HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/13/2018 Item 14, Oldfield
Christian, Kevin
From:Warren Oldfield <woldfield@aminc.com>
Sent:Tuesday, November
To:E-mail Council Website
Cc:Harmon, Heidi; Christianson, Carlyn; Gomez, Aaron; Pease, Andy; Rivoire, Dan;
info@slocbe.com; northoffice@slocbe.com
Subject:Community Workforce Agreement - Agenda Item #14 - 11/13/18 Meeting
Importance:High
I am writing to you with regard to the San Luis Obispo City Council meeting – Agenda item #14 for Tuesday, November
13, 2018. This item pertains to a proposed Community Workforce Agreement (or Project Labor Agreement).
I am in STRONG disagreement that CWA’s/PLA’s are beneficial to the community and/or the local work force. This type
of agreement does NOT encourage open, fair & competitive bidding, does NOT lower project costs, does NOT guarantee
a better quality end product, and most definitely does not provide any protection to any worker.
These agreements are a discriminatory means for union organizations to benefit by forcing ‘merit companies’ to utilize a
union workforce, or for they and their employees to become signatory to a union organization. Many companies AND
their employees are NOT interested in being part of a union. They also typically do NOT guarantee local workers will be
primarily used for the project – usually a stipulation of 25-30% of the project hours are required to be performed by the
local workforce.
Contractors who are non-union also may NOT be able to utilize Key or Core employees on these type of project
agreements. Key and Core employees are not always the jobsite foreman or office staff, but often are the skilled
workers hired to perform construction tasks.
CWA’s/PLA’s “FORCE” non-union employees to either become union affiliated and/or pay union dues if they are
interested in performing work on these projects. Employees who do not join a union do not receive any benefits
accrued during the life of the project. Non-union local workers are usually and specifically excluded from these
projects. The idea that a CWA/PLA protects the worker is actually a false claim as the employee’s rights are severely
limited due to the fact that exclusive bargaining representation for workers is delegated to a union organization.
Nationally, union affiliation is approximately 14% of the US private construction workforce. CWA’s/PLA’s discriminate
against 86% of employees who have chosen to NOT affiliate with a union organization.
Community Workforce Agreements are NOT prevailing wage projects open to competitive bidding… they discriminate
against those who are not affiliated with unions and serve only to direct work to unionized contractors and their
unionized workforce. CWA’s often promise opportunities to veterans, minorities, and women construction workers –
BUT only those who choose to affiliate with a union.
I strongly urge the City Council to elect NOT to enter into a CWA for the WRRF project or any other future project.
Warren Oldfield
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