additional paperwork and limited competition; 2) It discriminates against non-union contractors, especially minority and women-owned businesses, who are typically non-union; 3) It does not promote local hiring, as 90% of local contractors (meaning in San Luis Obispo County) are not union; 4) It requires firms to hire union workers who may be called from union halls two or more counties away; 5) The above-referenced apprentices either take the job or sink to the bottom of the list - hardly fair! 6) Local firms who may opt to join the union for the duration of the project must pay union dues, union benefits (retirement, education, etc.) but will never see these benefits because they are not vested. Moreover, as new union members, they will start at the lowest class and pay rate even though they may have many years of experience. I don’t hate unions. I was a state worker for ten years. But these PLAs are patently unfair, to new union workers and non-union workers alike. They do not deliver a better project; they do not promote local hiring (your own statistics bear this out); they drive up costs; they discriminate against women and minorities. All public works jobs pay what is called union scale. For many local contractors, obtaining the occasional public works job, with its higher wages, keeps them in business and keeps their employees here where the cost of living is so high. We need these people. We should be doing all we can to help small businesses and local businesses. “Union only” is not inclusive nor diverse. Rather it completely contradicts the stated goals of this council. I don’t need to remind you how tough the last eighteen months have been on everyone. Please don’t make it any tougher by continuing what may have been a well-intended policy that has regrettably had such bad unintended consequences. Very truly yours, LESLIE HALLS 1359 Oceanaire Drive 1 San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 Sent from Mail for Windows 2